How to spot if your dog is ill or not.

A healthy dog makes for a happy owner. Regular grooming, proper feeding, and adequate exercise can go a long way in keeping your dog healthy. But it is not always possible to avoid sickness and so the best thing you can do is to keep an eye open for possible signs and symptoms of illness in your dog. There are many different causes for health problems, viral, bacterial, or metabolic, and getting a correct diagnosis for dog illness is important. Your vet most likely will be experienced and capable enough to detect what’s wrong with your dog after a brief examination, but may also decide to carry out blood tests, faeces tests, and urine analysis to be on the safe side and to decide which course to follow. Once the cause of the illness is determined, your pet can receive timely and appropriate treatment. This will save yourself and your dog a lot of expense, bother, and discomfort. A prompt visit to your vet might even save your dog’s life.

There are many things that can bring about illness in dogs - sudden changes in the weather, exposure to harsh climatic elements, lack of sufficient exercise or lack of enough rest, poor food or contaminated food, exposure to infectious diseases and parasites, failure to give the proper immunization shots, genetic weaknesses, accident, emotional distress, and so on. Some forms of dog illnesses like Leptospirosis are transferable to human beings, as are parasites like ticks, mites, lice, tapeworms, hookworms, and heartworms, so it’s really important to be alert about your dog’s health and take all the proper precautions.

List of illness symptoms for dogs:
You can form a diagnosis of your dog’s illness by noting any sudden or unusual changes in behavior patterns. Does your dog seem quiet, listless and depressed? Is your dog off its food? Does your dog seem disoriented? Has it been losing its balance while getting up or while walking? Has your dog been displaying any unwarranted or uncharacteristic aggression? If the answer is yes to any one of these, it could indicate any kind of physical, hormonal, and neurological disorder, and it is time to go visit the vet.

Your dog is ill if there happens to be any unpleasant smell, coloration or discharge in its faeces and urine. There can be several causes, including digestive problems, urogenital tract infection, the presence of internal parasites like tapeworms, hookworms, heartworms, etc, some kind of intestinal obstruction, poisoning, allergies, glands inflammation, vaginitis, cancer, among others. Your vet may want to have the faeces and urine samples analysed in a laboratory to discover the exact cause.

Frequent vomiting and diarrhoea can indicate anything from intestinal parasites to liver disease to cancer to allergy to enteritis and a host of other disorders.

You can tell whether a dog is healthy or not by checking its coat and skin. A lustreless coat, skin eruptions, and a tendency to frequently scratch or lick the skin don’t point towards good health – it may point towards the presence of parasites like mites and lice, bacterial and yeast infections, some kind of allergy, or towards a case of dermatitis actually. Consult your vet immediately. Skin problems in dogs are extremely unpleasant and often require long and sustained treatments.

A healthy dog has a wet, cold nose. A hot, dry nose or discharge indicates infection or fever. If your dog is having trouble breathing or is drooling too much or is frequently coughing, the signs may point towards some kind of respiratory problems, cardiac problems, or canine filariasis.

Check your dog’s ears. There is no need for concern if the dog doesn’t keep scratching or shaking them all the time, if there is no discharge or unpleasant odour, if there are no foreign bodies or parasites, and if the skin looks clean and healthy.

If your dog is drinking too much water, it could indicate diabetes, kidney and liver problems.

If your dog is limping, it could be a thorn or wound in the paw, arthritis, weight problems, tendonitis, or genetic problems like hip dysphasia or luxating patella.

Discharge from the eyes, squinting, redness or clouding may indicate injury, vision problems, viral infection, fever, and herpes.

You must contact your vet at once if anything seems abnormal or out of the ordinary.