When I notice something may be wrong with our dogs, I immediately do an investigation. Yesterday, our hyperactive pug Pipoy was limping and later it looked like he couldn't use his left front paw. I thought that it may be due to his long toe nails. That's a problem with Pipoy, he hates the nail trimmer and he goes berserk upon seeing it.
But I know that I had to do something so I checked on his paw. And there it was, a boil in between his toes. I called up the vet and I was assured that the boil will erupt and heal by itself. True enough, last night, there was blood on Pipoy's paw and surely that was the boil that erupted. This morning, he looks okay.
Whenever a pets gets sick, it's understandably a worrying time as they are part of the family, and until you know what's wrong, there's not a lot that you can do. Unlike humans, it's not as if they can tell you what the problem is so it's down to your intuition to know what's wrong with them.
Where vets are concerned, they can be expensive though, and a lot of people won't take their pets to the vets unless it's absolutely necessary. While I understand that way of thinking and I'm sure we all like to save money, by doing that and waiting, you could be contributing to your pets illness, albeit unintentionally.
I've been lucky with my dogs, and they've hardly ever been sick so I've never actually needed to take them to the vets. If ever that day comes though (and I'm sure it will) I won't hesitate to take them as their health and happiness is more important than money to me.
It would be interesting to find out if certain breeds of dog are more prone to illness than others. Is there somewhere that we can find that information out? Maybe if there is, then people could know what sort of budget they'd have to potentially set aside, depending on what breed of dog they get.
