Become Your Pet’s Health Detective: Part 1

Hello curious amazing animal lovers! I hope you are doing well.

I’d love to share my approach to resolving health challenges for my animals so you can become your animal’s health detective. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed when our beloved animals have health issues. I’ve come up with a general process to resolve many health issues in my dogs, alpacas, bunny, cats, and chickens. This also applies to humans 🙂 

The first step is to gather all information through careful observation, vet visits/blood work as needed, case history, and anything else that could be potentially relevant. You will need to write everything down for best results. All symptoms are clues and messages from the animals to help us solve and resolve health challenges.

Creating a Timeline of Events

One of the most important things to consider is when and how the different symptoms began. There is usually some trigger event. The trigger event can be a single big event that starts the various symptoms. These events are usually easier to remember when we start looking at the timing. Sometimes the trigger event is a combination of a few smaller things that happen all at once or around the same time. We also need to remember that our animals may perceive certain events or situations quite differently than we do. For example, spay and neuter surgery in the US is considered very typical, ordinary, and expected. We as pet parents see it as part of our responsibility to make sure we don’t contribute to homeless animals. Vets generally reassure us this procedure is routinely done and it’s not a big deal. Our animals however, can experience this surgery to be quite traumatic both on the physical level as well as emotional level. 

There are many variables to this, so just think back to the time the symptoms started and take notes on what things were happening for your beloved animal as well as your whole household.

Vet records over the years are also helpful. It’s important to know the difference between acute and chronic health issues. For example, a bee sting causing redness and swelling is an acute condition. Achy joints for older animals is a chronic issue. Also, “acute” ear infection treated many times can become a chronic condition if the underlying imbalance was never addressed. Suppression of symptoms (acute or chronic) through medications can temporarily reduce or eliminate symptoms. But if the underlying issues are not addressed, the suppressed symptoms can present in a different imbalance. All information can be valuable clues, so try to gather as much as you can.

Observing the Symptoms

We truly know our animals best. It’s very helpful to take notes on our observations as we tend to notice more nuanced behaviors. As you observe the symptoms, take notice of times when it is better or worse, activities that make it better or worse, foods they tolerate better, energy level during walks, how much they sleep compared to normal, and anything else that catches your attention. Details are very helpful so take note of everything however unimportant they may seem at the time.

Gut Impressions

We tend to dismiss fleeting impressions and thoughts and override them with our logical mind. It can be really helpful to keep note of any impressions or gut feelings you had about any contributing factors to your animal’s current health issues. 

Summary and What’s Next

We know our animals best and are most invested in their well-being. There is so much we can do to support our beloved animals. I hope you will enjoy this series of becoming your pet’s health detective. In part 2, I will share how I start researching holistic and natural options to use (by themselves or in conjunction with veterinary care) and creating protocols to try. See you next time!