'A cookie sheet,' 'mouth to snout,' and other answers to FAQs in pet first aid

When I saw the words "pet first aid" on a Portland Adult Education pamphlet, I got a strange picture in my head.

A little kitty, on the ground, with its owner hovering in close and getting ready to give it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"Actually it's called mouth to snout," said Brad Rounds, chief operating officer for the American Red Cross of Southern Maine. "Sometimes it's the pet's only chance."

The American Red Cross in southern Maine has been putting on pet first-aid courses for the past five years or so. Some are held right at the Red Cross offices on Congress Street in Portland; others are held by various groups around the region. They all use a Red Cross instructor, or one trained by the Red Cross.

Portland Adult Education, for example, is holding a pet first-aid course with a Red Cross instructor on Sept. 25, at Deering High School.

So after learning a little bit about mouth-to-snout methods, I became curious. What exactly would one learn at a pet first-aid course? I mean, if your pet is sick, don't you just take the animal to the vet?

"If the animal is hurt, you won't know if it has a back injury, so you'd want to lay them on something, a board, before moving them," said Margaret Arsenault, health and safety coordinator for the American Red Cross of Southern Maine, and a pet first aid instructor. "For cats I've used a cookie sheet."

Cookie sheets are the right size for most cats to lay down on, but of course, it's not easy to make a cat stay on one. Arsenault suggested putting a couple blankets under the cookie sheet, the cat on top of the cookie sheet, and then pulling ends of the blankets up over the cat and tying them near the front and back legs.

"If they are really hurt, they'll let you do it," Arsenault said.

Pet first aid may sound a little odd, but it makes sense. Over the past couple of decades, people in general treat their animals better, like members of the family instead of pieces of property. So it would make sense that a loving pet owner would want to be in a position to help ease a pet's pain and suffering. Knowing something about pet first aid can do that.

Based on the mouth-to-snout example, you might think that pet first aid is just human first aid administered to pets. It is in some cases, but there are differences between fixing a boo-boo on your young child's knee and fixing that same boo-boo on a dog.

The dog can't tell you it has a boo-boo, Arsenault points out. And it probably won't run to you for help, or accept help willingly.

"When an animal is sick or hurt, they don't want anyone near, so we teach people how to approach the animal, to get down to their level but don't corner them, to use the right tone of voice," said Arsenault.

And of course, a dog or cat is probably too hairy for a stick-on bandage. So you should probably keep gauze and a roll of knit bandages on hand if you want to properly care for Spot or Fifi.

The Red Cross courses are specifically about aiding cats and dogs, and course participants get realistic-looking stuffed animals to practice on, Arsenault said. Each course starts with a video, and a discussion of how to spot pet health emergencies. Is the dog limping? Is its breathing labored? Stuff like that.

There is a section on choking, and participants practice holding their stuffed animals upside down in hopes that gravity will remove the obstruction. There is also instruction in the areas of cardiac arrest and bleeding.

Arsenault said lots of people who work with animals take the course. There are people who work in vets' offices, animal control officers and pet groomers.

And of course, there are pet owners who love their dogs and cats. And when you love an animal, mouth-to-snout resuscitation doesn't seem so strange.

 

Quoted from http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=133870&ac=MaineLife:

'A cookie sheet,' 'mouth to snout,' and other answers to FAQs in pet first aid

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