Dog First Aid Training saves the day for little Pepper
When Zoe joined Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home last year, she took our Emergency Dog First Aid Course as part of her training. She tells us that, at the time, she found the course informative, saying, ‘If something were to happen while working with the dogs, I feel more prepared to deal with it’. She still refers to the Dog First Aid handbook she received to refresh her memory.
But she never would have guessed how vital her newfound knowledge would be in her own life.
One Saturday this summer while she was at work, she realised that she had had multiple missed calls from her boyfriend. He told her that Pepper, their three-year-old crestipoo (Chinese Crested, Miniature Poodle cross) was acting strangely. She couldn’t walk without falling over and she was tremoring, he suspected she was suffering a mild seizure.
As it was a weekend, their vet practice was shut and the advice from the out-of-hours vet was to monitor Pepper and bring her in if she got worse.
Zoe wasn’t sure if the seizure had been brought on by heatstroke or potential poisoning as Pepper could have eaten something on her walk.
She gave her boyfriend advice to keep Pepper in the shade and cool her down with water but not cover her with a damp towel as this can trap in heat. She also remembered a comment that the dog first aid trainer had made and suggested that he rub runny honey on her gums as this can be used to treat shock.
(It’s important to note that only runny honey is suitable to rub on a dog’s gums and using any other honey can cause problems.)
Thankfully, Pepper recovered quickly and by the time Zoe got home she was running around like normal.
Later, Zoe found a chewed-up packet of chewing gum in Pepper’s poo. Chewing gum is toxic to dogs and causes extreme blood sugar decrease so the honey on the gums happened to be the perfect solution.
Thanks to Zoe’s dog first aid training, she was prepared to act and able to stay calm during an emergency, and little Pepper made a swift recovery.