Signs of illness to look out for

1. Body (head to tail):
   
   • excessive itching, selfinfelcted wounds due to itching
     (contact shelter, requires medication)
     
     signs of possible frostbite or infection
     
   • skin seems dark or britle anywhere on animal
   • puffy, soar or swollen anywhere on animal
2. Eyes, Nose, Mouth:
   
   Some of these can be a sign of early URI/Kennel Cough
   
   • clear ocular/nasal discharge
   • sneezing and/or coughing
     
     (contact shelter, requires medication)
     
   • thick or green ocular/nasal discharge
   • congestion or difficulty breathing
   • gagging (may have something loged in through)
   • sudden apperance of bumps,itching,sores (normaly allergic reaction)
3. Ears:
   
   Some of these can be a sign of earmites or yeast infection
   
   (contact shelter, requires medication)
   
   • any accesive itching at the ears
   • can see dark discharge in ears (DO NOT REMOVE, a technician will clean out and treat the problem)
   • head tilting
   • (floppy eared dogs) ears have strong oder
   • any self inflected wound on/in/around the ears
   • skin seems dark or britle
   • puffy, soar or swollen
4. Foster pets weight:
   You should not be able to feel or see the ribs or backbone of the mother or kittens/puppies, if you can they are too thin and you should contact the shelter for advice on special feeding and bring in a fecal sample to rule out parasites.
   Kitten/puppies also shouldn't have huge bellies, they should be well rounded but should not have a large tummy and thin legs, tail and head. Be sure that the kittens/puppies haven't just eaten when looking at the size of the stomach, it's of course much bigger after they eat and before they go to bathroom. If your kittens/puppies have big bellies that stay the same then bring them and a fecal sample in for the tech to look at they might need deworming or some other type of medication.
   
5. Signs of illness to look for:
   Besides the weight of dog or cat you should contact the shelter if they show these signs;
   
   • - smell a lot , and / or have usually smelly fecal that is soft or diarrhea.
   • - have blood and/or muces in the stool
   • - eat well, but are thin and not gaining any weight.
   • - vomitting; please tell the tech if they vomited food, hairball, clear or green/yellow liquid, etc.
   • - seems to have little / less energy / lethagic
   • - not eating, or eat very little
   • - have poor coat condition (fur feels corse) [check that the kitten haven't recently been de-fleaed]
   • - urinating more then normal and/or has stronger odor or is orange colored
   • - having difficultly going to the bathroom (constipated or straining )
   • - look pale (pink nose look white, etc.)
   • - used to be good with litter box/house trained but now are missing (normally goes with soft stool)
   • - dragging / rubbing their bums on the floor / paper
   • - rice like fragments in stool
   • - any other abnormal signs

OHS copyright 2001