Pet Health Checker
Answer a few questions. We score your inputs against vet-validated red-flag patterns and give you a clear risk level — plus the conditions worth ruling out.
Tell us about your pet
We'll tailor the questions and risk model to them.
The Pet Health Checker is educational. It does not replace veterinary advice. If your pet is in severe distress, contact a vet or emergency clinic immediately.
How this checker works
This is a deterministic rule engine, not an AI model. The same answers always produce the same score, and every part of the calculation is something we can explain to you. That is a deliberate design choice — a health score you cannot interrogate is not worth acting on.
Severity weights, not a checklist
Each symptom carries a weight from 1 to 10. Repeated vomiting counts for far more than one bad meal; pale gums or collapse sit at the top of the scale. Those weights are summed, then adjusted by how your pet's energy, appetite and drinking have changed.
Pattern rules catch combinations
Some symptom clusters are far more dangerous together than apart. A bloated abdomen with restlessness and unproductive retching in a deep-chested dog suggests bloat (GDV), which can become fatal within hours. When a critical pattern matches, it overrides the arithmetic and returns High.
Age and duration change everything
Puppies and kittens under a year deteriorate faster than healthy adults, as do senior dogs over 8 and cats over 10. Something going on for three days is treated more seriously than the same thing for three hours.
What the result means
- Low
- Keep watching at home. Re-check tomorrow if nothing improves, or sooner if new symptoms appear.
- Medium
- Worth a call to your vet in the next day or two. Not an emergency, but not something to leave alone.
- High
- Contact a vet or emergency clinic today. The pattern you described is linked to conditions that worsen quickly.
When to skip this tool entirely
Do not spend a minute on a questionnaire if your pet is struggling to breathe, collapsed, having a seizure, bleeding heavily, straining to urinate without producing anything, or has a hard, swollen abdomen. Those are emergencies. Call your veterinarian or the nearest emergency animal hospital now.
If you suspect poisoning, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is available 24/7 at (888) 426-4435.