Signs which you should Never Ignore From Your Pet

We have all been there, as pet owners. You arrive home and see your dog or cat acting strange and you’re not sure if the behavior means something in the bigger picture, requiring veterinary care, or if it’s a minor problem which will resolve in minutes or hours.

Prior to becoming a veterinarian, I often wondered if our farm animals and pets needed a vet visit. Without resources like the internet, and having a small budget (Ok, it was actually no budget) for emergency vet care, I struggled to decide which symptoms were emergency farm call-cost worthy.

Even now, when my 13 year Labrador starts breathing funny in the middle of the night, I turn on the lights, and monitor her vital signs, before deciding if I need to take her into the office right then or wait until morning.

I get that it’s hard to make a judgement call for your pets, animals and kids, especially when you are emotionally attached and have limited medical guidance. Sometimes the web is a good resource, but I have seen the negative results of relying on a resource that has no fact monitoring by reliable sources with credible scientific research.

In light of all the overwhelming info, here are some tried and true signs of actual health care problems you should NOT ignore. If you see the following signs, be sure to treat them as possibly serious health problems, and visit the veterinarian.

  1. Lameness, stiffness, difficulty rising are not due to old age. Get your pet to the vet for an exam, Lyme disease test, and possible x-rays. Untreated Lyme disease and arthritis can lead to a rapid decline in your pet’s health, robbing you of years of enjoyment together. In my offices, several of the veterinarians provide adjustments and spinal/joint manipulations and treatments which can prevent advancement of arthritis, adding both quality and quantity of life.
  2. Drooling can indicate nausea, pain, ingestion of a toxin/poison, a problem swallowing, dental disease or oral/throat mass/cancer. Ignoring this early sign can prevent your pet’s vet from identifying and treating the real cause in a timely manner. Recently, I treated a dog which had been drooling and not eating for about a week. By the time I saw this 3 year old dog, he had gone into kidney failure, as a result of chronic, low grade exposure to a toxin on the owners’ farm. Early diagnosis and treatment may have preventing the on-going kidney damage.
  3. Excessive thirst and drinking are often early signs of infections and fever, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, toxin exposure, and many hormone imbalances including Cushings disease and diabetes insipidus. Expeditious veterinary diagnosis can keep your pet from suffering.
  4. Punctures, skin inflammation and bite wounds or scratches from another animal all need immediate intervention and often antibiotic therapy. Though you may not see much of infection superficially, in 3-5 days an infection can become sepsis, causing pets to become extremely and even life-threateningly ill. I am currently treating a dog with extensive necrotizing fasciitis, a type of flesh eating bacterial infection that causes many pets (and people when they contract it) to die. Unfortunately, hen this pet as bitten by another dog, the wounds didn’t appear significant, because they were tiny punctures and the pet’s hair covered them. (Please keep this dog in your prayers, as our staff continues to treat his condition).
  5. Odors can indicate everything from an tooth root infection, ear infection, abscess in the skin, dermatitis, anal gland infections and even more serious problems like diabetes and cancer. As soon as a funny smell crops up, call your vet for an appt.
  6. Panting, coughing, breathing heavily and/or a bluish tongue mean that your pet can’t get enough oxygen for their needs. This can be a sign related to respiratory health issues like pulmonary hypertension, feline asthma, pneumonia, heart disease, pain, or cancer. An exam should be scheduled for the day this sign presents itself.
  7. Behavior changes most often relate to illness or an emotional anxiety which can lead to serious illness, in untreated animals. I rarely see animals that are behaving differently out of vindictiveness or spite, including those that are having bowel movements or urination outside the litter box. Typically there is undiagnosed arthritis, bladder infection, pain or some other hidden health problem. Your vet will need to play the part of a detective, with questions for you and diagnostic tests, to find the real cause of a behavioral change.

The above signs are not the only ones, which require veterinary advice and intervention, but they are some that are too often ignored.

Hopefully, if you see these signs, they won’t be advanced and you can treat them quickly, preventing your pet from developing a more serious health concern. And, if you have observed what turns out to be an apparent false-alarm, your vet will have a record of the event and be on the alert for repeat episodes.