You will know where to look first after a walk, in what order, and why a grass seed deserves more attention than mud.
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What an animal brings back from outside is rarely visible when it walks in. Three minutes at the door settle things that otherwise get settled much later at the vet.
A grass seed is that small arrow-shaped seed from dry grass, with barbs that all point one way. It advances as the animal moves and never backs out. That mechanical detail is what makes it a problem rather than debris.
The space between two toes is its favourite way in. Spread the toes one by one, look at the thin skin above and below, and check around the nails while you are there.
A dog licking one foot in the evening after a walk through dry grass deserves that check before any other theory. By the time a warm lump appears between the toes, the seed is already underneath.
A grass seed in the ear canal causes an immediate and very recognisable reaction: the animal shakes its head hard, on one side, often in the middle of the street and for no visible reason.
Sleep does not improve it. The canal is narrow, the seed travels down, and it reaches the eardrum. This is one of the rare reasons to be seen the same day rather than the next.
Look at the opening of the ear in good light, and never put anything into the canal. A cotton bud pushes the object further in and turns a simple removal into a procedure.
Ticks choose thin, warm skin that is hard to groom. So it is always roughly the same areas, and they are easier to feel than to see.
The flat of your hand, run over everything, finds them faster than your eyes. You are looking for a small hard bump that was not there yesterday.
The neck, around the ears and the eyelids count too, cats included. A tick on an eyelid comes off at the vet rather than on the corner of a table.
Oil, ether, alcohol and a flame have been passed around for decades. They share one flaw: they distress the tick, which regurgitates before letting go, at exactly the moment transmission becomes possible.
A tick hook, sold at the chemist for the price of a coffee, slides under the tick and unscrews it without squeezing. It is the only recommended move, and it is faster than any of the tricks.
Afterwards, disinfect, write down the date, and watch the spot for a few weeks. Tiredness, fever, a shifting limp or loss of appetite in the weeks that follow go to the vet, with that date in hand.
Burrs, sticky seeds, tree resin, chewing gum in town: whatever catches in the coat forms a knot that tightens with every movement and ends up pulling on the skin.
Tease it apart by hand while you still can, and cut rather than pull. Scissor points held against the skin are a common cause of wounds, so slide a comb between skin and knot first.
A damp knot left against the skin for days turns into irritation, then into a wound hidden under the coat. That is why this one gets dealt with the same evening and not the following weekend.
The check is not only about finding an object. It is about comparing with yesterday: a new lump, a tender spot, a movement avoided, an animal that slips away when you touch one particular place.
Three minutes at the same moment, with the same movements, teach you more about an animal than any list. You become the person who notices the two-day shift.
It also makes the vet appointment far more useful. Saying since when and on which side beats a general impression given once the animal is already on the table.
A cat coming home will not be searched like a dog. The check happens during a stroke, in several goes, and above all in the moments when it comes to you on its own.
Two things concern it in particular: grass seeds, as with a dog, and bite wounds from fights, which close over quickly and build an abscess a few days later.
The sign that counts with a cat is often indirect: sleeping more, jumping less high, eating less, hiding. A cat does not show pain, it reduces what it does.