What should I tell the vet when I call about a sick pet?

Start with who and what: your pet’s name, species and age, then one sentence on the problem in plain words. Then give the three facts a vet needs to judge urgency: when it started, how much or how often it is happening, and whether it is getting better, worse or staying the same. Finish with any medications your pet is on.

How do I describe my pet's symptoms if I don't know the medical term?

Skip the term and describe what you saw: what the body did, for how long, and what your pet was doing just before. “Coughing” can mean several different things to different people; “a dry honk, three or four in a row, after drinking” means one thing. Your vet will supply the vocabulary.

What if I can't remember when the symptom started?

Give an honest range and anchor it to something you do remember — a weekend away, a holiday, the day the new food arrived. “Not before Thanksgiving, definitely by the first week of December” is useful. A guessed exact date is less useful than a true range, so say which one you are giving.

Should I take a video of my pet’s symptoms for the vet?

Yes, when you safely can. A cough, an odd gait or an episode of shaking rarely happens on cue in the exam room, and veterinary sources recommend video for exactly that reason. Note the time and what your pet was doing right before, and never delay urgent care to film.

Is it OK to read from notes in the exam room?

Yes. Reading three short lines is faster and more accurate than recalling under stress, and it leaves more of the appointment for the vet’s questions. Offer the notes first, then answer follow-up questions in your own words.

How to Describe Your Pet’s Symptoms to the Vet: Since When, How Often, and What Changed

Your dog has been “off” for a while. You finally call the clinic, and the person on the phone asks a simple question: when did this start? You hear yourself say “a few days, maybe a week?” and realize you are guessing.

That moment is what this article is about. What helps your vet most is not the name of the symptom. It is three plain facts: since when, how much or how often, and how it has changed. Those facts are almost never remembered accurately on the day. They are written down beforehand.

This is a guide to recording and communicating symptoms, written by the team that builds Memofu’s health log. It is not veterinary advice, and it does not help you decide what a symptom means. For anything about your pet’s health, talk to your vet.

What should you tell the vet about your pet’s symptoms?

Tell them three things: when it started, how much or how often it happens, and how it has changed since. Everything else is supporting detail.

Veterinary teaching material is blunt about why. A history-taking guide for veterinarians in Clinician’s Brief lists what to ask about the presenting problem: onset, duration, frequency, severity, location, and whether it is progressing or improving. That is the vet’s checklist, and it maps almost exactly onto our three lines.

Since when covers onset and duration.
How much or how often covers frequency and severity.
How it has changed covers progression.

If you arrive with those three already written, the first part of the conversation is done before it starts. The vet can spend the appointment on the questions only they can ask.

Why does “since when” matter more than the name of the symptom?

Because the timeline changes what a symptom means, and the name often hides it.

The Merck Veterinary Manual notes that the onset and course of an illness help point toward its cause: some problems arrive suddenly, others build over days or longer. The same limp is a different conversation at two days and at two months.

The name is also less reliable than it feels. The same Merck chapter says the precise meaning a client attaches to certain words must be determined. “Vomiting,” “coughing” and “seizure” each cover several different things that look alike to an owner. So describe what you saw instead:

Not “she’s vomiting,” but “brought up undigested food twice, about an hour after breakfast.”
Not “he’s limping,” but “holding up the back left leg for the first few steps after lying down, then walks normally.”
Not “he had a seizure,” but “fell on his side and paddled his legs for about 30 seconds, then seemed confused for a few minutes.”

Leave the naming to your vet. That is the part you are paying for.

How do you write it down before the visit?

In three lines, the day you notice something, and one more line each time it changes. That is the whole system.

Here is a template you can copy into your phone’s notes app, a paper notebook, or anywhere you will actually look:

What: [pet’s name] — what you saw, in plain words

Since: a date, or an honest range plus a landmark

How much / how often: a count, a duration, an amount

Changed: better, worse, the same, or comes and goes — and since when

And a filled-in example:

What: Biscuit — a dry, honking cough, three or four in a row

Since: around September 10 (the weekend after the camping trip)

How much / how often: two or three bouts a day, mostly after drinking or getting excited

Changed: more often since September 18; eating and energy normal

Four habits make those lines much more useful.

Write what happened just before. For episodes like possible seizures, the University of Illinois veterinary college recommends noting the duration and context: what your pet was doing immediately before. The same idea helps with coughing, vomiting or limping.

Use landmarks when dates blur. The Clinician’s Brief guide notes that specific dates are hard to remember and suggests anchoring them to landmark events such as holidays. A true range beats an invented exact date.

Count instead of describing. “A lot” means different things to different people. “Three times since Tuesday” means one thing.

Record video when it is safe to. Illinois calls video one of the best things an owner can do when a pet is acting strangely. Symptoms rarely perform in the exam room, and fifteen seconds of footage can replace a lot of description.

For the broader record — weight, medications, vet notes and the rest — see why pet health records matter. This article is only about the symptom note and how you say it out loud.

What do you say when you call the vet?

Say who, what, and the three facts, in that order. Then answer the questions and write down what they tell you to do.

A phone call is a triage conversation. The person on the line is deciding how soon your pet needs to be seen, and the three facts are what that decision rests on. Here is a script:

“Hi, this is [your name]. My [age] [species or breed], [pet’s name], is a patient here.”

“[One sentence of what you saw, in plain words.]”

“It started [since when].”

“It’s happening [how much or how often].”

“Since then it’s [better / worse / the same / coming and going].”

“[He/She] is on [medications].” Or: “No medications.”

“Should we come in, and how soon?”

A few things worth knowing:

Name the change first if it is new. “She has had a mild cough for a month, but since this morning she is breathing faster” is the sentence that matters. Do not bury it after the old news.
Say the medications out loud. The clinic will want to know what your pet is already taking, and so will an emergency team if you end up there.
For an emergency clinic, call on the way. The University of Wisconsin page recommends calling ahead while you are on your way so the team can prepare, and notes that capacity changes, so a call also confirms they can take you.
Write down the instructions before you hang up. You will be worried, and worry erases details.

How do you present it in the exam room?

Offer the notes first, then let the vet lead. Reading from notes is normal, and it is faster than reconstructing things under stress.

The same Clinician’s Brief guide advises vets to begin with open-ended questions so the owner can describe the problem in their own words, and it points out that interrupting an owner can cost important details. You can meet them halfway by being ready with the short version.

Open with the three lines. Read them as written. It takes about twenty seconds.
Show the video or photos, with the time each was taken.
Hand over the context: medications and doses actually given, any food change, anything your pet might have eaten.
Answer the follow-up questions plainly. “I don’t know” is a good answer when it is true. It is better than a guess the vet will treat as a fact.
Before you leave, read back the plan. What to give, how much, for how long, and what should make you call back.

If more than one person in your household saw the symptom, agree on one set of notes before the visit. Two slightly different stories in the exam room cost more time than they save.

What if you only noticed it today?

Then today’s note is still the most useful one you will write. Start the three lines now, with an honest “since.”

“Since this morning” and “noticed this morning, but it may have started earlier” are both fine, and they mean different things. Say which one you mean. If you look back at photos or messages and find an earlier sign, add it as a new line rather than rewriting the first one. The order in which you noticed things is information too.

Then keep adding a line when something changes. By the time you are in the exam room, you will have a short timeline instead of a feeling.

Where Memofu fits

Memofu is a private pet app for families, and its records are shaped around the questions a vet asks: what, when, and who saw it. It has no dedicated symptom tracker. What it does have lines up with the three facts in this article.

A care log where every entry has a time and a name. Alongside meals, potty breaks and walks, an owner or co-owner can log an entry in their own words (“Coughed after drinking,” up to 40 characters) at the time it happened, up to a day back, and everyone in the circle sees who logged it and when. Read down the list and you have “how often,” in order.
Weight with a trend chart, for the one change a vet will measure anyway.
A medication log that shows who gave each dose and when, which answers “what is she on?” without guesswork.
Vet visits with the reason, what the vet said, and photos of prescriptions or results, plus the next appointment.
A read-only health link for a new vet or an after-hours clinic, free, that opens in any browser and stops working after a day, a week or a month. It shows the profile, allergies and care notes, current medications, vaccines and preventives, recent weights and past visits. It never includes photos or your family’s names.

Every health record is free, a vet-ready PDF summary is available on Premium, and full export is free on every plan. You can see the details on our features page and what is paid on our pricing page. If you share care with family, our piece on sharing your pet’s life with family covers how a shared record changes who knows what.

Paper works too. The three lines matter more than where you keep them.

Once more: this is a guide to recording and describing what you see, not veterinary advice. If something worries you, call your vet. The notes are there to make that call a better one.

Sources

Step-by-Step Guide to Taking Better Patient Histories, Shauna L. Blois and Alice Defarges, Clinician’s Brief. Onset, duration, frequency, severity and progression as the elements of a presenting complaint; landmark events for hard-to-remember dates; letting owners speak in their own words.
The Neurologic Examination of Animals, William B. Thomas, Merck Veterinary Manual. Onset and course of an illness as diagnostic clues; clarifying the meaning an owner attaches to words.
Is My Pet Having Seizures?, Veterinary Medicine at Illinois, University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Recording video; noting duration and what the pet was doing just before an episode.
When to Seek Emergency Care for Your Pet, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. Signs that need emergency care; calling ahead on the way.