Common emergency cases and first aid for dogs

By dnp-team On Jan 20, 2009

Though it is always advised to rush your pet to a vet in any emergency case, still a little knowledge of first aid can go a long way in helping your furry family member cope with the situation before she gets proper medical treatment. First aid in time can save the life of your paw buddy.

Emergency situations
Abby

When do you know your dog requires emergency medical aid? It is the duty of a pet parent to be alert about the health of their paw members. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine. Here are some common diseases (conditions) which when you spot any one of them, call your vet immediately for further examination and instant treatment.

Haematuria and haemoglobin uria: Haematuria is the appearance of blood in urine while haemoglobinuria is another condition in which oxygen transport protein haemoglobin is found in abnormally high concentration.
Persistent or acute gastroenteritis with severe dehydration: Persistent (constant) or acute (short & severe) inflammation of gastrointestinal tracts involving both stomach and small intestine generally results in diarrhoea.
Acute abdominal colic: Severe abdominal pain could be serious or may due only to dietary indiscretion.
Acute respiratory distress (dysponea): This is a syndrome with the symptom of inability to adequately breathe.
Rupture of the urinary bladder: In this case, the urinary bladder is torn and urine releases into abdominal cavity.

In addition, every pet parent should be aware about other common diseases including persistent paroxymal cough; haemorrhage; cardiac failure; fi ts and abnormal behaviour; muscular injury and fracture; dystocia; poisoning; comma or collapse; heat stroke; snakebite; scorpion, wasp and bee stings; and burns and scalds.
For pet parents
Every pet parent should be careful about any emergency situation that could be fatal to your fur buddy. In order to tackle such life-threatening situation, we have some important points to be shared with every pet parent.

Keep emergency number(s) of your vet and ensure all family members are aware of it.
Take immediate help from a qualifi ed veterinary clinician and follow his advice.
Report precisely the incident and symptoms of your pet to the vet.

Things that vets do
Depending on different cases, following are some common activities done by vets in emergency situations.

Attempts would be made to regularise heart rate, blood circulation, respiration and abnormality of temperature (neither too hot nor too cold).
In case of foreign body, it would be removed fi rst and bleeding stopped by tourniquet and styptics.
The patient will be sedated when she shows excitability, epileptic seizure or colic.
Take the help of surgical intervention (if necessary).
To overcome shock, critical evaluation of the state of health is to be done through fl uid therapy, blood transfusion, etc.
In case of poisoning, specifi c antidote should be given if the poison is identified.
If the poison cannot be identified, symptomatic treatment as per the advise of clinician should be done and universal antidote may be tried.

First aid
First aid treatments for some emergency cases commonly faced by our fur friends are listed as under:
Epistaxis (nose bleeding): Taking proper rest is a very important aspect in the management of epistaxis or nose bleeding. The patient should be kept in a cool place. Ice pack, ice water or cold water should be applied on her. Other measures include alum solution spray, adrenaline plug and administration of vitamin K and calcium therapy. If the bleeding persists, haemostastic drugs should be administered under the strict supervision of a qualifi ed vet.
Heat stroke (heat prostration): Factors responsible for this common cause include physical exercise, environmental heat, humidity, dehydration, confi nement in a room, limited water supply, obesity and heat tolerance of individual. In case of heat stroke, the patient should be kept comfortably under an electrical fan. And apply ice bath or cold-water bath to reduce her body temperature. Fluid and electrolyte therapy may be used to check dehydration. Tranquillisers or Paracetamol tablets may also be given.
Wasp and bee stings: Wasp and bee stings produce urticarial wheels on the skin, which are quite painful and irritating to the pet. Through such stings, formic acid causing the irritation is being deposited on the skin. Attempt should be made to remove the sting as far as possible. The infected area may be washed with washing soda. In this situation, antihistamic preparations are useful.
Snakebite: Normally snakes are classifi ed into poisonous and non-poisonous types. Poisonous snakes possess three types of venom, namely, Cytotoxin, Neurotoxin and Haemotoxin. A fl at tourniquet should be applied on the bitten area. The bitten area may be incised to drain out venom as far as possible. The patient should be brought under the treatment of a veterinary clinician. If the snake is identified whether poisonous or non-poisonous, it is easy to treat with the exact antidote of the venom.
Common poisoning: It is advisable to inform vet immediately in case of your pet dog has consumed a poisonous substance. And attempts should be made to keep the patient viable by giving oxygen, artifi cial respiration or fresh air. Care should be taken to maintain the vital capacity of cardio respiratory systems. In case of ingested poisoning, attempts should be extended to evacuating the toxin from the bowel (intestine). Gastric ravage my be restored by introducing 10ml of fl uid per 10kg body weight into the stomach and then aspirating the fluid through a stomach tube fi tted with syringe. The process of aspiration may be repeated for several times.
Wounds: There may be different types of wounds, such as open wound (cut wound), closed wound (contusions), lacerated wound and abraded wound. An open wound is the one where there is a breach in the continuity of skin. Whereas in a closed wound there is no such breach and the part remains as a hot and painful swelling. Sometimes blood may accumulate inside the tissue and the condition is known as haematoma.
In case of wound caused by any sharp objects like nails, hook, glass, wire twig, girder etc, it should be removed fi rst before further treatment. Open wound should be cleaned with normal saline dressed with antiseptic or antibiotic lotion or ointment. It should also be bandaged with sterile gauze and cotton. Bandage should be changed and fresh dressings should be made on alternate day. Ignore tight bandage as it may interfere blood circulation, retard healing and invite complications.
Haemorrhage (bleeding): Bleeding may originate from an artery, vein or capillaries. In case of capillary bleeding, it may be easily controlled by applying pressure bandage over the injured area. A tourniquet with rubber bands may apply firm pressure and help in reducing the bleeding.
Primary haemorrhage denotes bleeding at the time of injury or operation. And other forms of bleeding include reactionary haemorrhage occurs within 24 hours of injury or operation. And secondary haemorrhage occurs within 7-10 days of injury or operation.
Burns & scalds: Burns are broadly classifi ed into three categories as per different degrees. They are 1st degree: the damage to epithelial cells; 2nd degree: the injury involves both epidermal and dermal layer; 3rd degree: the lesions extend into deeper structure involving destruction of subcutaneous tissues.
Burns may produce pathological changes in liver, kidney and cardiovascular systems. The affected area should be flushed with cold normal saline or water. Analgesic tablets should be given to reduce pain. However, in case of extensive burn, sedatives must be used. Soothing and protective preparations like Burnol may be used while dressing the burns.
Bone fracture
A breach in the continuity of a bone is known as fracture. It may be simple with no communications with external air. Comminuted fracture is when the bone breaks into several pieces and Complicated is the kind of injury to surrounding structures. Restriction of movement is an important aspect in the management of bone fracture. It is quite important to keep the fractured portion immobile while you inform your vet for an immediate action. As they say prevention is better that cure, so go ahead and take best care of your furry canine.
(Dr N Anbuchezhian is Managing Director of Chezhian Pet Care Hospital, Chennai and Secretary, Animal Health Awareness Trust, Tamil Nadu).