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The key to administering first aid to your dog is to be prepared for anything to happen and to stay calm. Your dog may look to you for help when it’s in pain, and if you’re running around nervously when your dog may have broken its leg, think how it will react. It will simply go nuts. But if you stay calm and confident about what’s going on, your dog will be more relaxed and more apt to heal properly.
If you discover that your dog is nervous, you need to keep it calm. The best way to do that is to first properly restrain your dog so it won’t move around. It will be your dog’s natural reaction to move and jolt and try to nervously keep the pain away, so a careful restraint is essential. The best way to do this is to use a muzzle on your dog’s mouth or to tie a rope around your dog’s mouth and over it’s neck to hook onto a leash. You don’t want your dog to have to move around any more than possible, so that the condition of your pet doesn’t worsen.
If you discover that your dog has severe bleeding, you need to obviously stop the bleeding immediately. To do that, clean it with hydrogen peroxide so it won’t be easily infected. Then you’ll need to apply enough bandages to the wound in order to soak up all the blood. You need to be careful about overly severe wounds which can lead to your dog going into shock.
If your dog has experienced a burn, you need to act quickly and cool the area affected immediately. If the burn is from an electrical source, you should apply a burn ointment or cream to the area and make sure the burned area remains clean. If it’s a chemical burn, you need to flush out the area urgently with cold water. Just let the cold water flow right over the area. It may swell. If it does, tie an ice pack to the area.
If your dog is not breathing, you should check for a heartbeat. The heart of a dog is located just under it’s left front leg. If its heart isn’t beating, you need to quickly administer CPR. To do this, roll your dog on its back and put the palm of your hand just under your dog’s ribcage. Push down into your dog’s chest in rhythmic pumps. Once you get your dog’s heart beating or if it was beating in the first place but not breathing, you’ll need to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on your dog. To do this, you’ll need two people. Open the dog’s mouth and make sure there is nothing blocking its throat. Have one person hold the dog’s tongue out of its mouth so it doesn’t choke on its long tongue. The other person should wrap her hands around the dog’s mouth, so air doesn’t leak out the sides. From the front of the dog’s nose and mouth, breath quick breaths of air into your pet. You should blow three breaths of air into it’s mouth quickly, then turn your head to its side so you can listen for when your dog starts breathing. Continue this process until you resuscitate your dog.
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