What to Tell Your Vet About Your Dog's Symptoms

Start with the basics

Before you describe symptoms, give your vet the context that shapes everything else:

• Your dog's age, breed, and size
• Whether they're spayed or neutered
• Any ongoing conditions or current medications (including supplements and flea/tick preventives)
• Any recent changes: new food, travel, boarding, a groomer, a new pet

The same symptom means different things in a 12-year-old dog on daily medication versus a healthy 2-year-old, so this context matters more than people expect.

Describe each symptom clearly

For everything you've noticed, try to cover four things:

1. 1

   What exactly you're seeing

   Be concrete. "Breathing fast with his belly moving a lot" tells your vet more than "trouble breathing."

2. 2

   When it started

   Note whether it came on suddenly or gradually.

3. 3

   How often it happens

   Include how long each episode lasts.

4. 4

   Better, worse, or the same

   Say how it has changed since it began.

If it helps, count it: "vomited three times since last night" is far more useful than "vomiting a lot."

The details owners forget

These are the ones that most often get left out, and they're often the ones that matter:

• Appetite and water: eating less, refusing food, drinking more or less than usual
• Bathroom habits: frequency, consistency, color, any straining
• What they might have gotten into: trash, human food, plants, medications, chemicals, even if you're not sure
• Anything you've already tried at home, and whether it helped

Bring these with you

• ✓Photos or video of the symptom, especially anything that comes and goes (a cough, a limp, shaking). It's hard to reproduce on demand in the exam room.
• ✓A list of medications and doses
• ✓The food or treat brand, if diet is part of what's going on
• ✓Vaccination records, if you have them handy