Health Tip – Snout to Tail Assessment

Health Tip – Snout to Tail AssessmentHello, and welcome back to beckyspetcare.com for one of our friendly health tips. This time we will be talking to you about the Snout to Tail Assessment. This is a term we use when describing the full body check that you should be giving your pet on a fairly regular basis, whether they be a dog or a cat.First, what is the Snout to Tail Assessment? This is a physical check where you use your hands to poke and prod at every part of your pet’s body from the snout to the tail. You begin with the snout, even checking the inside of the mouth. Then feel your way around the head, ears, and down the body. Following that, check the extremities and end with the tail.Why do this, you might ask? The main reason is to establish familiarity. Your familiarity with your pet, and your pet’s familiarity with being handled. These are both particularly important when it comes to maintenance of your pet’s health and being proactive against future problems. Your familiarity with your pet is crucial in detecting health issues early, such as tumors, muscle/bone soreness, or even internal problems. If you become familiar with the feel of your pet’s body, you can easily find out when something is different or out of place.  Identifying a new hardness of an internal organ or new sensitivity with a specific muscle can allow you to begin to manage health problems before they have a chance to develop. If you are not proactive and decide to wait for your pet to tell you something is wrong, you might catch health issues too late. By regularly doing a Snout to Tail Assessment, you take your pet’s health into your own hands, keeping them happy and whole.The other familiarity mentioned above is your pet’s familiarity with being handled. It is important to develop this familiarity through the Snout to Tail Assessment so that, should something go wrong, your pet is not stressed out by your or your vet trying to identify the issue. Many dogs or cats tend to dislike the handling of specific body parts, such as ears or feet. By familiarizing them with check ups to those areas, it will be much easier to check them for injury or illness should you need to. Dogs and cats are creatures of habit. If you build the habit of the Snout to Tail Assessment, you make them much more amenable to the necessary checkups required to maintain their good health.And always remember to end every Snout to Tail Assessment with a good reward. Praise, love, toys, and treats are always appreciated; and if your pet can associate the Assessment with the good reward afterwards, they will become much more compliant – and sometimes even eager – to participate.That is our Health Tip for now! Be sure to check back with us at beckyspetcare.com regularly for more tips and tricks to keep your pets happy and healthy!