Head to Tail Health Check – Hydration Status

Breakdown of Fluid Losses in a 24hour period:

Inevitable losses (Respiratory Losses) – 20mg/kg/24hrs

Faecal losses (Normal faeces) – 10-20mg/kg/24hrs

Urinary losses – 20ml/kg/24hrs

*It is thought that each time an animal vomits they lose 4ml/kg/24hrs*

An animal becomes dehydrated when they lose more than the normal amount of fluid for their bodyweight. This can be caused by vomiting, diarrhoea, and pyrexia, failure to consume food and water and overexposure to heat. Left untreated dehydration cause organ failure and death.

There are several ways dehydration can be detected, these are:

•  Lack of skin elasticity (the skin doesn’t ping back as quickly as it should when pulled)
• Dry, tacky gums
• Sunken eyes
• Oliguria
• Lethargy
•  Delayed CRT

By combining the above symptoms we can score how severely dehydrated the dog is on a 1-10% scale. 1% being adequate and no treatment needed 7-10% needs immediate medical attention as death is probable. Anything in between 2-6% would require fluid therapy.

Gums

The colour of an animal’s gums can tell you a lot about its condition, whether they are healthy, in shock or even if they have been poisoned. The main colours to look out for are:

• Salmon Pink – Healthy
• Yellow – Jaundice (Likely to be a problem with the Liver)
• Brick Red – Possible Gas poisoning (Carbon Dioxide poisoning presents this sign)
• White/Grey – Anaemic or in established shock – IMMEDIATE VETERINARY ATTENTION NEEDED.
• Blue/Dark Grey – Lack of circulating Oxygen (Usually Dyspnoeic) – IMMEDIATE VETERINARY ATTENTION NEEDED.

The animals Capillary Refill Time (CRT) should also be checked to ensure that blood is circulating well. In a healthy animal it should turn from white when pressed to pink in less than two seconds. Anything significantly longer than that could suggest that the animal is about to go into shock that they are hemorrhaging from somewhere.

Breath

The smell of an animal’s breath can also give you an indication to what their condition is like.

• Animals with sweet smelling breath (ketones) – Possibility of diabetes (distinctive pear drops smell)
• Animals with Stale Urine smelling breath – Possible Renal Failure, more common in cats than dogs (Once you smell this you will never forget it trust me!)
• Animals with combination of dental disease and bad breath – IN NEED OF A DENTAL!

Teeth

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know if a patient is in serious need of a dental, The most common clinical signs that are seen (or smelt!) are: Bad breath, Reluctance to eat normal food, Plaque build-up on teeth and Broken or cracked teeth.

Rabbits and other small rodents – Their teeth grow continuously, therefore educating owners on this and what food is the best for them to prevent the need for dentals every six weeks is very important.   

I found that one of the most important bits of information that you need to know when you first start working in a busy Veterinary Practice, is what normal and whats not and that means knowing your parameters!