Every dog has to go through it, every dog most probably hates it as much as anyone else does, but the fact of the matter is that your dog will show sick symptoms once in a while and will become ill. This is natural for a dog or any other animal, they all get sick and there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent it.

On the other hand there are ways in which you can ease the suffering a bit for your dog and help them get the fast paced recovery they deserve. There are probably many different home remedies for helping you dog get better, but often if any are going to work then it will be the suggestions or medication your vet will give your after a diagnosis of your dog, so when you fear your dog is ill you should take them to the vet as soon as possible.

Ok, so let’s now look at some of the more popular of the hundreds of symptoms that your dog may be feeling.

Not wanting to move

Many dogs when ill wont want to move very far, have pain in moving, refusing to exercise, limping or has signs or injured paw/leg, or just general decreased agility. Theses can all be signs of illness or injury and should be watched out for.

Discharge

This may seem an obvious choice but many dog owners fail to notice discharge from eyes, nose, and ears. These should only normally be a worry if the discharge is coloured.

Appetite

A dog’s loss of appetite is a good well recognised symptom of illness as well as over eating without weight gain, sudden weight loss, or diarrhoea. Keep an eye on your dog’s diet and food habits to make this easier to recognise when it happens.

Itching and Scratching

Itching or scratching and trying to rub themselves up against furniture can be symptoms of bad skin or new pests on the scene. At this time your dog may be feeling ill or unwell or have it to come.

Mouth Problems

Bleeding or soar looking gums, along with discoloured teeth or teeth loss all need to be diagnosed properly by a vet and could be due to a more serious illnesses.

Ticks are a nasty little arachnid pest that attach to your dog and can be very irritating and soar for your pet. They carry many different diseases that can be mildly dangerous to your dog and other members of your household. Some diseases take up to twenty four hours to pass on to their host so getting rid of the pests easily and quickly is essential.

There are a lot of ways that you may have been taught as a child to get rid of ticks from the skin, the most popular is probably to burn the tick into releasing his grip of his own accord so no further problems can arise of having the jaws still stuck into the skin.

The second way often taught to get rid of ticks is to smother them in oil based liquids of Vaseline to help take the tick out in a similar fashion to the way noted above.

These ways are both wrong and can be very dangerous, the first is dangerous, can be painful for your dog and will more than likely scare your dog into behaving in a bad manner. The second is also dangerous and unneeded, the idea is to keep your skin and around the area of the tick as clean as possible to avoid further infection or disease.

The way to remove the tick properly and with little damage or pain is to use sterilised tweezers to dislodge the critter, it takes patience if the tick is stubborn and doesn’t want to move but it is the safest way to remove the pests.

Be careful not to pull on the ticks body wile pulling him out, if you pull too hard on the body it will come off separate to the jaws and mouth of the tick causing it to be harder to dislodge.

Start by cleaning the tweezers with alcohol or burning over a flame if alcohol is not available. You may want to also put alcohol around the area in question to keep it clean. Once this is done try to get as close to the skin of the dog and grab the tick at the jaws, to do this you will need to place the tweezers from the side into position. If the tick refuses to budge, try moving from side to side to unhook the jaws wile pulling away from the skin. Doing this and keeping constant pressure on the tick will cause him to tire and give in, releasing the tick in one go.

Finnish off by cleaning the area with alcohol or soapy water and you job is complete.