First Aid for Drowning Pets

With all of the recent news about hurricanes and flooding, all pet owners should know the basics of pet first aid in case of drowning. While most dogs and cats know instinctively how to swim, flash floods and torrential rains can make it impossible for them to find high ground before they become exhausted. Breathing water in to the lungs damages the organs, and can lead to suffocation.

You must be careful when retrieving your pet that you aren’t also caught in the water. Use a pool skimmer, a fishing pole, rake, or whatever you can grab to snag a collar and pull the pet close to you.

Once out, you need to remove water from her lungs, windpipe and mouth. The easiest way is to let gravity help you--simply grasp small pets by hind legs or a larger pet by her hips, and hang upside down while giving her a good shake. At the same time, have somebody else thump her on her sides at the same time for ten or fifteen seconds.

For dogs that are too big to lift, place her on one side with her head lower than the tail end. Put the heel of your hand in the dip directly behind her last ribs, and thrust upwards toward the dog’s head a couple of times--water should come out within a couple of seconds.

Draining the water may be enough to get our cat or dog breathing again. But it absorbs quickly into the lungs so if your pet has been in the water any length of time, there may not be much water to come out. If the dog or cat hasn’t started breathing, you’ll need to do mouth-to-nose rescue breathing (I’ve described this before in previous blogs). Basically you’ll want to give 15 to 20 breaths per minute until she starts breathing again or you reach help.

Acupuncture Resuscitation

When all else fails, and the pet won’t breathe and her heart has stopped, you can perform acupuncture resuscitation. Your veterinarian would at this point give an injection of epinephrine that jumpstarts the heart. You instead jab a needle or safety pin into the slit beneath your pet’s nose, down to the bone, and wiggle it back and forth. Don’t be squeamish, this can save his life! This stimulates the body to release adrenaline, a natural substance similar to epinephrine.

I hope you’ll never need to perform this technique, but it’s vital to know how just in case.