April 1, 2019 • 10 mins
Veterinarian Dr. Nancy Kay shares tips on first aid for dogs. When a dog is injured, your first moves should be defensive. On this week's "Good Dog" episode, Dr. Nancy Kay explains the importance of getting a muzzle on an injured dog before attempting to move him. Hear numerous tips and insights on how to handle a medical emergency before you're able to get professional medical attention.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Smarter Podcasts dot Com delivering sound advice. As responsible dog owners, we choose
qualified veterinarians and then we do whatwe can to keep our dogs safe and
healthy between visits. But every nowand then our dogs end up getting injured,
(00:22):
and until we can get them professionalmedical attention, we have to do
something. Hi. I'm joe AnneGreen, and welcome to the Good Dog
Podcast, where today's topic is emergencycare on the spot for injured dogs.
I got an email last month fromJennifer in Indiana whose English mastiff somehow got
her leg caught and twisted in thecoffee table. They weren't able to get
(00:44):
her out. They actually had tocall the fire department to cut the coffee
table off of her, and thenwhen the fire department came, they were
concerned because of course the dog wasagitated and actually bit Jennifer, not serious,
but you know, it was panickedand in pain, so they had
to call animal control to sedate her. Well the dogs find Now she's recuperating
and in the aftermath, Jennifer wentonline to try to find out what procedures
(01:07):
she might have followed during this incidentand also afterward and in terms of helping
her dog recover, and she saidshe was very surprised to find that there
was not a lot of good informationor not a lot of information that she
was able to find, and requestedthat I devote an episode of Good Dog
to Doggie First Aid and Safety inthe wake of an injury. So to
(01:27):
provide the answers, I contacted doctorNancy Kay, well respected veterinarian and author
of Speaking for Spot, be theadvocate your dog needs to lead a happy,
healthy, longer life. Welcome backto Good Dog, Nancy. Hi,
Joe Anne, how are you great. It's good to meet you in
person. Thank you. Likewise,so is Jennifer's situation unusual? Well,
(01:51):
it sounds like what actually happened toher math if is unusual, but what
happened in the aftermath of an injuryis not all that unusual. There's always
a little bit of high pitched panicthat goes on, which is delatarious for
the dog and also delatarious for thepeople trying to help the dog. The
fact that Jennifer was bitten is certainlysupports the notion that before you do anything
(02:13):
with an injured dog, even ifit's your own beloved dog, you want
to put a muzzle on, becausea dog that is in pain is very
much capable of acting out and bitingsomeone, So we should actually have muzzles
on hand. It's great to havea muzzle on hand, but there's a
lot of ways to improvise muzzles,and you can go online and see all
kinds of very soft, humane muzzlesthat fit the dog. But if your
(02:37):
dog was just hit by a car, you're really going to have time to
go run inside and find that muzzlethat you've tucked away somewhere. Probably not,
Probably not, And so amost anythingcan serve as a muzzle. And
the truth of the matter is isthat most of the time it's good Samaritans
that are coming upon a dog that'sbeen hit by a car. Rarely is
it the owner. And so hereyou're working with a dog. Not only
(02:59):
is the dog and pain, butthat dog doesn't at all know you.
So the first rule of thumb withany sort of dog related emergency is to
take your own pulse, take afew deep breaths, calm yourself, because
if you're approaching that dog in anagitated state, the dog's going to become
fearful and more agitated. So bevery calm, think before you even approach
(03:21):
the dog where the nearest emergency clinicis. The other thing I always talk
about, too, is if thisis out in traffic, be super,
super careful. The last thing wewant is for a human to get hit
by a car trying to take careof a dog that's out in the middle
of traffic. Joanne, I'll neverforget. I was once out at goat
Rock Beach, I think is whatit's called. It's out on the coast
(03:43):
here in Sonoma County, and oneof my dogs was swept into the water
with a sneaker wave and it wasa very violent current and she was out
there just swimming away, very calmly, and a few teenage boys went into
the water after her to get ather. Well, she got herself in
fine, and then it became alife threatening situation for those boys trying to
(04:04):
rescue her. Then to get backin it was horrible. One of the
guys almost lost his life trying tosave my dog, and I was profusely
thankful to them, but she provedthat she was going to make it in
anyway. So if you're if youcome across an injured animal, make sure
that you're in a safe place totake care of that animal. Now,
(04:25):
how do you improvise a muscle ina way to improvise a muzzle is to
take something like a rope, astring, a leash, a neck tie,
anything that you can create a loopin. So you create a loop
and then you come up calmly besidethe dog. Don't face the dog head
on with this loop, but comealongside the dog, and then slip that
(04:45):
loop that's already partially tied around thenose. Hopefully it's a dog with a
nose and not a smut faced dog, and you like there, and and
then you take that loop and navigateit over the dog dog's nose around the
muzzle, and then you gently tightenit up and then you tie another loop
down below the chin, and thena third loop back behind the ears,
(05:09):
so you're you're around the neck.And it might be something that's worthwhile practicing
on your own dog at home,but anything like a shoelace, a belt,
a leash, a necktie, evendental floss will do it. And
if you need to, so getget the dog muzzled before you try to
move or handle the dog. Ifthere's something bleeding you know if you if
(05:30):
you go online, it'll tell youall about having a first aid kit ready
with sterile gauze. If you've happenedupon an injured animal and that animal is
bleeding profusely, you're going to takeoff. You're sure you're gonna take a
rag that you had in the car, and you want to apply firm pressure
to the site. Recruit help becauseit usually takes one person to be tending
(05:54):
to the dog while the other personis figuring out how they're going to get
from the side of the injury tothe veterinary hospital. If you're on your
own and you're driving this injured animalto the veterinary hospital, pay attention to
the road. Even if the animalshaving a seizure in the backseat of your
car, you got to ignore itand just get to the veterinary hospital safely.
(06:15):
Again, the worst thing in theworld would be if you were injured
trying to help this injured animal.It's also a good idea, I think,
to know about pet emergency facilities inyour area because open out in advance.
Right, they're open, you know, seven days a week, twenty
four hours a day, that's exactlyright, and scope out the quickest route
to get from where you are,if it's going to be around your home,
(06:38):
No, from your home, thequickest way to get to that twenty
four hour veterinary emergency hospital. Withhumans, we know that there are certain
instances in certain medical emergencies where youshould not try to move the person unless
you really know what you're doing.Is that true for animals as well?
Well? It's true for people.If there's some sort of spinal cord injury
(06:59):
or fracture in the back, youdon't want to move that individual. But
what you do is you call nineone one, and some people that are
well equipped and trained are going tocome to that human and move that person
the correct way. There's nothing likethat for dogs and cats. You can't
call nine one one for an injuredanimal. No, no, they're not
going to respond to that. Theywill respond if it's putting people's lives in
(07:21):
jeopardy in some way. So ifit's blocking traffic, if there's the potential
for an accident, then certainly callnine one one. But the very best
thing to do is to find aboard or a sheet or your coat,
something that you can carefully maneuver theanimal onto, and when you maneuver him,
try to lift him up from underneath, but keep him in the position
(07:43):
that he's in, and try tokeep him flat on his side and move
him directly to the blanket or thecoat, whatever you have, and then
use that to transport him into thecar. Try not putting the dog or
the cat on the seat of yourcar, but rather on the floor of
the car where he or she willbe more secure, especially if you don't
have someone sitting in the back seatwith an animal while you're transporting him to
(08:05):
the veterinary hospital. What about paincontrol and an emergency like that. Have
you ever sustained a significant injury?I hope not, but if you have,
I've been in pain. I'm tryingto think of it. When an
injury, a significant injury first occurssuch as hit by car, trauma to
a dog or a cat, andthat's the most common type of injury that
(08:26):
we see in a veterinary hospital.There's first a state of shock where you
don't even feel pain. I rememberan incident very clearly where I came off
a horse and broke my wrist,and my horse got away and was running
down the beach. I didn't evenfeel the broken wrist. I just knew
I had to get my horse,and until an hour later. That's when
(08:48):
it started throbbing once I had myhorse back home with me. So,
in general way you're seeing when yousee this agitation and the whining and all
that, that's fear. That's fearand an animal being disoriented. If it's
just happened, it's very unlikely goingto be pain and trying to figure out
(09:09):
how to relieve that pain you haveno capability of doing that. The best
way you can alleviate that pain isto get the animal to a veterinary hospital.
Great is a lot of this informationto be found in Speaking for Spot.
Speaking for Spot really is about howto be your dog's medical advocate,
and so it talks about how tobe an advocate once you've arrived at the
emergency clinic. For basic first aiddealing with injuries. The reference that I
(09:33):
recommend is there's a lot of goodmaterial online. There's also a book that's
out by the Red Cross that instructsyou on how to give first aid to
your dog or cat if they've beeninjured. Excellent. In our next episode,
we're going to talk a little bitmore specifically about what happens when you
go to the veterinarian's office and aretold that your dog needs some very very
(09:56):
expensive procedure or surgery or something thatyou elly question the need for. So
thank you very much for being withus, Doctor Nancy Kay. The book
once again is speaking for spot bethe advocate your dog needs to live a
happy, healthy, longer life.Thanks Joey, thank you,
Smarter Podcasts dot Com delivering sound advice. As responsible dog owners, we choose
qualified veterinarians and then we do whatwe can to keep our dogs safe and
healthy between visits. But every nowand then our dogs end up getting injured,
(00:22):
and until we can get them professionalmedical attention, we have to do
something. Hi. I'm joe AnneGreen, and welcome to the Good Dog
Podcast, where today's topic is emergencycare on the spot for injured dogs.
I got an email last month fromJennifer in Indiana whose English mastiff somehow got
her leg caught and twisted in thecoffee table. They weren't able to get
(00:44):
her out. They actually had tocall the fire department to cut the coffee
table off of her, and thenwhen the fire department came, they were
concerned because of course the dog wasagitated and actually bit Jennifer, not serious,
but you know, it was panickedand in pain, so they had
to call animal control to sedate her. Well the dogs find Now she's recuperating
and in the aftermath, Jennifer wentonline to try to find out what procedures
(01:07):
she might have followed during this incidentand also afterward and in terms of helping
her dog recover, and she saidshe was very surprised to find that there
was not a lot of good informationor not a lot of information that she
was able to find, and requestedthat I devote an episode of Good Dog
to Doggie First Aid and Safety inthe wake of an injury. So to
(01:27):
provide the answers, I contacted doctorNancy Kay, well respected veterinarian and author
of Speaking for Spot, be theadvocate your dog needs to lead a happy,
healthy, longer life. Welcome backto Good Dog, Nancy. Hi,
Joe Anne, how are you great. It's good to meet you in
person. Thank you. Likewise,so is Jennifer's situation unusual? Well,
(01:51):
it sounds like what actually happened toher math if is unusual, but what
happened in the aftermath of an injuryis not all that unusual. There's always
a little bit of high pitched panicthat goes on, which is delatarious for
the dog and also delatarious for thepeople trying to help the dog. The
fact that Jennifer was bitten is certainlysupports the notion that before you do anything
(02:13):
with an injured dog, even ifit's your own beloved dog, you want
to put a muzzle on, becausea dog that is in pain is very
much capable of acting out and bitingsomeone, So we should actually have muzzles
on hand. It's great to havea muzzle on hand, but there's a
lot of ways to improvise muzzles,and you can go online and see all
kinds of very soft, humane muzzlesthat fit the dog. But if your
(02:37):
dog was just hit by a car, you're really going to have time to
go run inside and find that muzzlethat you've tucked away somewhere. Probably not,
Probably not, And so amost anythingcan serve as a muzzle. And
the truth of the matter is isthat most of the time it's good Samaritans
that are coming upon a dog that'sbeen hit by a car. Rarely is
it the owner. And so hereyou're working with a dog. Not only
(02:59):
is the dog and pain, butthat dog doesn't at all know you.
So the first rule of thumb withany sort of dog related emergency is to
take your own pulse, take afew deep breaths, calm yourself, because
if you're approaching that dog in anagitated state, the dog's going to become
fearful and more agitated. So bevery calm, think before you even approach
(03:21):
the dog where the nearest emergency clinicis. The other thing I always talk
about, too, is if thisis out in traffic, be super,
super careful. The last thing wewant is for a human to get hit
by a car trying to take careof a dog that's out in the middle
of traffic. Joanne, I'll neverforget. I was once out at goat
Rock Beach, I think is whatit's called. It's out on the coast
(03:43):
here in Sonoma County, and oneof my dogs was swept into the water
with a sneaker wave and it wasa very violent current and she was out
there just swimming away, very calmly, and a few teenage boys went into
the water after her to get ather. Well, she got herself in
fine, and then it became alife threatening situation for those boys trying to
(04:04):
rescue her. Then to get backin it was horrible. One of the
guys almost lost his life trying tosave my dog, and I was profusely
thankful to them, but she provedthat she was going to make it in
anyway. So if you're if youcome across an injured animal, make sure
that you're in a safe place totake care of that animal. Now,
(04:25):
how do you improvise a muscle ina way to improvise a muzzle is to
take something like a rope, astring, a leash, a neck tie,
anything that you can create a loopin. So you create a loop
and then you come up calmly besidethe dog. Don't face the dog head
on with this loop, but comealongside the dog, and then slip that
(04:45):
loop that's already partially tied around thenose. Hopefully it's a dog with a
nose and not a smut faced dog, and you like there, and and
then you take that loop and navigateit over the dog dog's nose around the
muzzle, and then you gently tightenit up and then you tie another loop
down below the chin, and thena third loop back behind the ears,
(05:09):
so you're you're around the neck.And it might be something that's worthwhile practicing
on your own dog at home,but anything like a shoelace, a belt,
a leash, a necktie, evendental floss will do it. And
if you need to, so getget the dog muzzled before you try to
move or handle the dog. Ifthere's something bleeding you know if you if
(05:30):
you go online, it'll tell youall about having a first aid kit ready
with sterile gauze. If you've happenedupon an injured animal and that animal is
bleeding profusely, you're going to takeoff. You're sure you're gonna take a
rag that you had in the car, and you want to apply firm pressure
to the site. Recruit help becauseit usually takes one person to be tending
(05:54):
to the dog while the other personis figuring out how they're going to get
from the side of the injury tothe veterinary hospital. If you're on your
own and you're driving this injured animalto the veterinary hospital, pay attention to
the road. Even if the animalshaving a seizure in the backseat of your
car, you got to ignore itand just get to the veterinary hospital safely.
(06:15):
Again, the worst thing in theworld would be if you were injured
trying to help this injured animal.It's also a good idea, I think,
to know about pet emergency facilities inyour area because open out in advance.
Right, they're open, you know, seven days a week, twenty
four hours a day, that's exactlyright, and scope out the quickest route
to get from where you are,if it's going to be around your home,
(06:38):
No, from your home, thequickest way to get to that twenty
four hour veterinary emergency hospital. Withhumans, we know that there are certain
instances in certain medical emergencies where youshould not try to move the person unless
you really know what you're doing.Is that true for animals as well?
Well? It's true for people.If there's some sort of spinal cord injury
(06:59):
or fracture in the back, youdon't want to move that individual. But
what you do is you call nineone one, and some people that are
well equipped and trained are going tocome to that human and move that person
the correct way. There's nothing likethat for dogs and cats. You can't
call nine one one for an injuredanimal. No, no, they're not
going to respond to that. Theywill respond if it's putting people's lives in
(07:21):
jeopardy in some way. So ifit's blocking traffic, if there's the potential
for an accident, then certainly callnine one one. But the very best
thing to do is to find aboard or a sheet or your coat,
something that you can carefully maneuver theanimal onto, and when you maneuver him,
try to lift him up from underneath, but keep him in the position
(07:43):
that he's in, and try tokeep him flat on his side and move
him directly to the blanket or thecoat, whatever you have, and then
use that to transport him into thecar. Try not putting the dog or
the cat on the seat of yourcar, but rather on the floor of
the car where he or she willbe more secure, especially if you don't
have someone sitting in the back seatwith an animal while you're transporting him to
(08:05):
the veterinary hospital. What about paincontrol and an emergency like that. Have
you ever sustained a significant injury?I hope not, but if you have,
I've been in pain. I'm tryingto think of it. When an
injury, a significant injury first occurssuch as hit by car, trauma to
a dog or a cat, andthat's the most common type of injury that
(08:26):
we see in a veterinary hospital.There's first a state of shock where you
don't even feel pain. I rememberan incident very clearly where I came off
a horse and broke my wrist,and my horse got away and was running
down the beach. I didn't evenfeel the broken wrist. I just knew
I had to get my horse,and until an hour later. That's when
(08:48):
it started throbbing once I had myhorse back home with me. So,
in general way you're seeing when yousee this agitation and the whining and all
that, that's fear. That's fearand an animal being disoriented. If it's
just happened, it's very unlikely goingto be pain and trying to figure out
(09:09):
how to relieve that pain you haveno capability of doing that. The best
way you can alleviate that pain isto get the animal to a veterinary hospital.
Great is a lot of this informationto be found in Speaking for Spot.
Speaking for Spot really is about howto be your dog's medical advocate,
and so it talks about how tobe an advocate once you've arrived at the
emergency clinic. For basic first aiddealing with injuries. The reference that I
(09:33):
recommend is there's a lot of goodmaterial online. There's also a book that's
out by the Red Cross that instructsyou on how to give first aid to
your dog or cat if they've beeninjured. Excellent. In our next episode,
we're going to talk a little bitmore specifically about what happens when you
go to the veterinarian's office and aretold that your dog needs some very very
(09:56):
expensive procedure or surgery or something thatyou elly question the need for. So
thank you very much for being withus, Doctor Nancy Kay. The book
once again is speaking for spot bethe advocate your dog needs to live a
happy, healthy, longer life.Thanks Joey, thank you,
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