Perfect Puppy Care Book – Chapter 7 – Puppy Health Care (Part 11)
Chapter 7 – Puppy Health Care (Part 11)
Emergencies (Continued…)
Bleeding
Seeing blood pour out of your puppy can cause the strongest person to panic, but try to remain calm. She needs your quick action!
The safest way to control bleeding is to apply pressure directly on the wound. Take several sterile gauze squares and put them on the wound. If you don’t have sterile gauze, use the cleanest cloths you can find and fold them over thickly. Apply direct pressure for up to ten minutes. Leave the gauze there, and bandage the wound snugly. If you don’t have anything to bandage the wound with, keep applying pressure until you can reach a veterinarian. If you see swelling below the bandage, your puppy’s circulation is impaired, and you’ll need to remove or loosen the bandage.
If your puppy has bright red blood spurting out, then she has arterial bleeding. If you can’t control this with direct pressure, use a tourniquet. Use this method only if you can’t control the bleeding using direct pressure. You can use tourniquets on your puppy’s legs and tail. Always put the tourniquet above the wound, between the wound and the heart. To make a tourniquet, employ the following steps:
- Use a belt, a piece of cloth, or gauze.
- Loop the material twice around the area.
- Twist it with your hands or insert a stick beneath the loop to help you tighten it. Twist until the bleeding stops.
- Loosen the tourniquet every ten minutes to prevent tissue damage and to check for persistent bleeding.
- If the bleeding has stopped, apply a direct pressure bandage. If the wound is still bleeding, let it flow for a few seconds and then retwist the tourniquet.
If a wound has stopped bleeding, don’t wipe it or pour hydrogen peroxide on it, or you could dislodge the clot.
Your veterinarian can determine if your puppy needs stitches or more intensive care, especially to prevent infection of the wound.
Frostbite
Frostbite occurs when part of the body freezes. Your puppy’s ear tips, footpads, and tail are most vulnerable to this emergency condition. Frostbitten skin is pale blue or white at first. As circulation returns, it turns red and swollen and may peel. Eventually, it turns black as the skin dies.
Don’t use snow or ice on frostbite, or you could cause more tissue damage. Instead, soak the frostbitten skin in warm—not hot—water for about 20 minutes or until the skin looks flushed.
Do not rub or massage the frostbitten skin. Take your puppy to the veterinarian for further treatment.
As your puppy’s skin warms, it could become quite painful for her. She may react out of pain, so restrain her if necessary. Don’t let her bite or scratch at the frostbitten spot, or she could cause more damage.
Gastrointestinal Blockages
Puppies lead the pack in swallowing foreign objects. They’ve been known to ingest golf balls, toys, peach pits, rocks, batteries, jewelry, string, loose change, and more. If you’re lucky, your puppy will pass a foreign object, and you’ll just find a surprise in her stool. But sometimes the object gets stuck. This is an emergency situation.
Symptoms of a blockage include vomiting, lack of interest in food, lethargy, and pain. The vomit may be projectile or smell like feces. If there is a complete blockage, your puppy will not be able to pass a stool. If you see these signs, take your puppy to a veterinarian right away. She may require surgery to remove the object.
Emergencies Section Continued on the Next Page
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