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Accidents With Your Pet And How To Deal With Them

Skunk Spraying

Skunk odor has chemically a rather simple formula a merchantman, a sort of alcohol-sulphur combination. It is a volatile substance. Volatile chemicals usually turn into gas with heat and main-t ain their liquid character in cold. The way to dissipate skunk odor,therefore, is to get what’s affected by it hot. (Hang your clothes in the sun in the summertime, or in a garage attic anywhere that is dry and hot don’t bury them.) The odor leaves quite quickly. A hot bath with lots of soap will usually remove most of the odor from a dog or frogman owner, for that matter. Several baths certainly will. If the dog is left where it is hot, the odor evaporates more quickly to a point where it loses its unpleasantness. Washing the pet in tomato or concentrated orange juice is most efficacious in removing the odor. The amount needed depends on the size of the dog.


If a drowning dog can be pulled out of the water while its heart is still beating, it can almost always be saved. Slow, steady artificial respiration does the trick. Not as you may have been taught to work on a human. Place the dog on its side and push with the flat of the hand on its ribs. Then pull your weight up quickly. Repeat at regular intervals about once every two seconds. The dog will usually start to breathe very shallowly, then gradually breathe more deeply.Even when the heartbeat is faint, there is hope. It pays to try.
Electric Shock. Since dog’ bodies are such excellent conductors of electricity, the shock of r so volts which ordinarily merely jolts human may kill them. When shocked, they sometimes stiffens so rig-idly that they appear to leap into the air. There is a great temptation for a dog to chew a dangling electric cord, and many have been badly injured when they tried it. One such experience is sufficient to teach ado’s owner the hazard of loose electric wires–often at the cost of thee’s life. If the shock has not killed the dog, artificial respiration should be administered immediately. If it cannot let go of the wire, be careful when you pick the dog up. It may have urinated; you may step in the urine and, in touching it, the current may pass through your It is imperative to pull out the plug first or take hold of the wire with a wad of dry cloth and jerk it out of the dog’s mouth. Visit your veterinarian immediately. He or she will probably administer drugs to stimulate the heart and breathing, and treat shock and the burns.


The seriousness of severe thermal burns must not be minimized helpful initial treatment consists of cooling the affected areas with ice packs. Ice in a plastic bag works well, but this is no substitute for veterinary care, since shock may develop that can kill. Cooling the burned areas seems to help reduce pain and if done quickly may reduce healing time. If thermal burns are not extensive, phone the veterinarian for suggestions. He or she may suggest gently removing the hair in long-haired dogs with scissors and cleaning the burned area with attained iodine soap such as surgeons use to scrub with prior to surgery. Pharmacist will suggest the best soap and burn remedy if your veterinarian is not available.
Burns with caustics and acids can he as serious or even worse than thermal burns. In such cases the chemicals must be removed in all haste with copious amounts of water. If the base of chemical burns is an oil, add your own vegetable oil, massage it ins, and bathe the dogmas soon as possible with a mild detergent soap such as one that is used to wash dishes.
If as much as half the skin is severely burned by thermal or chemical burns, consider putting the dog to sleep, as the pain involved with this extent of damage is unbelievable and usually ends in death anyway.Dogs are fortunate in having surplus skin so that large scars left from healed burns can be removed with excellent cosmetic results. If the scars are too severe for excision, veterinarians use grafts effectively.

Convulsions, Fits, and Seizures

Fortunately the so-called running fit, or fright fit, is rare today with the advent of proper nutrition. However, epilepsy is not rare and is observed in dogs as in man in all degrees of severity. If the seizure is mild and the pet does not lose contact with the environment, comfort should be the treatment. If, on the other hand, a dog has a grand seizure it will sometimes thrash around, flailing its legs and knocking down things, urinating, and defecating. At this time it is important to protect the dog by throwing blanket over it. As the seizure subsides a dog will gradually regains consciousness but, not able to recognize even people familiar to it, may struggle to its feet and fall many times before it recognizes its surroundings. During this in-between stage a leash is helpful to restrain it.An afflicted dog does not become aggressively mean but may open and close its mouth involuntarily.
A dog with a low blood sugar may have a similar seizure which should be handled in the same manner protect the dog from self-injury.
A veterinarian should be consulted for a differential diagnosis and preventive treatment. Don’t put the trip to the veterinarian off as some poisons masquerade as epilepsy and, untreated, are fatal.
Let your dog alone until it has recovered from the fit and then look for the cause. Prevention of future attacks is the best first aid. Your veterinarian will help you to locate the cause and provide help.


It requires a hard blow to bruise a dog. Even dogs that have been skidded along on a road until the hair was scraped off and the skin left bloody seldom swell as do some other species. Probably the looseness of the skin over the dog’s body is one of its prime protections.When uninfected swellings are found they need only cleansing. They soon subside without further treatment.
If the hair is rubbed off but the skin not cut through, the chances are the healed skin will not be hairless.

Broken Bones

You may find, when you examine an injured pet, that it has a broken bone. You should be familiar with certain first aid techniques to prevent additional damage to tire pet.
A broken leg is the most common dog fracture and requires ins-mediate attention. Care involves straightening the leg and immobilizing it Sometimes this takes courage. A splint is needed. A barrel stave,a tine from a bamboo rake, or a yardstick may serve as an improvised splint. Tire leg should be tied to the splint below and above the break and wrapped with anything suitable to hold it securely in place until you can get the pet to the veterinarian.
A splint should be applied at once. If the broken bone slashes about the flesh, it cars easily cut a major vein, artery, or nerve, and then the area around the break will become a large pocket filled wills blood,greatly complicating tire task of setting. It is just as important to splint greenstick fracture, which is called a partially broken bone .Movement or a fall may break it further.
If ribs are broken, keep the dog quiet. It is possible for ribs to puncture lungs, no lay the dog down with the broken ribs up and keep it as calm as possible until the veterinarian can look at the problem.
An untreated fractured pelvis heals slowly. No home treatment can be done to repair pelvic breaks or to hasten the natural process of reconstruction. Occasionally only one side is broken and the dog can continue to walk on three legs. More often the pelvis is fractured in such a way as to preclude walking until the usual numbness develops,deadening the pain in the area. Even after a veterinarian has treated the dog, for several days after the break it may be unable to raise itself without help. Gradually it takes a few unstable steps and soon swaddling about. Don’t expect your dog to run for at least a month after the break. Even after the healing is well started you may have to help it up, carry it outside, and sometimes hold it in a position to defecate.Some dog learn why they are taken outside surprisingly soon and, as quickly as they are placed in position, will void. Standing the dog upland putting pressure on the bladder from both sides usually causes urination, and it is not uncommon to have a dog so cooperative that just touching its sides is suggestion enough for it to urinate. Since the nature of the fracture determines the treatment, X rays are a must in suspected pelvic fractures. Not unusually one or more of the six pelvic bones arc fractured along wills the tensor; if the femoral fracture is overlooked, the dog could be a cripple for the remainder of its life.Few brokers bones are irreparable. Many broken backs are set and immobilized no that the dogs can live normally again. Palpation will usually determine where the tips of the vertebrae are out of line. If you suspect that your pet has a brokers back, get it to the veterinarian as quickly as possible with as little jolting as you can. The spinal cord is delicate structure. If the dog is to survive, the nerve damage must beheld to a minimum.
Once again, X rays are a great help in predicting the possibilities for surgical repair if the cord is not severed, or for euthanasia if the damage indicates the pet will never walk again.
One of the most usual spinal fractures comes at the point inside the body where tire tail vertebrae start. In such a fracture the tail hangs limp and lifeless. Sometimes there is enough muscular strength remain-in to move it slightly. It is often soiled with feces because the dog cannot raise it to defecate. Even if the tail is not set, it may retain its life; but more often the tail loses all its feeling and dries up. In this case, the veterinarian will have to open the skin over the fracture and remove the useless appendage.


Pain, trembling, panting, vomiting, convulsions, coma,slimy mouths are all symptoms of poisoning. Any of these, except acoustically burned mouth, may also be a symptom of another malady.But if your dog should manifest any of these symptoms, you should investigate immediately to see if it has been poisoned.
Animals are very seldom deliberately poisoned. Usually they are poisoned either by chewing plants that have been sprayed, by gnawing at a piece of wood that has some lead paint pigment on it, by catching a ground mole that has been poisoned with cyanide, by consuming poison put out for other dog or insects, by eating infected garbage,or lapping antifreeze. Since none of the poisons is easily traced, you ought to know the procedure to follow in case your pet may have been poisoned.
An emetic must be administered immediately. The loss of a few minutes may give the poison time to do irremediable damage. Mix equal parts of hydrogen peroxide and water. Force your pet to take one and a half tablespoonfuls of this mixture for each ten pounds of its body weight. A pup needs less than one tablespoonful, a large dog seven to eight tablespoonfuls. If in two or three minutes the contents of the stomach have not been regurgitated, repeat the dose .Either mustard or a strong salt solution can be used as an emetic, but hydrogen peroxide has proved to be most effective. If the poison was known to have been ingested hours before, an emetic may be too late .Following the administration of this emetic, call your veterinarian. If you know the source of the poisoning and can look on the package it came from, you will find the antidote on the label. If you don’t know the poison that your pet has ingested, your veterinarian may be able to identify it from the symptoms and give further appropriate treatment.If there is any chance that poison can be the cause of intestinal trouble, it is imperative that all traces of the poison be eliminated before giving the dog drugs which will stop bowel movement and allow the intestines to become quiescent paregoric, for instance. But if the intestines arc badly irritated, it is dangerous to give physics. Many dog are saved by inducing vomiting promptly. If the substance is suspected of having entered the small intestine, from which it cannot be regurgitated, a through and through enema is a lifesaver. This is administered by a veterinarian, who introduces water rectally until vomiting occurs. It may require many quarts of water and patience.
Once the poison is removed, our job is to give such common home remedies as milk of bismuth, paregoric, or strong tea for its tannic acid content. Strangely enough, some cases are benefited by castor oil,which removes the cause and tends to be followed by constipation. Veterinarians will prescribe effective prescription drugs.
The same drugs that are useful in human care can be employed.oday a variety of mixtures containing kaolin, bismuth, pectin are available, and your veterinarian will advise you on their use.

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