It’s 7:30 pm on a Saturday and your new puppy just swallowed one of his toys. Do you know what to do? Will your vet see you after hours? Where’s the closest emergency veterinary hospital? These are the kind of questions you don’t want to wait until it’s too late before discovering the answer. For 10 Rutland residents at least, their pets have a greater chance of life as a result of the CPR & First Aid workshop held at Mountainside Mutts this past Sunday.
April Begosh of Canine Strong in Concord, New Hampshire led the 1 day event hosted by Mountainside Mutts. The fact Rutland does not have a 24-hour emergency veterinary hospital is concerning. What a pet owner can do in the first vital minutes after an accident therefore will have a huge bearing on whether their best friend lives or dies. 10 of us at least, now consider we can assess an emergency scene, and provide emergency first aid, or carry out the doggy Heimlich maneuver, perform CPR, and start rescue breathing.
Another possible scenario could be you’re out hiking with your dog when they slip on an icy trail and end up with a sharp stick lodged in their leg. What would you do? Could you use your pup’s leash as an emergency muzzle so he doesn’t bite you while you stabilize his leg and stem the bleeding? Would you know how to immobilize him in the first place so you could bandage his leg and prevent him from running away in fear? These were just some of the skills our attendants now have under their belt.
Checklist of some of the most important items to include in your Pet First Aid kit.
You may have heard this one from us before but prevention is so much easier than a cure. How dog-safe is your home? Your yard? How cautious are you when out on the trails? Do you have an emergency plan? What’s in your first aid kit? We’ve previously shared our evacuation checklist but how many people read it, let alone followed any of the suggestions? Do you have an emergency pet first aid kit? In your home and/or in your car? At the very least we recommend including the items in the adjacent checklist.
And what do you do if you know your pet got into the rat poison? Do you have the ASPCA poison helpline? Would you call them immediately or waste valuable time by calling your vet first? (Hint, call the ASPCA – 888- 426-4435 .) And given the approaching Holidays, here’s a link to a list of common festive toxins.
Back to our opening example, if pup vomits the swallowed object, but starts hacking 30 minutes later, do you know what to do? Did you keep the thing he swallowed to share with the vet?
We were thrilled by the turnout for this inaugural workshop at Mountainside Mutts and together our attendees raised $300 for the Rutland County Humane Society but we know how many more pet owners there are in this area. We would love to see more people at our next event. Maybe you’ll never need the skills you learn. But wouldn’t it be better to have them and never use them, rather than regret not having just taken that 1-day course?
