Call a vet now: the red-flag list
- Labored breathing — visible effort, stretched neck, blue or grey gums
- Collapse, staggering, or unresponsiveness, even if brief and recovered
- Bloated, hard, or rapidly swelling abdomen, especially with unproductive retching — in deep-chested breeds this pattern (bloat/GDV) is minutes-matter serious
- Repeated vomiting or attempts to vomit producing nothing
- Straining without producing urine
- Seizures, first-time or clustering
- Pale or white gums — press-test should refill pink within ~2 seconds
- Suspected poison — chocolate, xylitol gum, grapes, medications, rodenticide — call immediately, do not wait for symptoms
Appetite and thirst: the front-page metrics
A skipped meal in a normally food-driven dog is information; two days of half-eaten meals is a pattern. Note what was offered, what was eaten, and whether treats still work — a dog that refuses kibble but takes chicken is telling a different story than one refusing everything. Thirst drifts matter in the opposite direction too: drinking noticeably more for days (bowl refills tell you) is a classic early flag for several conditions and is easy to log objectively.
Digestive signals: one-off or pattern?
Dogs vomit occasionally without drama — grass, enthusiasm, gross discoveries. The distinctions that matter: repeated vomiting within hours (red flag above), vomiting paired with lethargy or refusal to drink, blood in vomit or stool, or diarrhea beyond a day or two. Distinguish vomiting (active, abdominal effort) from regurgitation (passive, effortless, tube-shaped) — vets treat them as different complaints. Puppies and seniors get shorter benefit of the doubt on all of it: their reserves are smaller and dehydration arrives faster.
Energy and behavior: lethargy versus tired
Tired follows exertion and lifts with rest; lethargy is flatness without a cause — no greeting at the door, walks declined, toys ignored. Behavior changes read as personality but often encode discomfort: new irritability or snapping when touched somewhere specific, hiding in a social dog, clinginess in an independent one, restless pacing at night. Dogs do not sulk for days; sustained behavioral change has a reason, and pain is the most commonly missed one.
Movement and posture
Watch for limping (even intermittent), stiffness after rest that walks off, reluctance on stairs or jumping onto furniture that used to be automatic, and the prayer position — chest lowered, hindquarters up — which can signal abdominal pain. Film gait oddities when they happen; limps are notorious for vanishing at the clinic. A dog licking one joint or paw obsessively is pointing at something.
Skin, coat, ears, and the smell test
Persistent scratching, chewing at one spot, hot spots appearing overnight, head shaking, ear odor, flaky or greasy coat, and new lumps all earn notes with dates — and lumps earn a measurement (photo next to a coin works). Smell is legitimate data: yeasty ears, sudden bad breath, or a musty coat are each associated with real, treatable conditions rather than dog-ness.
Documenting what you see
Every observation gains value with a date, a frequency, and a direction of travel. Limping on and off since Sunday, mostly after naps, maybe slightly better is a clinical sentence; he's been off lately is a mood. Photograph the physical, film the intermittent, and count what can be counted — meals, vomits, water refills. Pawmi keeps these dated notes per dog and can assemble them into a vet-ready timeline, which is exactly the document that makes a sick visit efficient.