Top 5 Life-saving Hacks for Pets (Every Pet Parent Should Know!)

These five simple hacks, they can literally save your dog or cat's life. Yet literally most pet parents, they have no idea how to do most of them. If your cat is having difficulty breathing and choking, do you know what to do? Or if your dog is excessively panting, collapsing from heat stroke, do you know what the newest and most effective first aid treatment is? Find out all those in this video. Are you looking to learn more about natural pet health and wellness? You've come to the right place. Click the link to subscribe to Veterinary Secrets. Number one, what to do if your pet is choking? Whether it's on food, bones, even a toy like a ball that's too small. A ball like this, it could easily get lodged in the back of Tula's throat. She'd be making this wheezy gagging sound. She'd be pawing at her mouth. She'd really be panicking because she couldn't get enough air. This is how you do the Heimlich. First, you can try and do an oral sweep. See if you can pull it out with the hook of your index finger. Open your dog or cat's mouth. See if you can hook in behind that ball, pull it out. Most of the time you can't. You just want to make sure you're not pushing it down farther. So then you need to use the Heimlich. You're going to need to put force in the diaphragm. Try to push that ball out. So there's two ways to do this. If you have a large dog, you know, much larger than Tula, like a big lab, you can't hold him or her upside down. You're going to stand over top of your dog. You're going to interlace your fingers. You're right in your left hands. Put them just underneath behind your dog's ribcage on their abdomen. And you're going to make five firm thrusts. You're going to push up and in, like up towards the chest. One, two, three, five times. You're trying to put force in the diaphragm to expel the mass. The other way, which I prefer, is using gravity. So you're going to turn your dog upside down with their head pointing down. You're going to put your fingers in behind your dog's abdomen. You're going to put five firm thrusts down and in, right on top of their stomach, down towards their chest wall. One, two, three, four, five times to see if you can expel that mass or that ball. After you've done those five abdominal thrusts, you can then check to see if air is flowing into your dog's lungs. You put your hand around their muzzle, your mouth over top of their nose. You're blowing in two times into their nose. If their chest wall rises, likely that chunk of ball has finally come out, or that little bit of bone. If it hasn't, you've got to turn your dog upside down. Repeat that Heimlich. Repeat those steps until that ball or that bone or that stick, it comes out. And you can do the very same procedure on your cat, although he would not be happy about it. Number two, a key ingredient to have on hand for poisoning. If your 10 pound dog were to eat, you know, one tablespoon of these dark chocolate chips, that is enough to cause serious toxicities, seizures. The lily species of plant, those can be seriously toxic to your cat, even if your cat were to consume water from the vase of a lily. If that happens, there's one thing you need to do right away. If I looked over and I saw Cassian licking up water from the vase that had a lily, and I walked outside and saw my cat licking a little bit of antifreeze that had spilled out, I would immediately induce vomiting and you should do the exact same thing. And in fact, for most of the poisons that our pets consume, be it chocolate, be it a poisonous plant, be it something like antifreeze, the most important thing is to induce vomiting. Get that out of them as soon as possible. Because in many cases, you're a little bit too far from that clinic. You're not going to get there fast enough. And if you can remove that toxin, you literally could save your pet's life. So this 3% hydrogen peroxide, this is what is most effective to induce vomiting in our dogs. Unfortunately, it's only moderately effective in our cats. And in some cases in cats, it can cause serious esophagus stomach irritation, leading to ulcers. So generally, it's not advised to be using your cats unless it's some really urgent emergency situation. There's no way you can get to a veterinary hospital. The standard dose of the 3% peroxide that you're going to have on hand, It is one mil per pound of body weight to a maximum of three tablespoons or 45 mils. Chula weighs about 20 pounds. This syringe, it's a 20cc syringe, making it easy for me to measure. I suggest you all going to have a syringe on hand. You can adequately measure, properly measure. Her dose, it will be one full syringe. So if she consumed all that chocolate, I'd see the syringe into the corner of her mouth, tilt her head up. I'd squirt it into her mouth and close her mouth. Watch her lick her tongue as she swallowed it. If she didn't vomit in 10 minutes, I'd repeat that one more time. Number three, what to do for your dog who has heat stroke. This could be a dog that's been left in a car. Just could be a dog that is brachycephalic with a pushed in face. And they just can't move air. They can't cool those elbows as well. You take a really extremely hot humid day. They don't have adequate shade. You could see that your dog's body temperature rapidly rising, preceding the heat stroke. It's pretty obvious. I mean, they feel extremely hot. They're just excessively panting. You might see this thick drool of saliva. If you lift up their lips, look at their gums. Often it's this bright pink red. And these guys, they look sick and they're just, they just keep panting. They can't cool themselves down. There's one thing you should quickly do. Some of the past veterinary suggestions turned out they aren't accurate. This is a brand new treatment you should know about. When your dog's body temperature rises above 105 or 40.5 degrees Celsius, that's when they're at impending death, like where they can have organ dysfunction and it can just rapidly spiral out of control and they can quickly die. And what you can do in the interim, like when you have a dog where his body temperature has got up to 105, what can you do in the field to make a difference? Is there something you as a pet parent can do that's going to like potentially quantumly change the course of this? So it doesn't mean getting into the vet clinic. By the time they've gotten in, maybe the temperature's risen another half a degree and you're looking at, you know, fatal organ failure. So the new technique, it's called cold water head immersion. That's right. You've got pretty cool water, 70 degrees Fahrenheit, a little less. And they train these dogs to stick their head in to the cold water for 30 seconds, gave them a treat. What they found with these trained dogs, that resulted in the most rapid cooling because during heat stroke, so much of the core body temperature, all that panting and so much of that big blood supply is up in their head. So if they can rapidly cool the head and all the muscles all around the head, you're going to result in rapid body cooling. And this only needed to be done for 30 seconds. And the dogs didn't stick their head in like this. Maybe it just meant even going into a lake or something. And they're immersed kind of up to about here, say up to about the base of their ears. Dunked in, they're there for 30 seconds. And that resulted in the most rapid cooling. And we used to teach in veterinary practice, don't do rapid cooling. It can result in secondary problems if you over cool your dog. Turns out that does give pretty controlled rapid cooling and avoid this temperature climb even higher. So if you have a body water around as a heat stroke, you want to immerse your dog into the water up to the level of his ears for 30 seconds. If you have a running hose, run that over top of the back of your dog's neck, over top of his head. That's going to result in the most rapid cooling. But they said, like, if there isn't a lake, a big body of water around, that's fine. Just get a big tub so you can get your dog's head immersed, at least up to the level of his ears. Because what they said, ultimately, the most important thing in the field is rapid cooling first and then transport to the veterinary hospital second. Because that results in the best outcomes. Number four, the emergency slurry for a weak fading pet for a dog or cat in shock. Shock is described as a decrease in circulating blood volume, blood pressure. This could be from trauma. It could be from decreased blood volume. Your animal's been hit by a car. They're bleeding internally. There could be metabolic shock. Could have an animal that's in diabetic acute acidosis. Maybe your dog has Addison's disease. And many of these dogs, they present at the clinic in shock. In lifting up your dog or cat's lips, just expect to see really pale gums. This rapid, shallow breathing. Increased heart rate. Often the extremities, like the ear tips, the tips of the pads, they're really cold. Your animal could be poisoned, experiencing signs of shock. When we have dogs that bloat or their stomach distends and then it can even twist. You know, one of the first clinical signs is you're seeing this dog that's just really uncomfortable. Their gums can often be really pale. There's rapid, shallow breathing. You're seeing signs of shock. So the first thing there is recognizing it. You have an animal in shock. It's really serious. Yes, you need urgent and emergent veterinary care. But there's a couple things that you can do. One in particular that may help. So yes, you recognize that your dog or cat is in shock. You're getting to the vet clinic as soon as possible. But in some cases, hypoglycemia or low blood sugar may be part of the problem. And in fact, if an animal has too low blood sugar, they're going to display all those classic signs. So if you can quickly apply something to rapidly increase their blood sugar, that can make a difference. So here's something I think you should all have on hand. This is maple syrup. You can also have something like corn syrup. About a teaspoon per 10 to 20 pounds of body weight. So here's a teaspoon of maple syrup. Get some of the maple syrup on your finger. Then lift up your pet's lips. I want you to rub that on top of their gums. All right. It's rapidly absorbed into the gums. And that can rapidly increase their blood sugar. Other thing I often find that helps, especially your animals feel really cool. You put on the maple syrup, the corn syrup, wrap them with the towel or blanket. And then they're going into the clinic as soon as you can. And as a bonus, Tula likes her maple syrup. Oh, her and I. Good girl. Hopefully I don't turn you into a diabetic. Number five. Know what to do if your dog or cat is bleeding. Maybe your pet's been hit by a car. There's a large leg laceration. You're seeing blood rapidly squirt out. And if an artery is affected like the femoral artery, you need to act quickly at home. Yes, you're going to need emergency veterinary care. But in the interim, like what you do in that immediate situation really can make the difference between life and death. So the first big principle, you're staying calm, like just keep your head about you. Don't like rush around. Like, okay, what do I need to do in this situation? Immediately, obviously, this applies to all the emergencies. The step two is you're applying pressure. We're going to put something over top of that wound. When we're applying pressure, decide to slow the bleeding. Let's assume that you're at home. You've got a first aid kit. You have some gauze or these are some cotton pads. You're going to put those over top of that wound. Hold it with your finger. Apply firm pressure. All right. And just keep your hands on there. Keep that pressure applied. And if you start to see the blood seeping through, don't remove those gauze pads. You're going to get yourself some more gauze. Layer that over top of that first gauze, keeping the pressure on. So that's the first big principle. Don't remove the stuff. You apply gauze or some type of cloth. If that's all you have, but you're applying firm pressure, keeping the pressure on top of that wound. So here's Tula's wound. Worried that maybe the thermal artery's been damaged because there's a lot of blood still coming through. The next part, and I want you all to have this on hand, is this sticky veterinary bandage wrap known as vet wrap, right? Something we've used at the clinic for years. Now increasingly people are using it. So it's a great option as it sticks to itself. You can tear it with your hand. What you're going to do is put the vet wrap over top of that gauze. Assuming your dog's a little bit more cooperative than mine, who is pretty good. And we're going to, we're not going to remove that gauze. We're leaving it on there. I'm going to wrap that vet wrap all around the gauze. Aren't we Tula? I'm going to stop that bleeding, putting additional pressure with this vet wrap. It's nice that it sticks to itself, right? And then you can see here with Tula, I can tear it with my hands, keep that gauze with a fair amount of pressure over top of the inside of your thigh. And I'm starting to see now the bleeding slows down. Sometimes you're in the field, like you're outside at the dog walk. You don't have that. Maybe you have a cloth or a shirt or something. Go ahead and put that over top of that wound, putting firm pressure on the wound. The next thing I suggest is if you can, and if it's up higher, put pressure up high above where that wound is as well. Because sometimes if you can partially occlude, say the major artery there, you're going to help slow that bleeding. Something there that you can also do in the field. And then the last thing I wanted to mention, it's something we occasionally had to use in the veterinary clinic was the use of some type of tourniquet, right? Because in some cases you've got this large laceration. It's cut through a major vessel, right? And I use the femoral artery as another example. You just can't control the bleeding. You put gauze on, you've got the vet wrap on, you put pressure up high above on top of that artery, you're still seeing blood come out. That's a situation, short-term especially, you know, if you have something you can wrap around the leg, right? This is some type of tourniquet we used to use at the clinic. I'd use it often to take blood, right? So you're putting that tourniquet above where the wound is, right? So I'm going up inside her groin and I'm going to cinch it down to the point where it's firm enough that bleeding slows and almost stops. And you're going to leave that tourniquet on and then you're getting into the veterinary hospital as soon as possible. It may be that you just have, you know, some type of firm elastic band. Often, say for emergency first aid kits, that's all you're going to have for a tourniquet. If that's that, that's all you have, that's fine. I know people sometimes in practice, they've even gone ahead and used something like a belt, right? But regardless, you need to put firm pressure above that wound. And in situations where you've got a big vessel lacerated, they're continuing to bleed. I know often it's written, don't use a tourniquet. That's not actually factual and it's far more important to slow and stop that bleeding first and foremost. There, you're all saved. There's still bonus number six. Bonus number six, this is the emergency $20 pet first aid kit. Here's what I think everyone should have on hand. I just have this ready to go. Number one, I want you to have 3% hydrogen peroxide. Like what I've done, here's a big bottle of the 3%. I've just poured some into a little container, 3% hydrogen peroxide. This, I always have in my office, always ready to use it. It's part of our pet first aid kit. In case of shock, right? This is maple syrup. It could also be corn syrup. I poured some of that into a little container. You're not always going to have that on hand. You think it's going to be in your kitchen? Maybe not. So just have access to some rapidly absorbed sweetener, corn syrup, maple syrup. That's in our pet first aid kit. In case of a serious laceration or wound or bleeding, I want you to have some gauze, right? Either in the form of this, just cotton swabs or gauze. I want you to have some of this, this vet wrap on hand. This really is essential and you should all have some vet wrap. Those two, they're going in our pet first aid kit. Also, it's going to make a handy little present. In case of a serious emergency with bleeding and it's big enough you can't control it, I'm going to have a tourniquet. I just think that's critical. It's also critical in my opinion and you talk to some of the first aid instructors. You cannot control all wounds with just pressure along with some type of topical bandage. You need to stop that bleeding in a hurry. Something you can use as a tourniquet. I want you to have a way to take your dog or cat's temperature, especially we're trying to decide, are they too hot? Are they too cold? Are they facing hypothermia? Inexpensive digital thermometer. I want you to have some syringes. I mean, it's really important. If you're going to properly administer something like hydrogen peroxide, you can use this syringe to flush out a wound. You can use it to drop some saline, flush out your dog or cat's eye if there's something within their eye. You should all have easy access to syringes, right? Now, here's a 30 cc one going into our little bag. Okay, a few more additional things which I think you should have on hand. Number one, this is tissue glue. I mean, here's a specific brand. It's called Nu Skin. But regardless, so many times with these skin lesions or these, you know, they've got a laceration. Tissue glue can make all the difference. You can put a drop either side of that wound, pinch the skin together, and it can rapidly heal, close that wound. Just a really good thing to have on hand, any pet first aid kit. And then last but not least, something for pain, something that's universally used in our dogs and our cats that is widely used and very safe. None other than the CBD or cannabidiol. It's just, it's effective for our cats, effective for our dogs. It's not going to interact, cause any other secondary problems. I think it's just really important. It's a critical part of that first aid kit. So know where it is, right? You don't always have it. You think I've got it, but maybe you don't. So have some in your little, like, basic $20 pet first aid kit. There it is. Last but not least, when you're making up your pet first aid kit, there's a couple other things you really should have in there, especially when you're like all flustered and it's an emergency. Number one, like up-to-date contact through your local veterinary hospital, as I have here. Then number two, in case of an animal poison, have the number for ASPCA, Animal Poison Control Number, as I've got here. I printed it off and those are going in my pet first aid kit. So in case of emergency, right? All of a sudden my animal's poisoned, like what's that number again? Because you can't think straight, right? You just want to grab one thing and here it is. It's all in here. This little pet first aid kit makes a great gift for the pet lovers in your family. So there they are, the five, actually six life-saving hacks that can make a big, big difference if your dog or cat is ever facing an emergency. Thanks so much for watching this edition of Veterinary Secrets. My top five, actually six life-saving pet hacks. Click up there to subscribe. Hit the bell to sign up for notifications. Then when you click that link directly in the box below, I can send you a copy of my free book.