July 4, 2025 • 28 mins
Pet parents, ever wish you had a vet's wisdom on speed dial for those "what if" moments? In this vital episode, Dr. Charlotte Milazzo empowers you with essential pet first aid knowledge. Discover the fundamental "ABCs" of pet emergencies, learn how to manage common issues like profuse vomiting (and why less is often more!), and understand the nuanced dangers of ingested toxins from plants to medications and xylitol. We also cover practical tips for choking incidents, aiding recovery from respiratory infections, identifying and responding to heat stroke, and even comforting anxious pets during stressful events like fireworks. Get ready to transform panic into preparedness, all from the comfort of your home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dixie (00:02):
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues, making adifference in the lives of animals.
Thank you for comingon the show today, Dr.
Milazzo.
Charlotte (00:13):
Thank you Dixie.
Dixie (00:14):
One thing that I would like to discuss today is pet first aid.
I thought that wouldmake an interesting show.
And of course, it's always betterto have a veterinarian's take on it.
So just in general, first aidwhat can you do if something
goes wrong at home with your pet?
Charlotte (00:34):
Well, the first thing you wanna think about is I always think
about the ABCs of emergency, right?
Airway breathing, and it's in circulation.
The first things I always think aboutare during an emergency if I can't think
of anything else and my nerves havethe best of me, I always think A, B,
C, when I see a patient in front of me.
And this is the case with humans as well.
(00:55):
If you come across a person that'sin distress, A, B, C, airway,
breathing, and circulation, those arethe first three things that you need
to worry about, are they breathing?
Can they breathe?
Do they have an airway?
Is something stuck in their throat?
Are they making noise?
If they're making noise, thenchances are they're probably
not aspirating on anything.
(01:16):
Breathing.
Are they actively breathing?
Are they able to breathe?
And then circulation wouldbe, do they have a heartbeat?
Or they spurting blood out of an artery,or, or a vein, which would be a lot less.
Traumatic to witness,but still a lot of blood.
Is there bleeding going on?
And if any of those three thingsare compromised, you need to
(01:37):
get to the ER immediately.
There's not, there's some things you cando at home first aid wise in those cases,
but they would probably require you tohave some sort of medical background.
But as far as home emergencies, thereare some things you can have around
the house to help you with smallemergencies that might help you avoid
(02:00):
a nighttime after hours vet visit.
Like, torn toenails is a big onethat, that I see in the ER that really
doesn't need to be an emergency, buthaving some quick stop, which is like
a a sulfur po like a styptic stick.
Like, men would use for shaving ontheir face or any, anyone can use for
(02:20):
shaving on their face or wherever.
And you can pack that in a toenail.
Profuse vomiting.
The one thing I tell people about thatis stop feeding them nothing by mouth.
NPO means nothing by mouthuntil they stop vomiting.
An animal can comfortably go till thenext day without eating just fine.
(02:42):
A lot of people wanna give themsomething to eat or drink or somehow
take an active role in the vomiting.
You just need to let them vomit afew times and get it out and try
not to have them hold that back.
Let them get whateverthey need to get out.
If vomiting persists multipletimes or blood in the vomit, then
maybe it's time to go to the er.
(03:03):
But usually vomiting once it's stopped.
It's like us, we don't always goto the ER every time we vomit, but
if we vomit continually for days,then yes we can get dehydrated
and end up having to go to the er.
Dixie (03:14):
Now I have heard too, when you have animals that do have one of these
vomiting episodes or even like a diarrhea.
' you should feed the pet more gentlerfoods after the episode just to make
sure that their system can handle it.
Like people, like youalways tell people to eat.
Something like rice or oatmeal.
Oatmeal,
Charlotte (03:33):
Exactly.
Have a
sip of coke and a saltine cracker.
Yes, exactly.
The equivalent for animal, although wewanna keep them NPO, nothing by mouth.
For at least the rest of theday and into the next day.
Like, if it's happens duringthe day, don't feed them
anything till the next morning.
And another thing is people will want themto quote, unquote, stay hydrated, but.
They'll fill up a water bowl andgive it to an animal, and the animal
(03:56):
drinks the whole bowl at once, andthen it all comes right back up again
because of the volume in the stomach.
So I tell people, you don't have todeprive them of water, but just fill
the water bowl just a little bit andleave it out for the animal to drink.
And then you know when that's gone, youcan refill it, a couple of times, but
you don't wanna let them have access tounlimited water that they're just gonna
(04:16):
continue to throw up multiple times.
And then the next day, once they'vehad lots of gi rest, you can start
introducing something to dogs or cats.
Plain boiled chicken breast issafe for pretty much anything.
And white or brown rice,everything cooked really well.
I always tell people, make a jambalaya.
(04:37):
If you're from New Orleansor Louisiana rather.
And you can feed that to them.
And generally most animals will eatand keep that down if everything's
going in the right direction.
If that comes up the next day, thenwe need to start talking about further
diagnostics like x-ray or seeingthe veterinarian for blood work.
Dixie (04:55):
I know on the last show you talked about foreign bodies,
Charlotte (04:58):
uhhuh,
Dixie (04:59):
and that if a foreign body was ingested, that's something that you
definitely need to go to the vet for.
Charlotte (05:04):
Absolutely.
It's a very serious thing.
Dixie (05:06):
What about if you suspect your pet has had something poisonous?
Charlotte (05:10):
Well, if you suspect it depends on what it is.
There are different ways to react to it.
If it's a poisonous plant,it's a good idea to.
Have a picture of the plant or knowwhat the plant is so that your vet
will know what to do based on that.
Also medication, whether it'slegal, prescription medication
or off the street drugs.
(05:32):
We are not the police.
You can tell us what it is.
You don't have to tell us whereit came from or who it belongs to.
You just have to tell us whatyour animal got into or possibly
got into and we'll get the hint.
And things like batteries bleach,those are things that are going to be
scarring and irritating to the mucosa.
(05:52):
So those are not the things youwanna make your animal throw up if
they ingest, because it's going tohurt coming back up and do damage
the same way it did going down.
So that's something you'regonna wanna bring to the vet.
But for the most part if you catch themquickly, if it's medication like human
medication or illicit drugs, you can givethem some hydrogen peroxide and they will.
(06:14):
Generally throw it up if you'vecaught it within the first 20 minutes.
You want complete, gastric, emptyingthings like chocolate or really
chocolate's a big one, but also Isee people overreact to chocolate.
A couple of m and ms arenot gonna hurt a small dog.
It's the percent of cacaothat's in the chocolate.
So for example, a little dog eats awhole bar of baker's dark chocolate.
(06:36):
That's a lot of cacao for a little dog.
So you're gonna wannaimmediately induce vomiting.
The quicker the better.
If you can give them some hydrogenperoxide orally at home and
get them to throw all of thatchocolate up, that would be great.
If it's been longer than a halfhour or an hour, then you're
gonna wanna go to the vet.
Or if you get them to vomit andthe chocolate doesn't come up, you
(06:57):
still wanna follow up with the vet.
One that I've had issues withpeople over time are grape toxicity.
Grapes , I'm not saying tofeed your animal a lot of
grapes, but grapes are not.
Immediate, immediate vomitinducing one grape, one grape
is not going to kill anything.
Although apparently I have a couplecolleagues that believe otherwise.
(07:18):
I have never seen it.
I've never had a friend, colleaguesee it where an animal has passed
away from eating one grape.
So, definitely not a reasonto visit the er, but.
Again, this is why I also stress theimportance of having a relationship
with your regular veterinarian.
Because if you can reach themeven after hours, you can avoid
(07:39):
a very huge emergency bill.
Just by having a simple question answered.
Dixie (07:44):
Now, a new thing I've been hearing a lot about is xylitol, 'cause that's
in a lot of gums and stuff like that.
Charlotte (07:50):
Yep.
That is a problem.
That's something you want themto throw up immediately as well.
Anything with xylitolis bad news for them.
They can't processxylitol what like we do.
And so, Splenda, all of those packets ofsugar substitute, those are all bad news.
I had a dog eat a whole bagof Splenda packets once, which
(08:11):
would've been pretty ugly, but thankfullythe people got the dog to throw up at
their house with hydrogen peroxide.
So generally that's something you wantto get them to throw up right away,
or a whole bag of gum, like multiplepacks of gum would be a problem.
Like a 10 pack of gum not 10 sticks,although, a five pound dog eating
10 sticks would be quite a lot.
But, it's a per pound or per kilogramtoxicosis thing, but avoid xylitol.
(08:37):
Also, people will feed their animalspills and peanut butter and a lot of
the peanut butters today have sugarsubstitutes in them and not real sugars.
So I always tell people, when you giveyour animals things that are made for
people, make sure it's not sugar free.
So what about for choking?
And I'm just talking aboutjust like a regular food.
Your dog or your cat isjust scarfing down the food.
(08:59):
And they start choking.
Well, there's two kinds of things.
There's aspiration, that's when foodgoes down the air pipe, and then
there's what we call choke, which iswhen food gets lodged in the esophagus.
And they'll start profusely,drooling, foaming at the mouth.
They can still breathe, but they're juststopped up in the food tube basically.
And it won't go down or up.
(09:19):
And sometimes esophagus can gointo a spasm and will hold that
food like a big bolus there.
If that doesn't melt over a littlebit of time or with some warm
water, then you need to get themto the vet right away for that.
If an animal's aspirating,depending on what it is you're not
gonna have a whole lot of time.
It's like a person, if you have a personthat's got food in the air tube, you've
(09:42):
gotta do the Heimlich maneuver, you can.
Flip your pets upside down and shakethem a little bit press on the lungs so
that the air can force whatever is intheir windpipe out as anything caught
in the trachea is stopping breathing.
And you don't have a whole lot of time.
So when people call me and tell me theiranimal's choking and they've been on
the phone with me for five minutes, I'mlike, well, is your animal still alive?
(10:04):
And they're like, well,yeah, they're still choking.
I'm like, okay, bring them in.
Clearly they're breathing'cause they'd be dead by now.
So come on in and we'llfigure out what's going on.
And a lot of times, some of it'smaybe partial aspiration of food.
Where it can cause a pneumonia, sowe have to give antibiotics or take a
chest x-ray and see what's going on.
A lot of times that's the case.
They can still get air, but somethinghas gone down the wrong pipe basically.
Dixie (10:29):
Now I just had a bottle feeding class uhhuh for newborn kittens.
I've never had a kitten aspirate,but I've went over all the steps
of how a kitten could aspirate.
The correct feeding postureand things like this.
But one thing that I notice often withthe kittens when I bottle feed them
is you'll always get that one kitten
. They just are acting likethey're starving to death.
(10:51):
They're taking that bottle sofast that they will actually
start coughing and choking uhhuh.
So what I typically do is I will just grab'em when they start coughing like that.
I'll hold them up andI'll pat 'em on the back.
Yep.
And that usually clears it.
Is that the correct way to handle
that?
Charlotte (11:06):
Yep.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
If you have to.
When we first deliver small mammals,cats and dogs a lot of times
they're born with fluid in theirairway just like a human baby is.
And we have to actually, turn themupside down and swing them a little
bit to dislodge, fluids in the airway.
So a little bit of gravityreally works a long way.
(11:29):
You only have a small amountof time to get that out.
So however you can is gonnabe the best way to do it.
Dixie (11:37):
So another thing that I would like to talk about is I
guess like, respiratory infections.
And congestion.
And this would be if you have a cator a dog, you take 'em to the vet.
The vet is like, okay, they gota upper respiratory infection,
gives you your meds, you go home.
What are things that you cando to help them along with that
illness and getting over it?
Charlotte (11:57):
Keeping their face clean and their nose and eyes clean is really
important because the more mucus andcrust that builds up on their face, the
harder it is for them to get better.
Then they can start to get skin foldinfections and the, the bacteria
or viral particles hang around awhole lot longer in that mucus.
So you wanna clear thatas much as possible.
(12:17):
I have seen people use human baby nosedrops to help with congestion, especially
in cats that are really congested.
The little noses brand, I don't knowif they still make that anymore,
but something similar to that.
A drop up each nostril certainlywould not hurt to help open
up the airway a little bit.
Plain saline with a Q-tip.
(12:38):
Digging out boogers.
It, it works for babies and it works for
kittens and puppies.
Dixie (12:43):
Now, this might be a stupid question, but when you're gonna
do the nose drops for a cat areyou gonna basically hold 'em like
a baby and then drop it down?
Yep.
So gravity does its job.
Charlotte (12:51):
Yep.
Exactly.
You don't wanna force it in there,but just put it at the opening of
the nose and it'll make its way back.
Dixie (12:57):
What about like putting them in a steamy shower?
Charlotte (13:00):
Yes.
Dixie (13:01):
That's like a bathroom, a steamy bath.
Or not a shower, but,
Charlotte (13:03):
yep.
Yeah, exactly.
No, that actually hashelped a lot of animals.
They now have home nebulizers andall kinds of things that you can buy
for pets with like chronic problems.
They even have you know how sometimesfor us they'll dispense aerosol sprays
for asthmatics and stuff like that.
They're adaptation tools you can fitonto those types of aerosol sprays
(13:27):
for animals now, like masks and stuff.
So if you have an animal with chronicbreathing problems, you can ask
your vet for something like that.
Dixie (13:35):
And what about like a coupage
Charlotte (13:37):
yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Dixie (13:40):
And coupage, can you explain a little bit what that is?
Charlotte (13:42):
Well,
Cupping basically and using an openhand to, , I guess Pat, but it's
a little more aggressive than Patto loosen up mucus throughout the
lungs so that they can cough it up.
It does work.
It's a very old fashioned thing,but it has worked and that's
why it's still around today.
Dixie (14:00):
And it typically, if it's working, will make them cough after you.
Charlotte (14:03):
Exactly.
Dixie (14:04):
You tap 'em, right?
Charlotte (14:04):
Exactly.
Exactly.
In fact.
Sometimes increase in coughing worriespeople, but when you have an animal
that's really congested with thickmucus, you want to hear that mucus move
and start to try to make its way outrather than just continuing to build
up inside of the animal's Airways.
Dixie (14:22):
Another thing I'd like to touch on since we are in southeast Louisiana.
And it is really hot.
Charlotte (14:28):
Oh yes.
Dixie (14:29):
And really humid.
Charlotte (14:30):
Oh yes.
Dixie (14:31):
And really nasty out.
Yes.
But aside from that, is heat stroke.
Charlotte (14:35):
Absolutely.
Dixie (14:36):
So what are signs of heatstroke and cats and dogs?
Charlotte (14:39):
Well, the first thing you're gonna see is heavy panting.
And most people at that pointknow it's time to come inside.
Especially with your brachycephalicbreeds of dogs and cats too,
which means the smush face guys.
So, they absolutely cannotbreathe in hot weather.
So you wanna definitelykeep them cool, for sure.
(14:59):
But some things that start to happen pastthe paning and the exhaustion is collapse.
The body temperature willrise to obscenely hot numbers.
We're talking 1 0 6, 1 0 7.
They'll start seizing.
Or you might see neurologicalabnormalities start like staggering
or nystagmus, which is where theeyes go very fast back and forth.
(15:22):
And you may see them poopor pee on themselves.
These are all signs that,heat stroke is happening.
Vomiting also.
Generally by the time that wehave seizures starting, we're
in dire emergency at that point.
So I've lost a lot of animals thathave come in too late and are at that
point, and their temperatures are106 hundred and seven, and the only
(15:46):
thing we can do at that point is tryto give them some Valium to stop the
seizures and start soaking them in ice.
. Sometimes it works, butsometimes it's too late.
Dixie (15:56):
Is there anything that you could do at home if you notice
that your pet is overheating?
Charlotte (16:00):
If it's overheating to the point of collapse and vomiting,
you can get it into an ice bath.
You wanna try everything youcan to get that temperature
down as quickly as possible.
So if it's past panting and they'vecollapsed, just, and you always wanna make
sure they're, they continue to breathe.
That's important.
If they vomit or start to vomit,don't let them aspirate on that.
(16:22):
And you just gotta get thatbody temperature as cool as
possible, as quickly as possible.
Dixie (16:28):
Another concern that I have is
4th of July is coming up.
And I know that is the time of year whenthe most pets go lost and go missing.
Charlotte (16:38):
Absolutely.
Dixie (16:39):
'Cause they freak out from all of the fireworks.
Charlotte (16:41):
Yep.
Dixie (16:42):
Anything that you can do at home to comfort those animals?
Charlotte (16:47):
Well, one thing I always tell people, if you have a puppy and
it starts showing signs of eitherthunderstorm anxiety or fireworks or
loud noise anxiety, the best thingyou can do is not feed into it.
And it's hard because, they're cute.
They're your pets, they're your babies.
You want to comfort them and havethem come to you for that comfort.
But a lot of times the waythat they see that is, oh.
(17:08):
The rest of the pack is also scared andthey're trying to huddle us together,
so this must be really bad, and so it'sthis negative feedback loop or to where
they get worse instead of better.
And people think they're making itbetter by consoling them or picking
the animal up or holding them orpatting 'em or doing something.
The best thing you can do is continueto act like nothing is wrong.
(17:30):
Turn on some music.
Maybe play a fetch game with them.
Give them a few snacks.
It's important for you toact like nothing is wrong.
And I'm not saying ignore their stressbehavior, but try to redirect it.
And now with some animals, it's too late.
They're already several yearsold and they've developed phobias
to fireworks and loud noises,thunderstorms, things like that.
(17:52):
You can still reassure your animalby remembering, they think you're the
pack leader usually in most homes.
And, you want to remain calmand not show any sign of alarm.
But there's some animals they justlose it when these things happen.
So those are the animals thatyou wanna ask your veterinarian
for something to give.
(18:13):
Sedation wise, there are also somereally good calming treats that are made
with nutraceuticals that are out there.
Vetriscien science, I'm not, I don'twork for them or anything, but I
just happen to like using theirproducts because they seem to work.
I think it has lavender and chamomileand other things like that, that are
calming and sometimes at twice the dose,sometimes those seem to really help a lot.
(18:36):
So, that might work.
If that doesn't work, thenyou wanna go to your vet for
something a little bit stronger.
Some people try Benadryl.
Sometimes Benadryl will have the oppositeeffect on the animal and make them hyper.
But you certainly can try.
Benadryl, the sort of universal doseof Benadryl is a milligram per pound.
So a 50 pound dog can take a50 milligram Benadryl tablet.
(18:58):
So, you can try that.
Sometimes it's just not enough.
Usually in my experience, it's not quiteenough and sometimes even with sedatives
from the vet, it's still not enough.
So you really have to makesure that your animal does not
get disoriented and escape.
And also make sure your animalsmicrochipped so that if it does get
out, it has a means of getting home.
Dixie (19:20):
And I saw a tip too, that if you don't have a tag with the pet's name on
it, you can actually just go get yourselfa piece of the blue painter's tape.
Charlotte (19:28):
Yep
Dixie (19:28):
Just tape it onto their collar
Charlotte (19:30):
Yep.
Dixie (19:31):
And write all their information.
Charlotte (19:33):
Exactly.
Anything will help.
I am a big advocate of appletags or air tags on collars.
That has saved quite afew animals that I've met.
If the animal will allow it on theircollar and usually they don't weigh
very much in those silicone holdersthat sort of fit along flush to the neck
around the the collar are pretty good.
Dixie (19:55):
All right.
Well thank you so much.
Charlotte (19:57):
Sure.
Dixie (19:57):
For all of your insight.
Charlotte (19:58):
You've got some really good questions there.
Dixie (20:00):
Alright, well
thank you again.
Charlotte (20:02):
Absolutely.
Dixie (20:03):
Before we end today's episode, I thought I would go
over a rescue story of mine.
So just to let everybody knowhow I got started in rescue.
I kind of got started the sameway a lot of our guests did.
You grow up, you love animals.
(20:24):
If you see an animal that's introuble when you're a child,
you're always trying to help.
And I was the same way.
I had a lot of different pets growing up.
I had rabbits, I had cats.
. I raised baby ducks.
'cause we had a place that wasin Mississippi on the water.
So we actually raised a bunch ofmallards to let go on the canal that
(20:47):
was by our property, which was reallycool because they would bring the
babies back to visit us every season.
And so they always remembered us, theoriginal ones, and they would always
bring their babies back to see us.
So
of course, as I got older and Ihad the means of taking care of.
(21:09):
animals without my parents' permission,I got a lot more involved whenever I
would see an animal that was in trouble.
So one of the first rescueexperiences that I actually had
was finding kittens by my house.
This was like the first thing thatreally kind of got me started.
(21:29):
I knew the importance of spayand neuter, and my parents
always instilled that in me.
So I knew that you had to go getyour animals spayed and neutered.
I knew it was a very important thing.
So every animal that I had growingup, it was always spayed and neutered.
But when I found these kittens, at myhouse, it was four kittens and the mom.
(21:53):
And so I remember I had to gotrap these kittens and this
is before I even had a trap.
So I actually had to go outand try to just kind of devise
a way to catch these kittens.
I can't even remember how I did it.
I may have done it.
Kind of like what people do when youkind of set up that, like a box trying
to catch a bird when you're a kid.
(22:15):
that never works.
And I think that I might haveactually done that to catch these
kittens, but it was four of them.
And it was the saddest thing.
I remember when I caught 'embecause , when we had 'em inside
in a cage, the mom was coming inthe patio room and she was so sad,
crying, trying to get to her babies.
And they weren't that, young.
(22:36):
They were probably about seven weeks.
And I still remember all of 'em.
I named 'em, it was shy, smudge mantu.
And stretch.
And I had these four kittens, and thenI had the mom coming around and I'm
(22:56):
like, well, we can't have more kittens.
And so I have to look intogetting mom spayed . And I
was pretty young at the time.
I was in my very early twenties.
I might have been 20 21.
And of course, I didn't haveany money to get this done.
And this was before a lot of theprograms that we have now for low cost.
(23:18):
So I was like, oh what am I gonna do here?
I have five of 'em and I haveto figure out a way to go
get them spayed and neutered.
So I did a little bit of research onthe internet and I did find out that
they had a voucher program at the time.
I remember I had to call this numberand you would leave a voicemail.
(23:40):
You would give them all the details, howmany cats you have, what they look like,
if you know if they're boys or girls.
So I went ahead and I did all that andthey called me back a couple of days
later and they're like, look, we canget your kittens spayed and neutered.
It's low cost.
So it was something that was very muchaffordable, better than me taking these
(24:03):
five animals to go just to a regular vet.
And luckily the mom, we were able tokind of get her tame enough to where
we could kind of get her in a carrierand we just closed the door real fast.
So that's how we were able to get her.
'cause I didn't even havehumane traps at that time.
I didn't even know about TNRit was a very brand, new thing.
So I took 'em.
(24:26):
We got 'em all spayed and neutered.
Of course, we let 'em go.
The kittens stayed around
we could actually pet two of the kittens.
Two of them reallywouldn't let us pet 'em.
One of them got very, very tameand she actually moved in with some
neighbors that lived behind us.
That was my first experience into.
trap neuter return.
(24:47):
, I didn't even know theywere gonna get an ear tip.
I didn't know what an ear tip was.
And so that's how I learnedwhat the ear tip was.
And, and from that point on, I gotvery interested in, of course, doing
the trap neuter and return TNR.
So it was a couple of years after this.
And philip was working at a constructionsite and he found this tiny, tiny
(25:12):
little kitten in the middle of thesummer on some rebar, which was kind
of like these big metal plates thatthey have at construction sites.
And so he called me up and he'slike, Hey, I have this kitten.
It's in really bad shape.
And so I was like, yeah, bring it home.
So he brought it home, and I rememberwe put the kitten in this little tiny
(25:35):
carrier, and the kitten was probablyabout three to four weeks old.
So it would've been just onthe point of kind of getting
weaned , and eating on its own.
And this baby was so, so dehydrated.
So I called up to see about gettingan appointment at the vet and
at the time we couldn't get itinto the vet until the next day.
(25:57):
So I went and got some Pedialyteand Kitten formula and I just
said, okay, I am gonna try my best.
So
for.
Every couple of hours I would go just givethis kitten like a little bit of fluid.
And, of course it was orally, I wasjust doing some drips in its mouth with
(26:17):
a little tiny eyedropper that we hadand I noticed by the evening he was a
completely different looking kitten.
And it was really amazingto see the difference.
And that was really kind of like my firstexperience with a kitten that small.
'cause most of the time when I hadkittens they were a little bit older.
(26:38):
So this was the smallest one thatI ever took care of and raised.
At the time, of course, we did havethree other cats, so I was like, well,
I can't keep this kitten, but I'mgonna do what I can with this kitten.
I was fortunate enough to finda home for the kitten because
my neighbor knew somebody.
So I called up that number that I hadcalled for the other kitties, and I
(27:02):
made sure that I got the voucher in.
And after I got the voucher,of course, took him in.
We got him neutered, and thenhe went to his forever home.
After that, I just kind of gothooked and it's just kind of weird
because, it seems like after thatthe kittens kind of found their way
to me, so I found a few after that
(27:23):
luckily they had more spay neuter programscome around, so I was able to get low
cost spay neuter, , and it was evenless than I had paid a few years prior.
So it was a really wonderful thingthat these groups started in our
area and these groups startedall these low cost initiatives.
(27:45):
. I'm gonna try to start includinga rescue story, the more positive
things into some of these episodes.
So I hope you enjoyed hearing that.
If you would like to support us everysingle dollar helps our animals directly.
You can find a link todonate in our show notes.
Thanks for listening.
(28:05):
And that's all the time wehave for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue or if youknow someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show.
Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
Welcome to Animal Posse, the podcast dedicated to the
people and rescues, making adifference in the lives of animals.
Thank you for comingon the show today, Dr.
Milazzo.
Charlotte (00:13):
Thank you Dixie.
Dixie (00:14):
One thing that I would like to discuss today is pet first aid.
I thought that wouldmake an interesting show.
And of course, it's always betterto have a veterinarian's take on it.
So just in general, first aidwhat can you do if something
goes wrong at home with your pet?
Charlotte (00:34):
Well, the first thing you wanna think about is I always think
about the ABCs of emergency, right?
Airway breathing, and it's in circulation.
The first things I always think aboutare during an emergency if I can't think
of anything else and my nerves havethe best of me, I always think A, B,
C, when I see a patient in front of me.
And this is the case with humans as well.
(00:55):
If you come across a person that'sin distress, A, B, C, airway,
breathing, and circulation, those arethe first three things that you need
to worry about, are they breathing?
Can they breathe?
Do they have an airway?
Is something stuck in their throat?
Are they making noise?
If they're making noise, thenchances are they're probably
not aspirating on anything.
(01:16):
Breathing.
Are they actively breathing?
Are they able to breathe?
And then circulation wouldbe, do they have a heartbeat?
Or they spurting blood out of an artery,or, or a vein, which would be a lot less.
Traumatic to witness,but still a lot of blood.
Is there bleeding going on?
And if any of those three thingsare compromised, you need to
(01:37):
get to the ER immediately.
There's not, there's some things you cando at home first aid wise in those cases,
but they would probably require you tohave some sort of medical background.
But as far as home emergencies, thereare some things you can have around
the house to help you with smallemergencies that might help you avoid
(02:00):
a nighttime after hours vet visit.
Like, torn toenails is a big onethat, that I see in the ER that really
doesn't need to be an emergency, buthaving some quick stop, which is like
a a sulfur po like a styptic stick.
Like, men would use for shaving ontheir face or any, anyone can use for
(02:20):
shaving on their face or wherever.
And you can pack that in a toenail.
Profuse vomiting.
The one thing I tell people about thatis stop feeding them nothing by mouth.
NPO means nothing by mouthuntil they stop vomiting.
An animal can comfortably go till thenext day without eating just fine.
(02:42):
A lot of people wanna give themsomething to eat or drink or somehow
take an active role in the vomiting.
You just need to let them vomit afew times and get it out and try
not to have them hold that back.
Let them get whateverthey need to get out.
If vomiting persists multipletimes or blood in the vomit, then
maybe it's time to go to the er.
(03:03):
But usually vomiting once it's stopped.
It's like us, we don't always goto the ER every time we vomit, but
if we vomit continually for days,then yes we can get dehydrated
and end up having to go to the er.
Dixie (03:14):
Now I have heard too, when you have animals that do have one of these
vomiting episodes or even like a diarrhea.
' you should feed the pet more gentlerfoods after the episode just to make
sure that their system can handle it.
Like people, like youalways tell people to eat.
Something like rice or oatmeal.
Oatmeal,
Charlotte (03:33):
Exactly.
Have a
sip of coke and a saltine cracker.
Yes, exactly.
The equivalent for animal, although wewanna keep them NPO, nothing by mouth.
For at least the rest of theday and into the next day.
Like, if it's happens duringthe day, don't feed them
anything till the next morning.
And another thing is people will want themto quote, unquote, stay hydrated, but.
They'll fill up a water bowl andgive it to an animal, and the animal
(03:56):
drinks the whole bowl at once, andthen it all comes right back up again
because of the volume in the stomach.
So I tell people, you don't have todeprive them of water, but just fill
the water bowl just a little bit andleave it out for the animal to drink.
And then you know when that's gone, youcan refill it, a couple of times, but
you don't wanna let them have access tounlimited water that they're just gonna
(04:16):
continue to throw up multiple times.
And then the next day, once they'vehad lots of gi rest, you can start
introducing something to dogs or cats.
Plain boiled chicken breast issafe for pretty much anything.
And white or brown rice,everything cooked really well.
I always tell people, make a jambalaya.
(04:37):
If you're from New Orleansor Louisiana rather.
And you can feed that to them.
And generally most animals will eatand keep that down if everything's
going in the right direction.
If that comes up the next day, thenwe need to start talking about further
diagnostics like x-ray or seeingthe veterinarian for blood work.
Dixie (04:55):
I know on the last show you talked about foreign bodies,
Charlotte (04:58):
uhhuh,
Dixie (04:59):
and that if a foreign body was ingested, that's something that you
definitely need to go to the vet for.
Charlotte (05:04):
Absolutely.
It's a very serious thing.
Dixie (05:06):
What about if you suspect your pet has had something poisonous?
Charlotte (05:10):
Well, if you suspect it depends on what it is.
There are different ways to react to it.
If it's a poisonous plant,it's a good idea to.
Have a picture of the plant or knowwhat the plant is so that your vet
will know what to do based on that.
Also medication, whether it'slegal, prescription medication
or off the street drugs.
(05:32):
We are not the police.
You can tell us what it is.
You don't have to tell us whereit came from or who it belongs to.
You just have to tell us whatyour animal got into or possibly
got into and we'll get the hint.
And things like batteries bleach,those are things that are going to be
scarring and irritating to the mucosa.
(05:52):
So those are not the things youwanna make your animal throw up if
they ingest, because it's going tohurt coming back up and do damage
the same way it did going down.
So that's something you'regonna wanna bring to the vet.
But for the most part if you catch themquickly, if it's medication like human
medication or illicit drugs, you can givethem some hydrogen peroxide and they will.
(06:14):
Generally throw it up if you'vecaught it within the first 20 minutes.
You want complete, gastric, emptyingthings like chocolate or really
chocolate's a big one, but also Isee people overreact to chocolate.
A couple of m and ms arenot gonna hurt a small dog.
It's the percent of cacaothat's in the chocolate.
So for example, a little dog eats awhole bar of baker's dark chocolate.
(06:36):
That's a lot of cacao for a little dog.
So you're gonna wannaimmediately induce vomiting.
The quicker the better.
If you can give them some hydrogenperoxide orally at home and
get them to throw all of thatchocolate up, that would be great.
If it's been longer than a halfhour or an hour, then you're
gonna wanna go to the vet.
Or if you get them to vomit andthe chocolate doesn't come up, you
(06:57):
still wanna follow up with the vet.
One that I've had issues withpeople over time are grape toxicity.
Grapes , I'm not saying tofeed your animal a lot of
grapes, but grapes are not.
Immediate, immediate vomitinducing one grape, one grape
is not going to kill anything.
Although apparently I have a couplecolleagues that believe otherwise.
(07:18):
I have never seen it.
I've never had a friend, colleaguesee it where an animal has passed
away from eating one grape.
So, definitely not a reasonto visit the er, but.
Again, this is why I also stress theimportance of having a relationship
with your regular veterinarian.
Because if you can reach themeven after hours, you can avoid
(07:39):
a very huge emergency bill.
Just by having a simple question answered.
Dixie (07:44):
Now, a new thing I've been hearing a lot about is xylitol, 'cause that's
in a lot of gums and stuff like that.
Charlotte (07:50):
Yep.
That is a problem.
That's something you want themto throw up immediately as well.
Anything with xylitolis bad news for them.
They can't processxylitol what like we do.
And so, Splenda, all of those packets ofsugar substitute, those are all bad news.
I had a dog eat a whole bagof Splenda packets once, which
(08:11):
would've been pretty ugly, but thankfullythe people got the dog to throw up at
their house with hydrogen peroxide.
So generally that's something you wantto get them to throw up right away,
or a whole bag of gum, like multiplepacks of gum would be a problem.
Like a 10 pack of gum not 10 sticks,although, a five pound dog eating
10 sticks would be quite a lot.
But, it's a per pound or per kilogramtoxicosis thing, but avoid xylitol.
(08:37):
Also, people will feed their animalspills and peanut butter and a lot of
the peanut butters today have sugarsubstitutes in them and not real sugars.
So I always tell people, when you giveyour animals things that are made for
people, make sure it's not sugar free.
So what about for choking?
And I'm just talking aboutjust like a regular food.
Your dog or your cat isjust scarfing down the food.
(08:59):
And they start choking.
Well, there's two kinds of things.
There's aspiration, that's when foodgoes down the air pipe, and then
there's what we call choke, which iswhen food gets lodged in the esophagus.
And they'll start profusely,drooling, foaming at the mouth.
They can still breathe, but they're juststopped up in the food tube basically.
And it won't go down or up.
(09:19):
And sometimes esophagus can gointo a spasm and will hold that
food like a big bolus there.
If that doesn't melt over a littlebit of time or with some warm
water, then you need to get themto the vet right away for that.
If an animal's aspirating,depending on what it is you're not
gonna have a whole lot of time.
It's like a person, if you have a personthat's got food in the air tube, you've
(09:42):
gotta do the Heimlich maneuver, you can.
Flip your pets upside down and shakethem a little bit press on the lungs so
that the air can force whatever is intheir windpipe out as anything caught
in the trachea is stopping breathing.
And you don't have a whole lot of time.
So when people call me and tell me theiranimal's choking and they've been on
the phone with me for five minutes, I'mlike, well, is your animal still alive?
(10:04):
And they're like, well,yeah, they're still choking.
I'm like, okay, bring them in.
Clearly they're breathing'cause they'd be dead by now.
So come on in and we'llfigure out what's going on.
And a lot of times, some of it'smaybe partial aspiration of food.
Where it can cause a pneumonia, sowe have to give antibiotics or take a
chest x-ray and see what's going on.
A lot of times that's the case.
They can still get air, but somethinghas gone down the wrong pipe basically.
Dixie (10:29):
Now I just had a bottle feeding class uhhuh for newborn kittens.
I've never had a kitten aspirate,but I've went over all the steps
of how a kitten could aspirate.
The correct feeding postureand things like this.
But one thing that I notice often withthe kittens when I bottle feed them
is you'll always get that one kitten
. They just are acting likethey're starving to death.
(10:51):
They're taking that bottle sofast that they will actually
start coughing and choking uhhuh.
So what I typically do is I will just grab'em when they start coughing like that.
I'll hold them up andI'll pat 'em on the back.
Yep.
And that usually clears it.
Is that the correct way to handle
that?
Charlotte (11:06):
Yep.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
If you have to.
When we first deliver small mammals,cats and dogs a lot of times
they're born with fluid in theirairway just like a human baby is.
And we have to actually, turn themupside down and swing them a little
bit to dislodge, fluids in the airway.
So a little bit of gravityreally works a long way.
(11:29):
You only have a small amountof time to get that out.
So however you can is gonnabe the best way to do it.
Dixie (11:37):
So another thing that I would like to talk about is I
guess like, respiratory infections.
And congestion.
And this would be if you have a cator a dog, you take 'em to the vet.
The vet is like, okay, they gota upper respiratory infection,
gives you your meds, you go home.
What are things that you cando to help them along with that
illness and getting over it?
Charlotte (11:57):
Keeping their face clean and their nose and eyes clean is really
important because the more mucus andcrust that builds up on their face, the
harder it is for them to get better.
Then they can start to get skin foldinfections and the, the bacteria
or viral particles hang around awhole lot longer in that mucus.
So you wanna clear thatas much as possible.
(12:17):
I have seen people use human baby nosedrops to help with congestion, especially
in cats that are really congested.
The little noses brand, I don't knowif they still make that anymore,
but something similar to that.
A drop up each nostril certainlywould not hurt to help open
up the airway a little bit.
Plain saline with a Q-tip.
(12:38):
Digging out boogers.
It, it works for babies and it works for
kittens and puppies.
Dixie (12:43):
Now, this might be a stupid question, but when you're gonna
do the nose drops for a cat areyou gonna basically hold 'em like
a baby and then drop it down?
Yep.
So gravity does its job.
Charlotte (12:51):
Yep.
Exactly.
You don't wanna force it in there,but just put it at the opening of
the nose and it'll make its way back.
Dixie (12:57):
What about like putting them in a steamy shower?
Charlotte (13:00):
Yes.
Dixie (13:01):
That's like a bathroom, a steamy bath.
Or not a shower, but,
Charlotte (13:03):
yep.
Yeah, exactly.
No, that actually hashelped a lot of animals.
They now have home nebulizers andall kinds of things that you can buy
for pets with like chronic problems.
They even have you know how sometimesfor us they'll dispense aerosol sprays
for asthmatics and stuff like that.
They're adaptation tools you can fitonto those types of aerosol sprays
(13:27):
for animals now, like masks and stuff.
So if you have an animal with chronicbreathing problems, you can ask
your vet for something like that.
Dixie (13:35):
And what about like a coupage
Charlotte (13:37):
yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Dixie (13:40):
And coupage, can you explain a little bit what that is?
Charlotte (13:42):
Well,
Cupping basically and using an openhand to, , I guess Pat, but it's
a little more aggressive than Patto loosen up mucus throughout the
lungs so that they can cough it up.
It does work.
It's a very old fashioned thing,but it has worked and that's
why it's still around today.
Dixie (14:00):
And it typically, if it's working, will make them cough after you.
Charlotte (14:03):
Exactly.
Dixie (14:04):
You tap 'em, right?
Charlotte (14:04):
Exactly.
Exactly.
In fact.
Sometimes increase in coughing worriespeople, but when you have an animal
that's really congested with thickmucus, you want to hear that mucus move
and start to try to make its way outrather than just continuing to build
up inside of the animal's Airways.
Dixie (14:22):
Another thing I'd like to touch on since we are in southeast Louisiana.
And it is really hot.
Charlotte (14:28):
Oh yes.
Dixie (14:29):
And really humid.
Charlotte (14:30):
Oh yes.
Dixie (14:31):
And really nasty out.
Yes.
But aside from that, is heat stroke.
Charlotte (14:35):
Absolutely.
Dixie (14:36):
So what are signs of heatstroke and cats and dogs?
Charlotte (14:39):
Well, the first thing you're gonna see is heavy panting.
And most people at that pointknow it's time to come inside.
Especially with your brachycephalicbreeds of dogs and cats too,
which means the smush face guys.
So, they absolutely cannotbreathe in hot weather.
So you wanna definitelykeep them cool, for sure.
(14:59):
But some things that start to happen pastthe paning and the exhaustion is collapse.
The body temperature willrise to obscenely hot numbers.
We're talking 1 0 6, 1 0 7.
They'll start seizing.
Or you might see neurologicalabnormalities start like staggering
or nystagmus, which is where theeyes go very fast back and forth.
(15:22):
And you may see them poopor pee on themselves.
These are all signs that,heat stroke is happening.
Vomiting also.
Generally by the time that wehave seizures starting, we're
in dire emergency at that point.
So I've lost a lot of animals thathave come in too late and are at that
point, and their temperatures are106 hundred and seven, and the only
(15:46):
thing we can do at that point is tryto give them some Valium to stop the
seizures and start soaking them in ice.
. Sometimes it works, butsometimes it's too late.
Dixie (15:56):
Is there anything that you could do at home if you notice
that your pet is overheating?
Charlotte (16:00):
If it's overheating to the point of collapse and vomiting,
you can get it into an ice bath.
You wanna try everything youcan to get that temperature
down as quickly as possible.
So if it's past panting and they'vecollapsed, just, and you always wanna make
sure they're, they continue to breathe.
That's important.
If they vomit or start to vomit,don't let them aspirate on that.
(16:22):
And you just gotta get thatbody temperature as cool as
possible, as quickly as possible.
Dixie (16:28):
Another concern that I have is
4th of July is coming up.
And I know that is the time of year whenthe most pets go lost and go missing.
Charlotte (16:38):
Absolutely.
Dixie (16:39):
'Cause they freak out from all of the fireworks.
Charlotte (16:41):
Yep.
Dixie (16:42):
Anything that you can do at home to comfort those animals?
Charlotte (16:47):
Well, one thing I always tell people, if you have a puppy and
it starts showing signs of eitherthunderstorm anxiety or fireworks or
loud noise anxiety, the best thingyou can do is not feed into it.
And it's hard because, they're cute.
They're your pets, they're your babies.
You want to comfort them and havethem come to you for that comfort.
But a lot of times the waythat they see that is, oh.
(17:08):
The rest of the pack is also scared andthey're trying to huddle us together,
so this must be really bad, and so it'sthis negative feedback loop or to where
they get worse instead of better.
And people think they're making itbetter by consoling them or picking
the animal up or holding them orpatting 'em or doing something.
The best thing you can do is continueto act like nothing is wrong.
(17:30):
Turn on some music.
Maybe play a fetch game with them.
Give them a few snacks.
It's important for you toact like nothing is wrong.
And I'm not saying ignore their stressbehavior, but try to redirect it.
And now with some animals, it's too late.
They're already several yearsold and they've developed phobias
to fireworks and loud noises,thunderstorms, things like that.
(17:52):
You can still reassure your animalby remembering, they think you're the
pack leader usually in most homes.
And, you want to remain calmand not show any sign of alarm.
But there's some animals they justlose it when these things happen.
So those are the animals thatyou wanna ask your veterinarian
for something to give.
(18:13):
Sedation wise, there are also somereally good calming treats that are made
with nutraceuticals that are out there.
Vetriscien science, I'm not, I don'twork for them or anything, but I
just happen to like using theirproducts because they seem to work.
I think it has lavender and chamomileand other things like that, that are
calming and sometimes at twice the dose,sometimes those seem to really help a lot.
(18:36):
So, that might work.
If that doesn't work, thenyou wanna go to your vet for
something a little bit stronger.
Some people try Benadryl.
Sometimes Benadryl will have the oppositeeffect on the animal and make them hyper.
But you certainly can try.
Benadryl, the sort of universal doseof Benadryl is a milligram per pound.
So a 50 pound dog can take a50 milligram Benadryl tablet.
(18:58):
So, you can try that.
Sometimes it's just not enough.
Usually in my experience, it's not quiteenough and sometimes even with sedatives
from the vet, it's still not enough.
So you really have to makesure that your animal does not
get disoriented and escape.
And also make sure your animalsmicrochipped so that if it does get
out, it has a means of getting home.
Dixie (19:20):
And I saw a tip too, that if you don't have a tag with the pet's name on
it, you can actually just go get yourselfa piece of the blue painter's tape.
Charlotte (19:28):
Yep
Dixie (19:28):
Just tape it onto their collar
Charlotte (19:30):
Yep.
Dixie (19:31):
And write all their information.
Charlotte (19:33):
Exactly.
Anything will help.
I am a big advocate of appletags or air tags on collars.
That has saved quite afew animals that I've met.
If the animal will allow it on theircollar and usually they don't weigh
very much in those silicone holdersthat sort of fit along flush to the neck
around the the collar are pretty good.
Dixie (19:55):
All right.
Well thank you so much.
Charlotte (19:57):
Sure.
Dixie (19:57):
For all of your insight.
Charlotte (19:58):
You've got some really good questions there.
Dixie (20:00):
Alright, well
thank you again.
Charlotte (20:02):
Absolutely.
Dixie (20:03):
Before we end today's episode, I thought I would go
over a rescue story of mine.
So just to let everybody knowhow I got started in rescue.
I kind of got started the sameway a lot of our guests did.
You grow up, you love animals.
(20:24):
If you see an animal that's introuble when you're a child,
you're always trying to help.
And I was the same way.
I had a lot of different pets growing up.
I had rabbits, I had cats.
. I raised baby ducks.
'cause we had a place that wasin Mississippi on the water.
So we actually raised a bunch ofmallards to let go on the canal that
(20:47):
was by our property, which was reallycool because they would bring the
babies back to visit us every season.
And so they always remembered us, theoriginal ones, and they would always
bring their babies back to see us.
So
of course, as I got older and Ihad the means of taking care of.
(21:09):
animals without my parents' permission,I got a lot more involved whenever I
would see an animal that was in trouble.
So one of the first rescueexperiences that I actually had
was finding kittens by my house.
This was like the first thing thatreally kind of got me started.
(21:29):
I knew the importance of spayand neuter, and my parents
always instilled that in me.
So I knew that you had to go getyour animals spayed and neutered.
I knew it was a very important thing.
So every animal that I had growingup, it was always spayed and neutered.
But when I found these kittens, at myhouse, it was four kittens and the mom.
(21:53):
And so I remember I had to gotrap these kittens and this
is before I even had a trap.
So I actually had to go outand try to just kind of devise
a way to catch these kittens.
I can't even remember how I did it.
I may have done it.
Kind of like what people do when youkind of set up that, like a box trying
to catch a bird when you're a kid.
(22:15):
that never works.
And I think that I might haveactually done that to catch these
kittens, but it was four of them.
And it was the saddest thing.
I remember when I caught 'embecause , when we had 'em inside
in a cage, the mom was coming inthe patio room and she was so sad,
crying, trying to get to her babies.
And they weren't that, young.
(22:36):
They were probably about seven weeks.
And I still remember all of 'em.
I named 'em, it was shy, smudge mantu.
And stretch.
And I had these four kittens, and thenI had the mom coming around and I'm
(22:56):
like, well, we can't have more kittens.
And so I have to look intogetting mom spayed . And I
was pretty young at the time.
I was in my very early twenties.
I might have been 20 21.
And of course, I didn't haveany money to get this done.
And this was before a lot of theprograms that we have now for low cost.
(23:18):
So I was like, oh what am I gonna do here?
I have five of 'em and I haveto figure out a way to go
get them spayed and neutered.
So I did a little bit of research onthe internet and I did find out that
they had a voucher program at the time.
I remember I had to call this numberand you would leave a voicemail.
(23:40):
You would give them all the details, howmany cats you have, what they look like,
if you know if they're boys or girls.
So I went ahead and I did all that andthey called me back a couple of days
later and they're like, look, we canget your kittens spayed and neutered.
It's low cost.
So it was something that was very muchaffordable, better than me taking these
(24:03):
five animals to go just to a regular vet.
And luckily the mom, we were able tokind of get her tame enough to where
we could kind of get her in a carrierand we just closed the door real fast.
So that's how we were able to get her.
'cause I didn't even havehumane traps at that time.
I didn't even know about TNRit was a very brand, new thing.
So I took 'em.
(24:26):
We got 'em all spayed and neutered.
Of course, we let 'em go.
The kittens stayed around
we could actually pet two of the kittens.
Two of them reallywouldn't let us pet 'em.
One of them got very, very tameand she actually moved in with some
neighbors that lived behind us.
That was my first experience into.
trap neuter return.
(24:47):
, I didn't even know theywere gonna get an ear tip.
I didn't know what an ear tip was.
And so that's how I learnedwhat the ear tip was.
And, and from that point on, I gotvery interested in, of course, doing
the trap neuter and return TNR.
So it was a couple of years after this.
And philip was working at a constructionsite and he found this tiny, tiny
(25:12):
little kitten in the middle of thesummer on some rebar, which was kind
of like these big metal plates thatthey have at construction sites.
And so he called me up and he'slike, Hey, I have this kitten.
It's in really bad shape.
And so I was like, yeah, bring it home.
So he brought it home, and I rememberwe put the kitten in this little tiny
(25:35):
carrier, and the kitten was probablyabout three to four weeks old.
So it would've been just onthe point of kind of getting
weaned , and eating on its own.
And this baby was so, so dehydrated.
So I called up to see about gettingan appointment at the vet and
at the time we couldn't get itinto the vet until the next day.
(25:57):
So I went and got some Pedialyteand Kitten formula and I just
said, okay, I am gonna try my best.
So
for.
Every couple of hours I would go just givethis kitten like a little bit of fluid.
And, of course it was orally, I wasjust doing some drips in its mouth with
(26:17):
a little tiny eyedropper that we hadand I noticed by the evening he was a
completely different looking kitten.
And it was really amazingto see the difference.
And that was really kind of like my firstexperience with a kitten that small.
'cause most of the time when I hadkittens they were a little bit older.
(26:38):
So this was the smallest one thatI ever took care of and raised.
At the time, of course, we did havethree other cats, so I was like, well,
I can't keep this kitten, but I'mgonna do what I can with this kitten.
I was fortunate enough to finda home for the kitten because
my neighbor knew somebody.
So I called up that number that I hadcalled for the other kitties, and I
(27:02):
made sure that I got the voucher in.
And after I got the voucher,of course, took him in.
We got him neutered, and thenhe went to his forever home.
After that, I just kind of gothooked and it's just kind of weird
because, it seems like after thatthe kittens kind of found their way
to me, so I found a few after that
(27:23):
luckily they had more spay neuter programscome around, so I was able to get low
cost spay neuter, , and it was evenless than I had paid a few years prior.
So it was a really wonderful thingthat these groups started in our
area and these groups startedall these low cost initiatives.
(27:45):
. I'm gonna try to start includinga rescue story, the more positive
things into some of these episodes.
So I hope you enjoyed hearing that.
If you would like to support us everysingle dollar helps our animals directly.
You can find a link todonate in our show notes.
Thanks for listening.
(28:05):
And that's all the time wehave for today's episode.
If you are in animal rescue or if youknow someone that has a story that
should be told, please contact us.
We would love to haveyou or them on the show.
Thanks for listening, and pleasejoin us next week as we continue to
explore the world of animal rescue.
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