Posts from — September 2008

As with human first aid, the most important thing to remember when your pet is hurt is to stay calm and not panic. Panic causes mistakes and the sensation of fear spreads to others so quickly that it will make your head spin. First, find out as much information about the emergency as possible and as fast as you can without either waiting too long or rushing through it too quickly. If your dog is injured, try to find out how it got the injury. Likewise, if the dog is poisoned, try to find out what and how much of the poison it consumed. In any emergency situation, both a cool head and the proper information can make a world of difference.

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Though it’s easy for many people to make crass “hot dog” puns about the pets of others whenever dogs die in cars, making news headlines, most dog owners legitimately fear causing heatstroke in their companions. Heat stroke, a condition that is essentially when a dog (or most other mammals of that matter) is unable to purge unneeded heat from their bodies, raises the temperature of their delicate internal organs and causes massive damage to a dog’s living tissue, which can kill even the healthiest dog.

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Dogs very rarely think about what they consume, unless it’s a hidden pill wrapped in a piece of bread or cheese (Your pet most likely carefully eats the tasty wrapper and spit out the pill). Most of the time, a dog will simply swallow its food whole, and dogs can choke just like humans. Saving a dog with a blocked airway uses the same treatment as a human as well. If you know CPR, you can help your choking dog.

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