How to do a monthly health check on your dog

VCA Animal Hospitals recommends a home exam every month between twice-yearly wellness visits, done when your dog is relaxed, such as before an afternoon nap, in a quiet room. Good light matters more than any tool: daylight by a window or a bright lamp shows the color of the gums and the clarity of the eyes. Keep treats in reach, because a check that pays becomes a ritual your dog leans into instead of a wrestle.

The first month sets the baseline. Write down what you see and feel even when it all looks fine: the weight, the color of the gums, any old scar or wart and exactly where it sits. Next month you compare. A notebook or a note on your phone works; a few photos of the teeth and of any lump, with a coin beside it for scale, make changes easy to spot. Bring the record to every vet visit.

VCA's home check-up flags the findings that deserve a call: cloudy eyes, discharge or squinting, discharge or sores at the nose, a smelly or weeping ear, ulcers on the gums, loose or broken teeth, lumps or swellings, pain when you press, limping or trouble getting up, a change in appetite, vomiting, diarrhea and straining. None of these is a diagnosis on its own. Your job is to notice and describe; the vet's job is to find out what it means.

Lumps get their own rule. The University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine advises having a lump examined as soon as it is found, and explains that a lump cannot be judged benign or malignant by feel: telling them apart takes tests such as a fine-needle aspirate or a biopsy. Write down where it is and its size, photograph it beside a coin, and book the appointment rather than waiting to see whether it grows. Gloucester publishes a list of local and emergency veterinary offices.

Some findings are grooming jobs. Nails that click on the floor can be clipped in our studio for $16, teeth brushing is a $10 add-on, and a coat starting to knot behind the ears is cheaper to deal with early than as dematting at $15 per 20 minutes. Grooming needs no evaluation, and a bath or full service can be booked into a daycare day at 210 Eastern Ave. Tell the groomer about any lump you are watching so it is not clipped over.

Other findings are not ours to judge. Our groomers and handlers are not vets, so anything on the report list above goes to your own veterinarian, and after hours the Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn is open around the clock. If your dog is hard to handle for nails, ears or brushing, Brave & Balanced works on handling sensitivity and cooperative care for young dogs, and Calm & Connected covers handling sensitivity for adolescents and adults, with sessions from $94.