Video: How to Tell if Your Dog Is Sick

Learn the proper way to take your dog's vital statistics and tell if your dog is sick in this free pet health care video, with tips from a veterinarian.

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Junelle Nov 11, 2011

my puppy fluffy is sick and I don't know wat to do:(

Seng Sep 19, 2011

my female husky's heartbeat is at 104 a minutes and is showing some purple showing behind the back of her gums....and she's been throwing up water lately.. :( can anyone tell me what she has contracted to?

Seng Sep 19, 2011

my female husky's heartbeat is at 104 a minutes and is showing some purple gum behind the back of her gums.... :( can anyone tell me what she has contracted to?

lovelessdy Apr 30, 2011

my schweenie is sick....don't know what to do, I'm out of budget...but ill do something about it..ill find a way.

amazinmom38 Oct 23, 2008

My dog fell off the bed last thursday. He is 85 pounds and has been limping all week. He lets me touch the leg, he does not cry. He has been walking on three legs but sometimes when I let him out I can see he does put pressure on the leg. He has not been eating normal. What do you suggest I do. His nose is wet and his gums are pink. Lynda Eaton

Video Transcript

Hi I'm Dr. Adrienne Mulligan of Camp Verde Veterinary Clinic in Arizona and I'm here today to talk to you about taking vital statistics on your dog. There will be times when you wonder if you dog is sick or if your dog is in a emergency crisis and whether or not if you should be running to the vet. A couple of things that I wanted to sort of debunked are myths about how to tell if a dog is healthy. One this is whether there nose is moist or dry and well it may be true but if your dog has a dry nose he may be sick but, it doesn't mean that every time his nose is dry that he is sick because his nose moisture would come and go based on the outside humidity, on the outside dryness. On to your tear production on his part cause tear production if lets say if he got a runny eye because he got allergies that could make his nose more wet. So that is not a real reliable indicator but heart rate, temperature, and respiratory rate are all three things that are very important plus the color of there gums. That is very important. When you call a veterinarian he may ask you to tell him if your dog has a temperature or if there gums are pale so these are things you want to know how to check. When you check a dogs gums you want to lift the lips and look at the color of his pink under his lip and above his teeth and that is a nice pink color he is probably in good shape. If it is to dark, to blue, to red, brick red, or to white, then your dog is probably in series trouble. That is the first thing to look at. The next thing is to try to check a pulse. You can just place your hand against the side of a dogs chest and then if you feel that right behind the elbow so if you locate the elbow and press your fingers against the ribs right at the point you can feel the heart beat. Then you can take a watch and count that heartbeat. Sit down. Sit. You could count that heartbeat for 15 seconds and then multiply that by four. So a typical dogs heart rate is about 120 beats per minute. So I'm counting his and he is right about 120 beats per minute. Then I'm going to try to take a temperature. You could buy these at any Wal-Mart or any basic drug store and you want to lubricate it. It is a good idea to use some KY jelly or some Vaseline and lubricate it and lift there tail. Insert it just barely into there anus. It doesn't have to go very far. Turn the button on to beep and it would take about a minute before it would beep and tell you what the temperature is.

How to Tell if Your Dog Is Sick

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