Shock. Any severe injury being hit by a car, burned, hurt in struggle or a fight or even severe fright may bring on shock. The dog usually seems to be prostrate in a semi-oblivious state, yet apparently anxious. The nervous system is in depression, sometimes so severe as to cause complete immobility. On the other hand, occasionally an dog may suffer the opposite effect, so that it seems to be in a state of nervous excitement. The pulse is slow and weak, the breathing is sal-low. Often, as the dog recovers, the pulse becomes too rapid and the temperature may drop well below normal.
First aid consists in covering the dog so its temperature will rise to normal. High artificial heat is not necessary if the dog is at home in familiar surroundings. Administer a stimulant, such as coffee, then le tit rest. Occasional fondling is often reassuring and helpful. Recovery may sometimes take an hour or more.
If a veterinarian is available a more effective treatment is the administration of steroids and fluids to increase the fluid volume in circulation. Too, a veterinarian may discover internal bleeding which often accompanies injury and which may have to be controlled by surgery.
Heatstroke. Of all pets, dogs are most subject to heatstroke's. English Bulldogs and fat dogs are the most frequent victims. Dogs with heavy coats of fine for suffer most, of course, and for their protection and comfort they should he clipped in the summer as a preventive measure.
The refreshing sensation of a breeze in hot weather is due to evaporation of moisture from our bodies and the consequent cooling of the surface of the body. The bodies of animals are cooled by the same process, which is aided by evaporation in the throat and mouth when the pet becomes overheated and pants.Dogs have few sweat glands in the skin compared with those of human sand horses, but they do have some. When an dog is sufficiently cooled by bodily evaporation, it stops panting.
In itself, panting is a normal method of reducing body temperature.It may sometimes be an indication of thirst. A hot, panting dog is obviously evaporating an abnormal amount of moisture from its body and needs to replenish the loss.
In a heatstroke, however, the panting is sharp and continuous. The dog seems to be "burning up," its tongue turns purple, and it finds it difficult to catch its breath. You know the dog has been exposed to great heat, possibly to excitement. What should you do?
The evaporation of water reduces body temperature. Lay the dog on a flat sr-face and pour cold water over it until it is thoroughly soaked. Set up an electric fan a few feet away, turn its blast directly on the dog, and keep on adding water as it evaporates. Take the dog's temperature occasion-ally. Usually the fever will drop in less than half an hour from abouti08° F to 101° F. When it has come down to normal or nearly so, dry the dog with a towel and keep it out of the heat.
If an electric fan is not available, a cold-water enema is advisable. If this is impossible, immersion in cold water is a satisfactory method of reducing the temperature quickly. A great many dog have been saved in this manner.
Dogs are frequently afflicted by heatstroke in cars. If this should happen, stop for water and lay your dog on the floor in front. As soon as you have the water, drive on with the ventilator open so that the draft will blow directly on your dog. Keep it wet, and before many mile sits temperature will have dropped to normal.
Anyone who takes a dog on a long trip in very hot weather should be aware of the danger of a heatstroke and be careful to avoid it. Carry Japan and water for the pet. The dog that is losing an unusual amount of water by evaporation needs to replace it by drinking frequently. If the dog has enough water, it is much 1.s likely to succumb to the heat.
Accidents. The most common cause of accidents among pets is the automobile. So common is it that companies that insure dogs' live soften exempt death by automobile from their policies. Dogs will dash across the street, for example, to get to another dog. Even dogs that are so well trained that they will wait for a car to pass will walk across the street behind it only to be struck by a car coming from the opposite direction. The brightest dog have not learned to look both ways, to anticipate so far into the future.
When a pet is struck by an automobile, you must first restrain it and then treat it for shock. Look at its gums. If they are pale it may be an indication of internal bleeding or shock. If its gums appear gray or white, it has probably suffered an internal injury and is bleeding internally. Roll up long strips of bandage an old sheet may be torn in strips for this purpose. Have an assistant stretch the pet out and hold the front and hind legs. Then wrap the bandage around its body tightly, Gina corset fashion. Keep on wrapping until you have made a good firm support. Be sure that the bandage will not pull together in a narrow roll around the dog's abdomen when it moves. The bandage must forma long tube which holds the dog's abdominal organs relatively immobile, so that a clot can form and remain in place. Without this firmness and pressure, the organs can move freely and disturb the blood clot. Do all you can to keep the dog quiet. The veterinarian will administer drugs and may decide upon surgery or a transfusion. Whatever you do,move an dog gently after an accident if there are indications of internal bleeding. It can bleed to death very quickly. It may be saved if you keep it quiet and get veterinary help in time.
If an dog does bleed internally, what becomes of the blood that escapes into the abdomen? A large percent of the red blood cells reabsorbed hack into the circulation. A clot also forms at the injury site.This is composed of red and white cells, plasma, and fibrinogen, which causes coagulation. As it forms, the clot squeezes out a fluid or serum.This serum can be, and is, soaked up by the peritoneum (the lining of the abdomens and covering of the organs). Obviously the serum gets back into the circulation and thus helps to increase the blood volume.Many of the red cells which transport oxygen through the body are in the clot. This clot does not persist permanently as a liver like lump. Instead a process called lyses occurs. The cells simply dissolve into the fluid in the abdomen. Their covering disintegrates and releases the contents. The fluid is now circulated, but only a small amount is utilized by the body; most of it, including the red pigment, is passed out of the body through the urine as waste.
When you see your weak but mending dog urinating what ap-pears to be blood, don't presume it is passing blood from its kidney sand bladder; this is probably blood-colored matter. Indeed, anticipate this happening. This fact is sometimes used as a diagnostic means of demonstrating internal hemorrhage that occurred several days before the red color is seen.
Rabies. The cry of "mad dog" is no longer heard in America as it used to be, or as history tells is it was in Europe. Nevertheless, it does occur. An dog that manifests any symptoms of rabies is suspect.
For the suspected rabid dog, isolation must be provided. Shut it in Hayward or room and call your veterinarian immediately. Keep people and dog away from it. Your veterinarians and the health authorities will diagnose its condition. Either the local authorities or veterinarian will provide isolation until the diagnosis is clearly established. If an dog is infected, the local authorities will determine its disposition. Frequently they prefer to let the disease progress until Negro bodies have developed in the brain at which time a positive diagnosis can be made.
Any pet that has been bitten by a rabid dog should be qua ran-tined. Since a high proportion of all dog perhaps 75 percent of all unvaccinated dogs, for example - are susceptible to rabies, no other course is safe. The period of isolation is long. An exposed dog must be confined for six months. Will it pay to maintain the dog so long at costly boarding fee? Will you ever have complete confidence in it?Rabies is such a horrible disease that it is advisable that all rabid dog and most dog bitten by a rabid dog he destroyed .Needless to say, if a human is bitten, call a doctor immediately. Only physician is qualified to decide on the treatment or prophylaxis for the humans involved.
Lacerations. Dogs hustling through barbed-wire fences, stepping on broken bottles, scratching in ash piles, and stepping on concealed metal scraps come home gashed, bleeding, and torn. They seldom bleed to death.
Most of the cuts that occur on dog skins are triangular tears or clean, straight cuts. In either case only a limited kind of first aid should be administered. In dog saliva there is an enzyme that combats bacteria. The surface of an dog's tongue is made up of small, tough scales so strong that it can wear flesh away if it wants to. There is no better way of cleaning a cut than allowing the dog to lick it. It will lick away all dead flesh or debris and kill germs as it does so. Eventually it will heal its own wounds.
First aid consists not of strapping the cut together with adhesive tape, nor of binding up the wound, unless it is bleeding badly, but fallowing the dog to clean its wounds, then having the veterinarian treat them. Though it may not be an emergency, let the veterinarian advise the proper treatment. He or she may cut away any dead edges on the flap and suture the wound in place, so that when it has healed no ugly scar will remain.
There are cuts that dogs cannot reach to lick, however. In long-haired dogs these may be covered with hair, which should be trimmed off about the area. Or they may be on areas of the body, such as the neck, head, face, and shoulders, which the dog cannot reach. In these eases, clean the cuts yourself (hydrogen's peroxide is excellent for this purpose) and take the dog to the vet as soon as possible.
Cuts in the feet usually cause profuse bleeding, since this is a vascular area. A cut of this sort should always be examined to see if a foreign object has remained in it. After the examination it is necessary to stop the bleeding. A plug of cotton pressed against the opening and a pressure bandage that holds it there will quickly check the bleeding. If serious hemorrhage is observed, apply a tourniquet immediately above or below the joint above it. It must be loosened and reapplied every ten minutes. (On the trip to the veterinarian take along some cloths to absorb blood, which may stain your clothes or the car.)
The most dangerous cuts arc those made by filthy objects. These cuts may heal or mat over with hair that becomes part of a scab, and tetanus (lockjaw) germs may infect these wounds. Since they can develop only in a wound that the air cannot reach, cuts or punctures of this sort must be opened, cleansed, and kept open until they have been disinfected and sutured. There arc some wounds that are best leftist for a considerable length of time. These most be flushed daily while they heal from the bottom out, and they are sutured to avoid unsightly scars only when the healing process has reached the surface layers of the skin.
Animal Bites. Animal bites and venomous snake or insect bites need very different treatment, so we shall consider them separately.It is sometimes important to determine the kind of bite to be treated. The bite of a dog or cat, or even that of a rat, can usually be distinguished by the number of teeth marks. When a large dog attack san dog, if one tooth mark is found, three others can nearly always be located. The distance between these skin punctures, as well as their size, gives some idea of the size of the attacker. Little dogs sometimes open their mouths wide and leave impressions of their upper and lower canine teeth perhaps four inches apart, but the distance between the two upper canines will still be small. Large dogs may happen to get hold with only a small nip, but the distance between their upper canines may be as much as three inches in sonic breeds.
Because of their size and strength, large dogs inflict greater damage than do small dogs. Ordinarily a dog attacking another dog does not simply attack, hold on, and squeeze; it shakes its head and thus drive sits fangs deeper. These teeth wounds can be cleaned by shaving the hair away and filling them with antiseptic from an inserted medicine dropper. The attacker may have freed the skin from the underlying connective tissue over a large area. In such cases your veterinarian will flush this area clean and bind it down and perhaps apply a drain for few days.
Cat bites on dogs often become seriously infected. The skin should not be allowed to heal quickly over them. First aid often consists in hurrying the dog to the doctor. If infected, the punctures become large abscesses which burst, carrying with them large areas of skin which has been killed in the process of abscess formation. A bite that has been allowed to abscess takes much longer to heal than does properly treated bite, and the new skin which eventually covers the open area will scar and never have hair.
Snake Bites. First aid in snake bites is extremely important. When you suspect a rapidly increasing swelling to be the result of a rattle-snake, copperhead, or water moccasin bite, there is usually sufficient time to reach a veterinarian. If there is not time, try your family doctor.Many physicians have saved dog lives in emergencies. The great majority of venomous snake bites in dogs occur on the head. The curious dog ventures too near the reptile and is not aware of the speed of a striking snake. In order for the snake to deliver much venom it is necessary for it to strike and bury its fangs deeply enough for pressure to be exerted on the venom glands. Since much of a dog's head has mostly skin over the bone of the head, the snake cannot bury its fangs deeply enough to deliver very much poison. Nevertheless, even a small amount causes an alarming reactions in the swelling, which is usually extreme enough to double the dog's head size, close the eyes, and trip lethe thickness of the lips.
Many veterinarians in venomous snake areas keep antivenin on hand and, with supportive treatments of antibiotics and intravenous fluids,are able to save most dog bitten by snakes.
If the bite is on an extremity the swelling may be no extensive that the skin acts as a tourniquet, resulting in gangrene. It then is some-times necessary to incise the skin longitudinally to permit circulation.The time to act with a dog bitten by a snake is immediately! And if the dog is taken to a veterinarian within two hours the recovery rate is excellent. Unfortunately a venomous snake bite is not always observed by the owner; however, you may surmise that if your dog arrives wi than area that is swelling even as you watch it, it may well he a snake bite.
Spider Bites. There are many spiders capable of poisoning by their bites. The black widow is perhaps best known. Most venomous spider bites are never diagnosed since the actual bite is virtually never observed by the owner. The lips, nose, and even the tongue are the most common sites for these bites but the actual spot may be impossible to locate. Some cause a sudden intense itching which sub-sides in six to twelve hours as mysteriously as it started. The itching may be so intense that the dog is taken to a veterinarian who may,unaware of the cause, treat the symptoms with rapid results.
Bee Stings. It is not uncommon to hear of pets being stung to death by bees or yellow jackets. Dogs will frequently swell from single stings but more often come home drooling, their mouths partly open from the pain and swelling occasioned by snapping up a stinging insect - wasp, hornet, or bee.
The painful stings, the poisonous effect of the toxin, and, worst of all, the sensitivity to the foreign material developed by having been previously stung may produce a severe reaction.
Veterinary treatment gives prompt relief. Home treatment with anti-histamines helps but is not as effective as prescription preparations given by injections.
Removal of Foreign Bodies. No first aid discussion could be complete without suggestions as to the removal of foreign bodies.
IN THE MOUTH: Dogs sometimes overestimate their ability to manipulate certain bones. It is common to find bones caught in various positions: wedged across the roof of the mouth between the hack teeth;driven down into the gum beside a tooth; driven through the soft tissue below the lower jaw; stuck between two teeth; stuck on top of a molar tooth; or covering several teeth.
A bone from a lamb chop can sometimes become caught across ado's mouth between the back teeth, with its sharp point sticking into the throat. The dog paws desperately at its mouth, and the owner often thinks that the end has surely come. Dogs sometimes chew two- or three-inch shank bones from lamb so that the rounded bone slips down over their teeth and they can't close their mouths without forcing the sharp edges of the bone farther down against the gums. They become frantic.
Many other kinds of foreign bodies become wedged in the teeth or stuck in the mouth. Any dog may have accidents in its mouth. The mouth must be opened and the object pulled out. Whenever possible,it is wise to rush the pet to the veterinarians, who has the instruments to remove the obstructions without difficulty.
IN THE STOMACH: If you do not actually see a dog cat a foreign object, you can never be sure that the dog does have it in its stomach.You may have seen the dog eat gravel or sand, or chew on an old doll.But circumstantial evidence is usually all that is necessary. If a small item the dog was playing with is miming and the dog begins to show evidence of stomach pain, it is time for action.
Suppose you suspect that your small dog has swallowed one of your child's iron jacks, the little crisscross gadget the child picks up when bouncing a ball. The dog will probably show some evidence of stomach pain, and you should act at once. For a twenty-pound dog, mix about two ounces of peroxide with two ounces of water and pour it down the dog's throat. Use more if it is a large dog. If vomiting does not occur very soon repeat the dose. When it begins, lift the pup by the back legs so that its forepaws are touching the ground and its head is down. In almost every case the jack will be regurgitated the first time.
You may be surprised sometime to pick up your dog and hear stones rattling together in its stomach. Don't be too astonished, for this is a fairly common occurrence and it shouldn't worry you very much .Stones can usually he recovered with the peroxide treatment. Puppies with gravel impaction's in their stomachs can be relieved by the same means. Mineral oil should he given fifteen minutes after the peroxide,to help move along the gravel that has entered the intestine.
Remedies of this sort for the removal of foreign bodies are properly classified as first aid. More difficult cases should be left to the veterinarian. With X rays he or she can locate bullets, needles, pins, spark plugs,and any of the hundreds of other odd and dangerous objects that dog shave been known to swallow.
IN THE RECTUM: If your dog squats, strains, cries, and possibly exudes little blood from its anus, it is possible that it has a foreign body in the rectum. If a constipated mass is considered a foreign body, surely it has. Not infrequently the stoppage is caused by sharp bone splinters,which were not properly softened and digested in its stomach. Poultry,pork, and lamb bones are the most likely to cause such difficulties.ince any movement of the sharp bones is extremely painful, the dog refrains from defecating. In time the fecal material piles up behind them and soon a solid, dry mass with sharp bones sticking out of it precludes all passage.
First aid consists of enemas to soften the mass, though they often are not sufficiently effective to allow passage of the material. Humane considerations indicate a prompt visit to the veterinarian, who will probably first soften the mass and then gently reach in with an instrument and crush it into small particles. Occasionally an oily enema is sufficiently lubricating to permit the stool to be passed without great difficulty or pain. In difficult cases the veterinarian may have to pull out the sharp pieces with instruments to avoid lacerating the rectal area. Needles are frequently found in the rectums of dogs. A thread hang-in from the anus is a good indication of the cause of the pain. If the needle is just inside and can be felt, an ingenious person with a small wire cutter, such as electricians use, can snip the needle in half and remove the halves separately. Generally, however, this job is best left to the veterinarian, who will use anesthesia and a speculum to see clearly what he or she is doing.
IN THE SKIN: Foreign bodies in the skin or feet are usually splinters or bullets, although other objects, such as pitchfork tines, glass chips, and porcupine quills, are not as uncommon as most people think. Common sense dictates the quick removal of such objects, whenever possible, in order to relieve the dog. It also dictates the injection of an antiseptic into the wound. If a bullet has come to rest against a rib and it can beseem through the hole, you should for once do what your first impulse tells you: pull it out with the family tweezers and cleanse the wound.
Children often put elastic bands around the neck, leg, tail, ear, lower jaw, or even the penis of their pets. The hair covers the band and it goes unnoticed by adults until swelling and odor are observed. There is little that can be done by the owner after he or she has removed the band. If the skin gap is too wide, have the veterinarian suture it to prevent formation of a hairless scar. Ropes and small chains may also cut deeply through the skin. Most people have seen at least one dog with a hairless band of skin around the neck - mute evidence that some negligent owner left a rope or chain on until it cut the dog's neck .Having callously injured the dog, the owner failed even to have the gaping skin sutured.
Porcupine Quills. In many states in this country, and in all parts of Canada, porcupines are common. They tempt courageous dogs to at-tack them, and when they do, the unfortunate dogs find their mouth sand bodies full of quills. A quill, which is only a modified hair lightly attached to the porcupine's skin, has small reverse barbs protruding from the shaft. Under a microscope the barbs look like the prickles on thistle, with one scale overlapping the next. When a quill penetrates the skin, every muscle movement of the victim draws it inward, since the angle at which the barbs are set prevents its moving outward.When attacked, porcupines often inflict severely painful and danger-us injuries. Strong dogs may pick up the porcupine and shake it from side to side, driving hundreds of quills into themselves on each side. For good measure, the porcupine thrashes its quill-filled tail from side topside and up and down, swatting the dog's legs and body. The tail quills leave a pattern, because they are small and black and usually half stud-d ed with barbs. To cap the climax, the poor dog, now feeling the pain,rolls and paws at the quills, driving them in deeper.
Porcupine does not shoot quills; the quills are loosely attached to the skin, and when they become fastened into the flesh of the attacker they are pulled free. The porcupine does not fight with dogs but only defends itself. To cut each quill to release a vacuum and somehow make quills easier to pull is also fallacy.
If a dog were to attack a porcupine directly in front of a veterinarian's office, quill removal would be simple. The doctor would quickly administer an inject able anesthetic and pull the quills. It has never been our good fortune to have one of our dogs quill ed within miles of any place where the quills could be pulled surgically.
When they have no pliers, some old hunters out take out their jackknives, cut the quills off, and lead the dog home. They say a cutoff quill is not particularly dangerous and does not work in. Perhaps not to much as with whole quills.
No one should take his or her dog into the woods where there are known to be porcupines without carrying a pair of pliers which have carefully machined jaws and tips. When a dog has been quill ed, there may be no time to take it to a veterinarian. Chain it firmly. Get right to work with the pliers from the car if no others are available. With no halfway measure, pull the quills, blood or no blood. Here is a place where heroic methods are necessary.
If your dog is quilled in the woods, let it stand up while you pull the quills from the side on which you are going to lay it. Then pull the quills out of its mouth. Grab a handful of dirt from the forest floor and get hold of the tongue with it, covering your hand so the tongue won't slip. Pull the tongue out and remove the quills that have stuck into it.If the quills in the dog's lips have worked through far enough to feel the points on the other side, pulling them point first through the lips isles's painful for the dog. Tie its mouth to prevent it nuzzling the quill sand driving them in farther. Remove quills from around the eyes. Then go to work on the body, first behind the shoulders, where quills may work into vital orgasms. When quills break off, feel sorry, but go to work on others.
On many occasions quills are extracted from dogs surgically while they were in shock from the severity of having been quilled. Anesthetics must be administered cautiously during shock. When the yare used, the progress of any quill is stopped.
If quills are allowed to work in out of sight, they will continue to move about the body. Those that entered the front legs or shoulders generally move upward, and by the following morning the needle-sharp points of some can be felt emerging from the skin above the shoulder blades, whence their progress has been guided by the broad bones .Putting dozens or even hundreds of gashes over a dog's shoulders and legs is less satisfactory than letting the quills move themselves to appoint where the tips can be felt through the skin. If the point doesn't emerge, nick the skin and pull it, thus removing a fresh crop every day,until they are all out. Feeling for quills is the only efficient method of locating them. X rays are useless.
FOXTAILS: Many bits of vegetation such as cactus spines, thorns, and weed seeds may gain entrance to the skin or mucous membranes of the mouth and penetrate, causing abscesses. Foxtails, a weed-seed spread-in device, are perhaps the most common of these objects and must be removed to correct the problem.
MAGGOTS: It is hard to believe that every summer hundreds of dogs arc killed by flies. And yet dogs die everywhere in the United States from being eaten alive by the larvae of flies maggots. In the North only long-haired dogs arc attacked.
Somewhere, for example, under the long bushy coat of a Collie or on the matted hair of an Old English Sheepdog, an abrasion may occur .Perhaps it is a small patch of skin disease. Flies are attracted by the serum that the body has exuded and lay eggs on or near the wound .Maggots hatch and live on the moist tissue which they kill by the toxins they secrete. The hair prevents the dog from chewing and lick-in off these enemies. The maggots continue to grow and spread in the area. Finally some migrate to other moist spots and begin to feed.More flies are attracted and soon the dog is a mass of maggots.Even a badly infested dog can be saved by prompt action, but many dogs have died for the want of adequate and timely attention. The coat should be clipped, the holes, which may be an inch deep, washed clean of the pests, and antiseptic dressings applied. Often the first sign to the owner will be prostration of the dog, for the maggots give off a powerful toxin. if you don't discover the worms until that stage has been reached, get the dog to your veterinarian at once. Infusions may save its life.
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.
Drowning. 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.
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.
Bruises. 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.
Poisoning. 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 avail-able, and your veterinarian will advise you on their use.
GENERAL ADVICE IN TREATING POISONING. Immediate action is essential since some poisons are absorbed at once. Phone your veterinarian immediately for advice.
All carbohydrates are derived from plants. The chlorophyll of the plant leaf (much like the hemoglobin in the dog's body) is able to take six parts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, combine it with five parts of water (H20), and produce starch, C6H,005, then have some remaining oxygen that it passes into the air. (Aquatic plants do the same thing but pass the surplus oxygen into the water, where it maybe used by fish.) Starch granules arc built up, layer on layer, the primary factor in nutrition. Plants add nitrogen to starch and make proteins.The starch granule has two substances in its composition: cellulose and granules. The cellulose is fiber and gives plants their rigidity.When boiled it becomes soft but does not dissolve. Granules will dissolve in boiling water. The starch diffused all through plants,some in seeds, some in tubers or roots, and no forth. Some starchy food has large amounts of water (potatoes), some very small amounts(grains). When you buy starches you compare them on the basis of their dry components.
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