Pet BLS

[NomadicMedic]

Nope. No defib. I was surprised too. Her clinic is basically the "Animal Trauma Center" for the area. Once pets are stable, they get transferred to another facility. She's worked on several police dogs and does nothing but emergent cases. It's a pretty cool setup.

 

[Jon]

I am pretty sure that our EMT licenses/certifications to not extend to animals. Practicing medicine on them would be tantamount to practicing vetrinary medicine without a license. You could have your EMT license/cert revoked and face possibly criminal charges.

Unlikely, but possible.

On the flipside, what happens if you stand by and do nothing?

County-wide, there was a donation to EVERY FD and EMS agency of a set of 3-sizes of Animal O2 masks. Either add O2 via a nipple, or connect a BVM.

They work sometimes, other times, animals are beyond help.

 

[kindofafireguy]

I've used a canine mask twice, both on bee swarm incidents. Both on small dogs who were probably too far gone.

But it does happen.

 

[mycrofft]

Wonder if there is a Veterinary Good Samaritan Law? Seeing as how at least a civil court fight might ensue with a briefing vindictive owner for thousands of dollars.
I've seen the polycarbonate soft drink bottles used as masks, make an adapter for the tubing at the stem end, cut out the bottom and pad with medical tape.

 

[xrsm002]

Oh so this will be when I call my wife who is a veterinary technician (it's equal to a PA in the human medical field) yes you can check a dogs oxygen sats they can even do BPs, not manual they use monitors, line in surgery suites. I know this because I've seen this equipment. They use a infant BP pulse ox on tongue, they shave their furr to place electrodes which the monitor leads clip too.

 

[xrsm002]

I will get a picture for y'all

 

[CritterNurse]

Oh so this will be when I call my wife who is a veterinary technician (it's equal to a PA in the human medical field) yes you can check a dogs oxygen sats they can even do BPs, not manual they use monitors, line in surgery suites. I know this because I've seen this equipment. They use a infant BP pulse ox on tongue, they shave their furr to place electrodes which the monitor leads clip too.

From my experience, it is nearly impossible to keep a pulse-ox on the tongue of an awake animal, even a veterinary pulse-ox monitor. I've only found it worked if the animal was sedated, or otherwise unconscious. For non-sedated animals, I've had better luck placing those on a paw-pad if its a pink paw-pad and holding the paw, or on the ear and holding the head to prevent the animal from shaking it loose.

If you have a technique that can be used with human equipment (not a veterinary pulse ox) please share. I've tried to use an adult pulse-ox on a dog at the scene of a fire with no luck. I didn't think to try an infant one, and haven't been at an incident since that involved a pet.

 

[Achilles]

My dog doesn't have thumbs so he can't turn on the O2. Should I call Dr. Doolittle?

 

[NomadicMedic]

I've had this discussion before… My girlfriend (hopefully soon-to-be wife) is an emergency vet, the equivalent of a level one trauma doc. Much of what we do, most of the medicines we use, many of the treatments that we perform are very similar between pets and humans. And as dogs very seldom have chronic arrhythmias, some oxygen may be all that pooch needs. Like children, most dog or cat cardiac arrests are the results of airway issues.

If you've got a trauma/emergency vet center in your area it's worth talking to one or two of the docs there. They're very knowledgeable and they may give you some tricks on how to fix some of the more common pet emergencies. At least to get them stable enough to be transported to an emergency clinic.

Many people have pets that are like members of the family and I'll tell you, if somebody told me my dog was going to die because an EMT didn't believe that he should use oxygen on the dog ... Well, they would have to pull me off of him. :/

 

[heatherabel3]

In October of last year we lost our house to a kitchen fire. In the midst of grabbing my son and getting the hell out I totally forgot my poor cat. So I am standing in the driveway FREAKING out and my neighbor tells one of the firefighters that the cat is in the house. He goes and tells the guy who is holding the hose in the front door of the house, that guy drops the hose and bolts into the house and comes out about 2 minutes later with my cat. They started an IV and CPR, gave him oxygen and brought him back to life. He is laying in my lap right now as I type this. You guys may think I'm crazy, but to this day nothing I could do or say would show how thankful I am for that firefighter. Let's just say the base fire department stayed stocked in baked goods for weeks after that.

 

[rwik123]

In October of last year we lost our house to a kitchen fire. In the midst of grabbing my son and getting the hell out I totally forgot my poor cat. So I am standing in the driveway FREAKING out and my neighbor tells one of the firefighters that the cat is in the house. He goes and tells the guy who is holding the hose in the front door of the house, that guy drops the hose and bolts into the house and comes out about 2 minutes later with my cat. They started an IV and CPR, gave him oxygen and brought him back to life. He is laying in my lap right now as I type this. You guys may think I'm crazy, but to this day nothing I could do or say would show how thankful I am for that firefighter. Let's just say the base fire department stayed stocked in baked goods for weeks after that.

Very cool

 

[Handsome Robb]

I don't know about other areas but here some people have stickers in the front window by the door that lists how many and what type of animals are inside for the FD.

I've never dealt with an animal in distress but I'd have no problem helping one while on duty, provided there aren't humans with needs that need to be taken care of.

 

[Doczilla]

I've had training for military working dogs, which can include labs, German shepards, hounds, etc. I would agree that trauma-wise, priorities are generally the same for them.

Just to expand, the military greatly values their dogs; as I'm sure that LE agencies do. You never know what could happen. Outside of trauma, the biggest threat to big dogs like this are heat injuries. Still, same priorities. Getting an EJ is even quite easy if you can't find a saphenous vein on the leg.

Not that anyone here would try this, but medication doses are drastically different. The dose for anesthesia in a pup for ketamine is upwards of 10mg/kg. I once assumed that you could go weight -based on the pediatric dose, and we only gave just enough to make fido hallucinate. He spent 20 mins watching an imaginary tennis match.

"I know I'm a fish, but why do I have wheels?"

Gotta love ketamine.

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

Just took a K9 emergency medicine course put on by the Police and Working dog foundation. While the course was primarily BLS in nature with the handlers in mind, the emergency vet's knew my ALS role and gave a ton of great info including use of IO's and drug dosing for various issues.
For those on the West Coast look em up. I would imagine most other areas also have similiar

 

[DrankTheKoolaid]

re

Blech wasnt fast enough to edit the last to add this.

Here is the link to the NorCal K9 site.

http://www.coveryourk9.org/