After I saw the earliest post from Carlotta today, I though it would be a good idea to share some information about how to save your dog from choking. Recently my puppy Cody, choke when he was eating rawhide. It was very scary for me. After loosing my little guy Mady not to long ago to lung cancer, and a couple of weeks ago loosing my Lab Coco, my nerves are not ready for another traumatic event surrounding my loved dogs.

We all know that dogs sometimes have a bad habit of putting anything they find inside their mouths, that includes power cords, pieces of broken toys, tennis balls, etc. Other things that they tend to pick up range from rocks, small toys to articles of clothing, basically anything they deem fun to play with. Somehow, dogs always seem to find a way to put objects in their mouth that do not belong there!

Unfortunately, there are many times when a dog accidentally swallows these objects and it becomes lodged in his throat. A recent example of this was Oprah’s Golden Retriever, who choke on a toy that belonged to one of her other dogs, a Cocker Spaniel. Unfortunately, Oprah’s dog was not as lucky as the k-9 dog from Carlotta’s earlier story.

When a dog is choking, if the object is not removed immediately then there is the chance that the animal will stop breathing and become unconscious.

This occurrence is more common with dogs, than most people are aware of. Therefore I would behoove of you to learn the basic moves that it takes to help your dog from choking. This can invariably save the life of your pet.

Take a look below at the basic First Aid steps which can come in handy for a choking dog:

If Your Dog Is Choking, But Remains Conscious

1. With two hands, open your dog’s mouth and look inside to see if you can see the object. If you can see it, try your best to remove it.

2. If you cannot see the object, place your dog on its side and elevate the hindquarters.

3. Now place your hand below the rib cage and another on the dog’s back. Press in and then up, all in one fluid motion. Keep pressing until the object is coughed up, (this is what I had to do with Cody recently)

4. If the object does not come up, your dog may become unconscious. If this happens, then follow the steps below.

If Your Dog Becomes Unconscious

1. As stated above, be sure that the dog is placed on his side with elevated hindquarters.

2. Open the airway and be sure the tongue is pulled out as far as possible and placed to the side.

3. Now perform several compressions in the same area that you had attempted to press in the rib cage. After two to three compressions, check the mouth for any foreign objects by using the sweep of your finger.

4. Now give the dog a few breaths.

5. Repeat this cycle of compressions, finger sweeps, and artificial respiration breaths until your dog starts breathing by himself and dislodges the object.

If none of this work, and your dog is still having problems or is unconscious, please do not hesitate to rush him or her to the veterinarian. A few minutes, or even seconds could make the difference between having your dog dead or alive.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 11:04 pm and is filed under Dog Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.