What Is Your Pet’s “Normal” and Why You Need a Health Baseline

Discovering what is normal for your pet, can help you to determine when things start to look different. Just like people, every pet is a unique individual and what is normal for them may not be normal for the next dog or cat. When we see changes in our pets, and catch those changes early, it can help us to take action that might help correct things that could be heading down a path of less wellness.

When I worked as a veterinary technician, I was lucky enough to work in a clinic with a veterinarian who did a lot of in house diagnostics. We did our blood work, we grew our own cultures in house, we used a transtelephonic ECG transmitter for checking hearts during our senior wellness panels and for pre-anesthesia workups, we had blood pressure cuffs we used during surgery, and more. Many of the tools we used in house were not commonplace for most clinics, and today, most diagnostics are sent to a lab, not done in your vet’s clinic.

One big lesson I took away from all these experiences and from working with Dr. Cynthia Post, was that getting baseline readings while the pet is healthy, and continuing to run diagnostics annually (or more frequently based on the individual) set you up to see trends over time. Today, in my nutritional consultations, we ask to see the vet files before we speak to the clients about their pets. I spend hours going through their records to look for trends for that pet that we can assist through nutrition, nutraceuticals and lifestyle changes.

For example, running routine blood work on your pet each year gets you a nice healthy baseline. If your vet or nutritionist has year over year numbers, and they start to see some numbers creeping up they can make recommendations to help support the body hopefully before the pet becomes symptomatic. This is especially important for instances where a lot of damage has to happen before we notice symptoms at home, such as kidney disease. We can see kidney challenges show up earlier on the blood work and urine tests than we would by waiting for symptoms to appear. Typically, when a pet is symptomatic from kidney challenge, they are already severely damaged. Routine blood work can help catch things early and let you make course corrections that work best for your pet. This means in our kidney damage example, if we caught it early through blood work we can take corrective action to help that pet in the early stages to stop further damage to their kidneys. It is commonly accepted that by the time kidney damage starts to show symptoms in your pet, the kidneys are damaged beyond repair. Annual blood work and urine tests can help catch this if your pet trends towards higher and higher numbers in the values that are checked for their kidneys, and your animal support team can help you to repair that trend.

When your vet or nutritionist is looking at your pet’s blood work, they use reference ranges to determine what we currently accept as ‘normal’. Some pets may have a ‘low normal’ others may have a ‘high normal’. If your pet has a value that is on the high end of normal and it tends to stay there year over year, it could be said that that pet’s normal is ‘high normal’. If your pet has a value that is on the low end of normal year over year, we could say that their normal is a ‘low normal’. If you have a pet with low normal values, that start to creep up – we like to take a look at nutritional and lifestyle changes while it is still in the ‘high normal’ range. Because we know for that particular pet, a high normal is not their normal. This enables you to get in front of things hopefully before there is damage or full disease states. It is also helpful to get normal value trends for your pet because some things can affect the normals (raw fed pets tend to have different baseline blood values than pets on high glycemic, and extruded diets like kibble, or canned foods), there can be fluctuations between labs and there are also normal fluctuations for your pet. Trends over time help paint a full picture.

We can also take notice when we start to see what we think of as signs of aging, or when people say their pets have become picky eaters. Healthy aging doesn’t mean they have to suffer or have symptoms, or start to sleep excessive amounts. And sometimes, picky eaters are a symptom that we need to look for an underlying health challenge that you can support through medical assistance and nutraceuticals.

For some pets with chronic conditions, knowing what is ‘normal’ for them, also allows you to be aware when there are slight changes, so you can get ahead of more challenges.

Some things to look at and consider for your pet, so you know what is ‘normal’ for them could be:

·         Their weight – watch for any increase or decrease that you aren’t expecting

·         Blood work – annual wellness blood work is a wealth of information, and easy to add on to your annual heartworm blood test day each year (seniors should be checked out twice a year for routine blood work)

·         Exercise tolerance – some dogs overheat or get chilled (especially their feet) more easily than others; watch your pet and be sure to act if you notice they are exhibiting changes out of the norm for them

·         Body movement and comfort – notice any hesitation before jumping onto furniture or getting into the car, slower attempts at getting up or down stairs, changing how they sit, stretching more or less than normal, and for cats in particular if they stop jumping onto a particular surface

·         Body condition – if you notice them becoming less muscular even though their weight isn’t changing

·         Stool – poop is the window to the gut (see our previous post about this); watching for any changes here tells you what is happening in the gut, and gut health directly relates to the health of the rest of the body, including mood

·         Urine – frequency changes that aren’t related to diet changes, or straining, can be a sign you need to pay attention to

·         Digestion – burping, gas, grass eating, lip licking, gulping, air licking, or picky eating can all be signs of digestive challenge and are a good reason to speak to your nutrition specialist (like our staff at Pet Grocer)

·         Skin and coat – understand your pet’s normal coat; changes in skin colour, flaky skin, greasy or chalky feeling when petting them, paw licking, itching – these and more are signs you can help address a challenge they are facing

·         Appetite changes – eating slower, walking away from food and returning, looking and acting hungry but won’t eat, suddenly demanding more food, dropping food are all things to pay attention to and take action on

·         Drinking – knowing what is normal for your pet is key here, so you can watch for a reduction in drinking or a sudden increase in drinking (remember that raw fed pets naturally drink less water from the water bowl than pets that have canned, cooked, or kibble diets)

·         Behaviour – sleeping somewhere different, becoming more clingy, getting grumpy when touched, withdrawing, pacing or being less excited about normal activities are all things to watch for

·         For cats in particular – changes in grooming, jumping, litter box postures, sleeping location and social interaction can be some early clues that your cat may need your support

A little bit of attention being paid yearly to your pet’s normals can help you to get ahead of challenges and ensure a healthy lifestyle well into their senior years. The value isn't merely catching disease early. It is knowing an individual animal well enough that you can recognize a meaningful change from their normal.

Want to try an easy to use at home screening tool for kidney challenge for your cat or dog, that is affordable? Visit KidneyChek – we believe in this product and recommend it to pet parents as another tool to add to your household, which can be used between your annual or bi-annual wellness checks at your vet.