by Dr. Mayra Alfonso
We all recognize that dogs occasionally suffer from the bad habit of taking everything they get hold to in their mouths, that includes electric cords, parts of broken toys, tennis balls, etc. Additional things that they are inclined to pick up all form of stones or rocks, small-scale toys to clothes, in essence anything they view as fun to play with.
For some reason, dogs always appear to find a method to put physical objects inside their mouth that don’t belong there! Regrettably, there are a lot of occasions when a dog incidentally swallows these objects and it gets stuck in his throat. A late instance of this was Oprah’s Golden Retriever, who choked on a toy that belonged to one of her other dogs, a Cocker Spaniel, which is a smaller dog. Regrettably, Oprah’s dog wasn’t equally lucky as other dogs that have survived this situation.
When a dog is choking, whenever the physical object isn’t removed at once, there exists the probability that the animal will cease breathing and will go unconscious. This situation is more common with dogs, than the majority of people are aware of. Consequently I’d behoove of you to learn the basic acts that it takes to aid your dog from choking. This can invariably preserve the life of your loved pet. Have a look below at the basic First Aid steps which could come in handy in a case of a dog that is choking:
If Your Dog Is Choking, But Remains Conscious
1. With two hands, loose your dog’s mouth and look inside to see if you are able to see the physical object. If you are able to view it, try your best to remove it.
2. If you can’t visualize the object, position your dog on its side and elevate the hindquarters.
3. Right away position your hand below the rib cage and your other hand on the dog’s back. Press in and then up, altogether in one flowing motion. Continue applying pressure until the object is coughed out.
4. If the object doesn’t come up, your dog might become unconscious. If this occurs, then perform the steps below.
If Your Dog Becomes Unconscious
1. As declared above, make certain that the dog is positioned on his side with elevated hindquarters.
2. Open up the airway and make certain that the tongue is pulled out as far as possible and placed to the side.
3. Then perform several compressions in the same region that you had attempted to press in the rib cage. After two to three compressions, check the mouth looking for any alien physical 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 begins breathing by himself and displaces the object.
If none of this works, and your dog is still having troubles or is unconscious, please don’t pause to race him or her to the vet. A couple of minutes, or even seconds could constitute the difference between having your dog dead or alive.
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