How to Examine Dog's Stomach

want to learn to examine your dog at home? then you're in the right place. I'm Dr. Yvette Huizar and this is Brody and we're going to show you how to examine your pet's abdomen and their muscular skeletal system. it can be helpful to do regular physical exams on your pet so that you can early identify if there's something abnormal going on with them. things that you can identify when examining the abdomen are going to be things like bloating, pain, and also nodules and masses. so first thing I'm going to do is feel the very last rib that I can poate and then in this area I'm just going to put a little bit of pressure here and it feels nice and soft and he doesn't seem painful doesn't feel bloated either and then I can just gently put a little bit of pressure as I go back making sure there's no signs of pain and I don't feel any masses either okay can we lay down good boy can we go all the way back oh good boy now that we didn't feel any pain on the abdomen the next thing that we do is when we have them standing we can go from the top of their belly to the bottom of the belly and just feeling along to make sure that there's no masses anywhere come up good boy okay okay so I'm just starting at the very top here and then I'm just going to put a little bit of pressure downwards and just making sure that it feels smooth he does have some organs in there so it's not going to feel empty but nothing nothing is is standing out to me okay if while doing this exam your pet's abdomen feels very firm or bloated or your pet show signs of pain such as hunching their back or crying then I definitely recommend seeing your veterinarian I'm first going to start by evaluating his legs so first I'm going to palpate through the leg and make sure I don't feel any lumps or bumps when evaluating the legs we're looking for signs of pain masses is swelling and even popping up the joints too okay and he's not showing any signs of pain there which is great and then I'm just going to flex his little joints make sure I don't feel any popping and that he doesn't feel discomfort when I'm doing that and then I'm just going to move this little leg a little bit forward and back as well okay good boy I'm also going to look at the bottom of the pause to make sure I don't see any lesions there can I look at your paw buddy you need a nail trim that's what you need okay so I'm looking between the toes sometimes foreign material can get stuck here sometimes they can have trauma in their feet um here they can have lesions on their paw pads or foreign bodies stuck in their paws so it's important to look there always after you've done that for all of the legs next step is going to be pop hitting their back okay all right so good buddy okay so I'm just going to feel where his spine is in overweight dogs it might be difficult to palpate the spine and then I'm just going to put a little bit of pressure on the spine as I go backwards making sure I don't see any signs of pain bir just thinks this is a massage and he loves it okay next step is going to be evaluating the tail so I'm just going to run my hands through it make sure that I don't feel any abnormalities dogs can have fractures limp tail and then we're just going to move it in a couple of different directions he doesn't quite like it but he's not crying he's not showing signs of pain doing exams on your pet even when they're feeling healthy makes it that much easier to spot things when they're out of the norm thanks for watching and see you next time