Hello and welcome back to the work week!  Hopefully this finds you well rested and hopefully over the diabetic shock that can be Halloween!  Here’s to hoping your dogs made it through the Halloween humiliation that can be pet costumes unscathed!  To kick things off this Monday morning, I decided that in light of Halloween’s passing, we should be very aware of our dog’s health.  We can’t always be scheduling vet visits, we can’t always take our pets in for checkups, but we should always be aware of their health.

So what do we do?  How about administer a DIY Doggy Exam!?  That’s right, you don’t need a medical degree, veterinary license or extensive knowledge to give your dog a daily, weekly or monthly check-up to make sure they are in tip-top shape without the bills of a vet visit, or hassle of meeting the appointments.  While regular check-ups and real vet visits are irreplaceable, this can be an amazingly helpful way to supplement those visits.  Here we go, DIY Doggy Exam:

“• Run your hands over your dog’s head and body. Any new lumps or bumps? Observe the eyes, and check inside the ears and under the tail. Give the pet a good belly rub as you check the abdomen for hardness, swelling, lumps or bumps.

Other things to check:

• Shiny coat?

• Fur coming out other than normal shedding?

• Visible discharges from eyes, nose, ears or glands?

• Lift up the side of the mouth to check whether teeth are clean and gums are pink. Bad breath and discoloration of gums are not healthy.

• The nose should be wet without a discharge.

• Ear flaps should be pink.

• A few minutes every month is all it takes. You probably will notice when something is not right. Be sure to tell the vet anything out of the ordinary to help avoid serious health problems.“

There you have it.  That should provide you with the very basics on how to make sure that your dog doesn’t have anything that requires help on a more serious level.

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)