Sick pet consultations

There is a specific diagnostic trap on this coast and it is worth naming.

A dog that is quiet, off its food and does not want the second half of the walk looks exactly like a dog coping badly with a hot week. Very often that is what it is. But it is also the opening presentation of tick fever, and tick fever is common here and kills dogs that are seen late.

The discriminator is the gums. Healthy gums are pink and refill within a second or two after you press them. Anaemia from tick fever makes them pale and slow. That is a check any owner can do at home in thirty seconds and it is the single most useful thing on this page.

When you come in, we examine properly rather than glancing, and we tell you how confident we are. If we do not know yet, we will say so and explain what the next test would rule in or out and what it costs, so the decision is yours with the facts in front of you.

Sometimes the right answer is that nothing needs doing today. We will say that too.

What to tell us, and what to bring

The examination is ours. The history is yours, and it is usually the more valuable half.

Things that genuinely change our thinking and that owners often leave out:

• When it started, precisely. “Since Tuesday” is far more useful than “recently”.
• Whether it is getting better, worse, or holding. A dog that is the same as yesterday and a dog that is worse than an hour ago are two different problems.
• What it has eaten, including anything scavenged from the beach. Fish waste, discarded bait and dead marine animals cause a great deal of coastal gastroenteritis.
• Where it has been. Sea, river, bush, a neighbour’s compound with livestock.
• What you have already given it. Including anything bought at an agrovet. We will not criticise, we need to know what is already in the animal.
• Photographs or video. Enormously useful for anything intermittent: a limp, a cough, a seizure, an odd behaviour. Very few of these perform on cue in a consulting room.

When we say it can wait

We will sometimes examine an animal and tell you it does not need treatment today. That is a real answer, not a brush-off, and it is worth knowing what we are weighing.

Some conditions genuinely resolve on their own and treating them changes nothing except the bill. Some need a period of watching to declare themselves, because acting on a guess risks treating the wrong thing. And a few tests are more informative later than they would be now.

What we will always give you when we say wait is a specific list of what would change that: the signs which mean come back today rather than next week. If you leave without that list, ask for it.