Dog Health – A Basic Guide

In order to keep your dog healthy you might want to consider a preventive medicine program for your dog. It allows you to prevent a disease or an illness from harming your dog and it can also cut down on veterinary expenses. You should give your dog a weekly exam and take your dog to the veterinarian’s office for an annual exam. A thorough annual dog health exam at the veterinarian’s office is worth the expense.

A good veterinarian will do much more than just give your dog his vaccinations. He will typically perform a series of palpitations on your dog to check to see if the internal organs feel healthy and this also gives him an opportunity to check for lumps that could be cancerous. The annual check up will also provide your veterinarian with an opportunity to check his eyes and ears as well as listen to his heart. An annual dog health exam is especially important as your dog becomes older. It’s a good idea to give your veterinarian the opportunity to find a health problem early in order to prevent it from becoming a serious problem.

Vaccinations for Your Dog

Vaccinations are also very important in order to prevent disease and illnesses from seriously affecting your dog. Vaccinations can help to prevent your dog from acquiring diseases such as rabies, distemper, parvovirus, leptospirosis, para influenza as well as viral hepatitis, corona virus and kennel cough. You might also want to ask your veterinarian if a vaccination for Lyme disease would be beneficial for your dog.

Exam at Home

There is also an easy to do dog health exam at home that you can perform. Check to see if his skin has the healthy gray –white appearance. If his skin is pink or perhaps red he probably has an inflammation problem. Also a large amount of dandruff in his fur is an unhealthy condition for your dog. Brush your dog’s hair with your fingers and then check the smell on your fingers. If your fingers smell rancid or have a fishy smell to them this is an indication that your dog has a health problem. During the dog health exam, check the inside of his eyelids for any redness or irritation and look inside of his ears to check for wax deposits. Smell in your dog’s ears in order to check for foul smells.

Look into his mouth and check for a red line along the roots of his teeth. During the dog health exam take a good look at all of his teeth and see if any of them have become brown and also check to see if he has very foul breath which can be an indication of a health problem. Don’t allow your dog to become overweight because obesity can lead to health problems and it can also shorten his life. To keep your dog in good health it is important to give him a weekly dog health exam at home and an annual exam at the veterinarian’s office.

By Dog Health Editor

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