How to perform a rectal examination in veterinary medicine

In this VETgirl online veterinary continuing education video, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT, reviews how to perform a rectal examination in a dog. This can easily be done to express anal glands, palpate for prostatomegaly or a pyometra, to palpate lymph node enlargement, to palpate for urethral stones, etc. and is a very important part of the physical examination in the dog – especially in intact dogs!

NOTE: I accidentally forgot to discuss the PROSTATE gland during this rectal examination!

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  1. Hi, I encourage you to redo this video to use low stress techniques such as a non-slip mat and “touch gradient” to get to the tail. I am a veterinarian and teacher at Vanier College Montreal, Canada. We are in the process of letting go our subscription to Dove videos for many reasons and one of them is the lack of low stress techniques in their videos. This year, my students will register to VETgirl, and hopefully your videos will be more “Fear Free” :). Tks

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