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Be prepared when going to the vet

     When taking your pet to the vet, you should be able to answer questions and give details about what seems to be wrong with your animal. Don't assume that "the doctor will figure it out". Every piece of information you can provide can make the difference between a certain and a possible diagnosis, thus making the treatment recommended more or less effective.

But what should you know, what are you supposed to say? Here is a list of questions you are more likely to hear. Always answer to the best of your knowledge, don't assume or guess. If you don't know, don't be afraid to say so. No information is better than false information.

How long have you owned your pet?

Where did you get your dog from? (Shelter, breeder, previous stray)

What other pets do you have?

What is the age of your cat/dog?

Has your pet experienced any previous illnesses?

Is your pet currently under any type of treatment for an illness?

Are there any other pets ill?

Has your pet been vaccinated? When? What vaccine?

Have there been any recent pet acquisitions?

Is the majority of your pet’s time spent indoors or outdoors?

Have there been any recent changes in diet or eating habits?

What brand of food, how much and how frequently does your pet eat?

What type of table scarps are offered and how frequently?

What type of treats are offered and how frequently?

Have there been any recent changes in water consumption?

Have you noticed any coughing or sneezing?

Is your pet urinating normally?

Have you noticed any recent weight loss or weight gain?

When was the last meal your pet had?

Have you noticed any behavior changes?

     Does your pet have any known allergies?

TOP 10 Pet Owner Mistakes

1 Skipping regular health checks at your vet

Your veterinarian needs to see your pet at least twice a year in order to have a clear image about how your cat or dog is doing. Information gathered during routine health checks can prove useful in the future. For example you may not notice a minor weight loss or a small bump on your pet’s belly, but your vet will.

We tend to go ourselves to the doctor only in times of sickness, so it’s no wonder that we do the same with our animals. However you should keep in mind that your pet is unable to alert you when he/she starts feeling sick and by the time it becomes clear that there is something wrong it may be late or even too late. A good example is kidney disease/kidney failure in cats: by the time your cat will show clear symptoms approximately 75% of the kidney will have been damaged.

Regular health checks are the best means of prevention. They are far cheaper than having to treat your pet for any disease and give you the certainty that your companion is doing well.

  2 Not vaccinating indoor pets

I have heard many owners saying “my cat lives indoors, so she doesn't come in contact with other animals, there is no need for vaccinating her.” Your pet may not be directly exposed to the outside world, but indirect exposure is just as dangerous.

Even if your cat doesn't leave the house, you do. Your shoes, clothes and hands come in contact every day with millions of germs and you will most likely bring some of those germs back into your home. This way you can expose your cat to a large number of infections and potentially lethal diseases. For some of these diseases there is no specific cure, so the only way to keep your pet safe is to vaccinate him/her.

 3 Skipping flea medicine

Not treating your pet against fleas every month puts both your pet and your family at risk. Once they infest your dog or cat, fleas multiply quickly, particularly in summer and fall. In a very short time they will fill your home with their eggs and young, making them so much harder to get rid of.

Fleas will not only cause your pet to scratch constantly. They can transmit serious diseases to animals and people which is why you don’t want them in your home. The best way to make sure these little bugs stay away from your pet and family is to have your dog or cat treated for fleas every month. You should talk to your veterinarian about the best flea medication for your pet and add a monthly reminder on your calendar.

4 Overlooking ticks

Ticks thrive on long grass, bushy vegetation and especially moist environments, like lake or river shores. Make sure that you check your dog for ticks after each walk in areas with dense vegetation.

Tick bites put your pet at risk from many diseases out of which the most common is babesiosis. This is a malaria-like parasitic disease caused by an infection with Babesia canis. The parasite reproduces within the red blood cells, causing hemolytic anemia.

If your dog brings ticks into your home after a walk in the woods all your other pets and your family are at risk. If you find a tick in your pet’s coat, remove it gently with tweezers. Don’t try to pull on it- won’t come off easily and you will probably tear it apart leaving the mouth piece of the tick embedded in your pet’s skin. This can cause local irritation and skin infections. In order to successfully remove the tick, grab it with tweezers and rotate it on its axis gently pulling outwards.

To keep your pets and your family safe from ticks talk to your veterinarian to select the best anti-tick medicine for your pet.  

5 Not deworming your pet regularly

Intestinal parasites can cause diarrhea, vomiting, malnutrition and weight loss and may lead to serious illness. They can be transmitted to humans as well, so you need to make sure your pet is worm free, in order to keep them and your family safe.

Worms are transmitted through eggs found in an infected animal’s feces. This is why soil and sand can become contaminated with microscopic worm eggs that you could bring home on the soles of your shoes.

Deworming medicine should only be administered to your pet after talking to a veterinarian because if you get the substance or the dosage wrong you could do serious harm to your cat or dog.

6 Not spaying or neutering your pet

Many owners are reluctant to spay or neuter their pets even nowadays, when information on this matter is widely available. The basic fact is that spaying and neutering is a healthy choice for your pet.

In females it considerably reduces the risk of breast cancer and eliminates the risk of ever developing uterine or ovarian cancer. In males, neutering reduces the risk of testicular cancer and prostate related conditions. Neutered males are also less likely to exhibit aggressive behavior.

  7 Forcing your pet into an unnatural diet for his/her species

I have seen vegetarian people trying to force their cats into all-vegetarian diets. I am a vegetarian myself but I would never try to force my cats into eating carrots and spinach. This would be a sure way to get them sick and, eventually, dead.

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they need to eat meat in order to survive. They are highly dependent on specific nutrients, such as the amino acid called taurine, that are only found in animal tissue. You may be able to live a normal life on vegetables alone but cats are simply not designed for this kind of diet.

Dogs, on the other hand, are omnivorous like humans, meaning they can eat both meat and vegetal food. But this doesn't mean your dog should eat whatever you are eating. 80% of dog owners have the misconception that nutrition for dogs and humans is similar. This couldn't be farther from the truth.

Just because we are both omnivorous species doesn't mean we have similar nutritional needs or similar food tolerance. Sharing your food with your dog is just as harmful as sharing your whiskey bottle with your toddler.

8 Not being able to provide details

This is one problem I encounter quite often unfortunately. Many owners will tell me just that their pet is sick (which is quite obvious sometimes). But they are unable to provide the simplest information, like when did the problem first start manifesting, whether or not their pet had any other symptoms, like vomiting or diarrhea, and so on.

Lack of reliable information is a major setback when trying to determine an accurate diagnosis. Things like when was the last meal your pet had or if he/she is urinating properly can seem like minor details to you but I can assure you these details can make a big difference in coming to the right medical conclusion.

9 Stopping treatment when your pet seems better

This is another case of human bad habits reflecting on our pets. Let’s face it, if your physician prescribes you antibiotics for a week, and by the third day you feel better, you will stop taking the pills altogether. By doing so you’re not actually treating the disease, you’re just managing it for the time being. Chances are it will come back and next time it may not be just a matter of a few pills of antibiotics.

It’s the same with our pets. No veterinarian will have you treat your pet longer than necessary and just because your cat or dog seems better doesn't mean he/she actually is better. There are many conditions that require lengthy treatment, like weeks or even months: urolithiasis, mange, gastric ulcers and many more. The results of medication therapy may be visible pretty soon but bare in mind that your pet is only getting better and there is still some way to go before being cured.

Respecting the exact recommendations of your vet is especially crucial for pets recovering from orthopedic surgery. It may sound cruel and restrictive, but one week of cage rest means exactly that: seven days of no movement, confined in a rest cage. One wrong movement, the smallest amount of strain and all the delicate balance of bones and joints being put back together will fall apart.

I know very well that giving a pill to an un-cooperating animal can be a living nightmare, let alone a dozen of pills during the course of a week. But if this is what it takes to have your pet healthy again I think it is an effort worth doing, but without cutting corners.

10 Asking around instead of asking a veterinarian

We all have people we rely on for good advice in our day to day life, but animal health is much more complicated than common sense medical guessing. No matter how good the intentions of a person may be they cannot replace training and experience.

One tendency among owners is to ask each other for advice. Giving your dog the same medication for a seemingly resembling problem of another dog can do more harm than good. For example your friend’s dog might have just a food reaction but your pet could be experiencing the symptoms of a viral disease, yet they will both exhibit diarrhea. Identical symptoms don’t always come from identical causes, which is why treatments will differ.

 No matter how well your pet’s condition may resemble a story, an article you read or the experience your friend had with his pet, don’t assume it’s the same situation and don’t resort to the same remedies. It usually isn't the same situation and you could easily (and unwillingly) harm your pet.

If you wouldn't allow a surgeon to fix your car or if you only take an accountant’s advice when it comes to your income and taxes then it is wise to take animal health advice from no one else except a veterinarian.

Know your pet

No doubt that you love your pet and you wish to provide the best care for your companion. We generally treat our pets as members of the family – we remember their birthdays, we spoil them from time to time and we let them have the best seat in the living room. But love alone is not enough to ensure the well being of your pet and you need to know much more about him/her than just his/her favorite brand of treats.

Knowing and understanding your four-legged friend is crucial because, in order to recognize the pathological, you need to be much familiarized with the normal. But what is normal? To some extent, normal means “within generally accepted parameters”. For example, a dog’s temperature is considered normal while ranging between 38 and 39.2° C (100.4 to 102.5° F). Anything outside that interval is considered to be abnormal and a sign of some health problems.

But what about things that are not measurable? Like behavior, the amount of food eaten and so on. This is where your knowledge and observation set the norm. You should be able to recognize changes in different cases, based on your knowledge of how that particular case or situation usually (normally) is. Here are a few examples:

Behavior: If you have a “lazy” cat, sleeping on the couch all day, you can consider that to be part of daily routine. But the same type of behavior may become cause for concern when your pet is alert and playful by nature.

Food/water consumption: Generally dogs are not fussy eaters compared to cats. Our feline friends may look with obvious despise onto a tuna dinner, or countless brands of kibbles or whatever else you may try to feed them. Knowing your pet’s eating habits (what? how often? how much?) can tell you if, at some point, something changes. A picky cat can be picky, but a cat that won’t eat anything may be suffering from more than just diet moodiness.

Food is important, but water is even more so. Your pet may dislike your choice for his/her dinner that day but drinking water is paramount. You should notice when your dog or cat is drinking too little or too much water, especially if there is no apparent reason for that change. This may be very helpful information for your veterinarian.

Excessive grooming: I am not aware of any statistics telling you exactly how many times a day should your pet be grooming. But too little or too much time spent on fur cleaning is usually a sign there’s something wrong. When an animal is in pain, for example, grooming is the last problem on the “to do list”. On the other hand, parasites like fleas or mange can drive your pet into constant scratching, licking and biting at the fur coat.

Some things about your pet can be a bit more complicated than just making sure he/she is eating properly. There are things that you will need to remember correctly, like names of drugs your pet is allergic to or past health problems. This is why having a “pet log book” can be very helpful. You can write down anything significant, like the examples mentioned above or things that you may need to refer to at some point in the future: your veterinarian’s recommendations, situations in which your pet may become aggressive, brands of pet products and many more.

At this point one could argue that it is impossible to monitor your pet all the time and therefore it is impossible to know everything about your cat or dog. Indeed, that is very true, but knowing your pet doesn’t require knowing everything. You should only be able to provide the information and details that matter. To make things a bit more clear here is a list of questions the veterinarian may have for you during a health check of your pet. Try answering the questions to the best of your knowledge.

How long have you owned your pet?

Where did you get your dog from? (shelter, breeder, previous stray)

What other pets do you have?

What is the age of your cat/dog?

Has your pet experienced any previous illnesses?

Is your pet currently under any type of treatment?

Are there any other pets ill?

Has your pet been vaccinated? When? What vaccine?

Have there been any recent pet acquisitions?

Is the majority of your pet’s time spent indoors or outdoors?

Have there been any recent changes in diet or eating habits?

What brand of food, how much and how frequently does your pet eat?

What type of table scraps are offered and how frequently?

What type of treats are offered and how frequently?

Have there been any recent changes in water consumption?

Have you noticed any coughing or sneezing?

Is your pet urinating normally?

Have you noticed any recent weight loss or weight gain?

When was the last meal your pet had?

Have you noticed any behavior changes?

Does your pet have any known allergies?

All of this may sound complicated and challenging, especially for first time pet owners. Rest assured that, like with most things in life, time and love can sort things out. Given the right amount of time and a big amount of caring you will be able to “read” your pet and know whether he/she is feeling happy or sad, healthy or sick.

Please keep in mind that whenever you feel in doubt, whenever you have questions about any aspects concerning your pet, the one and only person to ask is your veterinarian. It is in the best interest of your pet not to rely on friends’ advice, or answers on forums and so on. To keep your cat or dog safe and well treated remember one simple rule: don’t ask around, ask a vet.