Introduction

For most clinical problems, acquiring an accurate history can be as important as the clinical findings on physical examina­tion. This is especially true for gastrointestinal disorders since they are usually expressed by clinical signs that cannot be ob­served during the clinical examination but are only reported by the owner.

The steps and general guidelines for a good history are shown in the Tables 1.1 and 1.2. The observations ofthe owner, which are valuable, must be differentiated from his or her conclusion or interpretation, which may be misleading. For example, the terms vomiting and regurgitation may be used synonymously by the owner. In order to avoid confusion, it is essential to ask the owner to describe the patient’s symptoms with his or her own words.

The signalment can be helpful as some age or breed predis­positions (Tables 1.3 and 1.4) have been proposed for various gastrointestinal disorders. Also, a complete vaccination and drug history is important. Many drugs can induce gastrointes­tinal disturbances (e.g., NSAIDs can cause gastric ulcers and some antibiotic agents can be associated with diarrhea). Intol­erance of anesthetic agents has been reported in patients with hepatic disorders, especially in those with portosystemic vas­cular anomalies.¹

Written records of the history are essential for the follow-up. As a general rule, everything that can be quantified during history taking should be, as this could be beneficial for the as­sessment of the severity of the problem or for the follow-up.

1.1.2