Pets are experts at hiding illness, so paying close attention to the hidden physical changes that precede some diseases can be highly beneficial. There are several basic physical parameters that you can assess at home on a weekly basis to alert you to any medical problem before it becomes entrenched and difficult to treat. If you find a problem with any of these physical exam findings, bring your pet in to your vet so that he or she may confirm there is a problem and make a specific diagnosis.
Let’s start at the front and work our way back:
- Start with the eyes, and look for squinting, swelling, discharge, redness, or pawing or rubbing the eye.
- Check the ears for odor, inflammation, or soreness. A pet that shakes its head excessively could be a sign of an ear problem.
- Assuming that it’s safe to look into your pet’s mouth, lift up its jowls and look at its gums. They should be pink. They should not be blue, gray, white, or red. While you are there, check for tartar on the teeth, inflamed gums, and bad breath.
- Rub your hands thoroughly over your pet’s entire body weekly to look for lumps, bumps, areas of inflammation, and hair loss. Look and feel around the ears, abdomen, anus, and genitals. We call this the “lumps and bumps exam.”
- Feel the lymph nodes for any of the following:
- Swelling, pain, or heat
- Enlargement (most should feel the size of a marble or less, depending on the size of your pet. If one of the nodes is larger than this, is painful, or the area around it is swollen or painful, it should be examined by one of our doctors).
- Each of the lymph nodes we want you to check comes in pairs on each side of the body. This symmetry helps you determine if one of them is disproportionately large.
Our website has detailed information on how to perform this exam, including the location of the lymph nodes. You’ll find the in-home exam in the Learning Center at the top of the page.