Comprehensive Health Assessment

So what has your pet told you lately about his health?

You might be surprised what is actually being communicated… that is where it helps to have a good interpreter! That is what your veterinary team can do for you.

So what are we interpreting to get the whole health picture?

History

In the first place, no one knows a pet as well as the pet’s own people do.

YOU are the ones who know if something is wrong. And sometimes it can be pretty subtle… vets actually have a name for this, we call it ADR – stands for Ain’t Doing Right. We as strangers may look and see a pet that looks within the realm of normal for energy, awareness, that sort of thing; but that pet’s people know that this “normal” is not normal for THAT pet.

With careful questioning, we will tease out information of how things have been going for the last little while, to get a picture of what sort of Presentation we are seeing in this pet (for example narrowing down ADR to: is it pain? Is it weakness? Is it nausea?)

Signalment

This term refers to the “who” of your pet. Large breed dog or small breed dog? They can face different sorts of problems. Young or old? (There are actually 2 subsets of “old” – mature and geriatric). Even breed – there are breed-specific problems, and breed-related tendencies.

Thorough Physical Exam

Your pet’s exam will be a complete look from whiskers to tail and everything in between.

You never want to miss an important detail. I do not want to focus in on an ear infection and miss a heart murmur, for example.

Plus, information from the rest of the body can tell about what is going on in the part we are interested in. For example, if a dog with ear infections also has inflammation between his toes and a rash in his groin, there is a good chance that the underlying cause of the ear infections is allergies.

And sometimes, an odd little thing you may not have noticed can mean a lot to a vet professional who knows what it means. For example, a cat with his ankles sagging down to the floor may be showing a sign of diabetes.

Assessment

This is the “Here’s what we’ve got” part of the exam. We will sum up for you what are the issues your pet is facing, and what they might mean for your pet’s long term health.

Diagnostics

Do we need to get a blood profile? A urine sample? A stool sample? If we are trying to figure out if what is going on is Problem A or Problem B, it may take a lab test to decide our course of action.

Do we need to get a look inside? We have digital x-ray and dental x-ray to see what is not apparent at the surface.