CPR For Your Pet

As a public service we post this information for our readers.

Airway

The first step in animal CPR (like human CPR), after determining that the animal is non-responsive, is to obtain an open airway. You should not continue past AAirway, until this step has been achieved!

1. Carefully pull the tongue straight out of the animal’s mouth to open the airway

WARNING: even an unresponsive dog may bite by instinct!!

2. Make sure that the neck is reasonably straight; try to bring the head in-line with

the neck.

WARNING: Do not over-straighten the neck in cases where neck/head trauma exists

3. Attempt 2 rescue breaths, by closing the mouth, and performing mouth-to-nose

ventilations. If they go in with no problems continue to B-Breathing.

4. If not, reposition the neck and try step 3 again.

5. Visibly inspect the airway by looking into the mouth, and down the throat for foreign objects occluding the airway. Unlike human-CPR, rescuers may reach into the airway and remove foreign objects that are visible

6. If you still can’t breath into the animal,proceed to the Heimlich maneuver

Heimlich

If you were unable to clear an object from the airway in A-Airway, you will need to

do the Heimlich Maneuver:

1. Turn the animal upside down, with its back against your chest

2. Hug the animal with your fist in your hand, just below the rib-cage (for cats, just squeeze 1 hand in the same place)

3. With both arms, give 5 sharp thrusts (bear hugs) to the abdomen. Perform each thrust as if it is the one that will expel the object

4. Stop, check to see if the object is visible in the airway, if so, remove it and give 2

mouth-nose rescue breaths. If the breaths do not go in, go back to step 1

IMPORTANT: Do not proceed with CPR, even if the animal goes into cardiac

arrest. You must clear the airway first.

Breathing

After achieving a patent airway, one must determine whether the animal is breathing, and whether this breathing is effective:

1. Carefully pull the tongue straight out of the animal’s mouth to open the airway

WARNING: even an unresponsive dog may bite by instinct!!

2. Make sure that the neck is reasonably straight; try to bring the head in-line with the neck.

WARNING: Do not over-straighten the neck in cases where neck/head trauma exists

3. Breathe at 12 breaths per minute (1 every 5 seconds) With each breath just make the chest rise (do not overinflate, expecially on a small animal)

IMPORTANT: If the breaths do not go in, stop and return to Airway!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AFrUiRIeVo

Tags: breathing, cats, CPR, dogs, E-Care, heimlich, mouth to nose, pets, US Tele-Medicine

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Lifestyle Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.