First Aid for Your Pet

April has been recently designated as National Pet First Aid Awareness Month. As a pet owner, the better prepared that you are for identifying and responding to an emergency situation, the better chance your pet will have for recovery. The best people to teach you how to identify and deal with emergency situations are your veterinarian and his or her staff.

We all recognize that immediate veterinary care is required for life threatening emergencies such as being hit by car, suffering an injury that causes bleeding, or having one or more seizures that result in a loss of consciousness. However, less obvious health emergencies exist in the animal world, and delay in seeking veterinary care can have serious consequences. For example, injuries to the eye, while generally not life-threatening, should always be treated immediately in order to preserve eyesight. Or, if your pet is straining to urinate but producing only a little urine, she or he may have a urinary tract obstruction. Partial obstructions cause irreversible damage to the kidneys, while a complete obstruction can cause death if not relieved rapidly.

As a pet owner, you should learn how to recognize emergencies in your pet, and how quickly you need to seek veterinary care. The best way to learn this is through a hands-on demonstration.  With most pets, it is relatively easy to learn how to take a pulse or a body temperature, along with some other simple assessment techniques such as examination of the mucous membranes of the mouth.  You should also learn how to safely control bleeding, how to apply a bandage or a tourniquet, how to treat a wasp or bee sting, and what to do if you suspect your animal is poisoned.

When dealing with emergencies, especially injuries, it is important to remember that an injured animal, no matter how well trained, may, to paraphrase the expression, " bite the hand that treats it". Therefore, it is vital to safeguard any human caregivers by using muzzles or other restraining devices at all times.

Finally, it is a good idea to prepare a pet emergency and first aid kit. Having a kit prepared will save valuable time in the case of a natural emergency. A basic first aid kit is an extremely useful thing to take along with you if you regularly take your dog to a leash free park or along a river or lakeshore, since it is common to find broken glass or other dangerous material littering the ground in these areas.

To get further information on first aid for your pet, contact your vet. To prepare your own pet emergency kit, you can get some ideas of what to include by going to our Website's News Archives for August 2006, or you can download a convenient brochure from the website www.ready.gov.

 http://www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/pets.pdf