Recognising different categories of wounds and bleeding . . Although its not at all important for the average dog owner to know the medical terminology for the various categories of wounds and bleeds, knowing how to differentiate between the the different types of wounds will help you decide how best to dress/treat a wound. For instance with […]
If the dog is NOT breathing but DOES have a pulse, you need to perform artificial respiration. Artificial respiration is NOT the same as CPR (CPR is compressions on the heart AND breaths), artificial respiration is just breathing for a dog who still has a heartbeat as follows: 1) Lay the dog on his right side with […]
C = Cardio (heart) P = Pulmonary (breathing/lungs) R = Resuscitation (the act of beating the heart and breathing for a third party to revive them) . . CPR is ONLY performed when the animal is neither breathing nor has a heart beat. . If he DOES have a heart beat but is NOT breathing, perform Artificial Respiration […]
Moving a Canine spinal trauma patient . . A spinal injury can occur in all sorts of ways from a very unfortunate accident during normal play, to an awkward fall or perhaps a road traffic accident. Although he may have a loss of sensation, it is to be expected that most dogs who have experienced spinal […]
Choking & the Heimlich procedure If your dog is choking, first try to see if you can sweep the mouth (without getting bitten!) and remove the object. If you can see the object, please try to put two fingers over the hump at the back of the tongue and “sweep” round and forward to get […]
STRAINS & SPRAINS – As with humans, a strain or sprain (for example as the result of a twisted ankle after a trip or fall, or shoulder muscle strain due to landing badly when jumping and playing) needs rest. The little memory technique for treating a strain or sprain is RICE R= REST Crate rest […]
Hind Leg Lameness: To try to ascertain if there is hind leg lameness, the dog should be trotted slowly away from the observer. The dog favours the sore leg by taking less weight on it. The impression given is that the hindquarter on the GOOD side moves down more – the dog seems to fall […]
Front leg lameness To ascertain if there is lamness in either of the front legs, the dog needs to be trotted towards the observer as lameness is harder to detect while walking unless it is very severe. Trot the dog slowly in a straight line on a relaxed lead. If your dog scrabbles, pulls or […]