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BETH N. GRAYA class teaches pet owners how to keep their loved ones alive en route to the vet.
BROOKSVILLE - Pet CPR?
Modified Heimlich maneuver for a choking dog or cat?
Lifesaving technique for a bleeding pet?
No problem. Linda Christian can show you how.
The American Red Cross-certified animal and human first aid trainer recently lectured 10 pet owners on how to administer lifesaving techniques until a gravely injured or sick animal can get to a vet for professional help.
"For some people an animal is like family. It's very important to them," said Christian, who explained that the reason for providing first aid to pets isn't very different from offering assistance to people.
"If you have an accident, in the interim there is something you can attempt to do in order to prolong their life until they get to the vet and get medical attention," Christian said. "Then no matter what happens, we are not as distraught. We know we tried to do something. It helps, and a lot of times it works."
Those who attended Christian's workshop were attentive if not a bit squeamish.
For Paula Carrington, the worry was treating her horses for snake bites. Carrington, who raises horses on her Southern Skies Ranch in Weeki Wachee, wanted to be prepared just in case a snake bit one of her horses while riding on the trail.
Nancy Rogers of Spring Hill wanted to learn how to care for her Shih Tzus, Mazzy and Ozzie, especially since one had fallen into a new swimming pool before a fence was set up. Rogers jumped in and saved her dog, but it was a frightening ordeal, she said.
But there are limits to how far she would go. Leafing through the textbook Pet First Aid, Rogers shuddered.
"I couldn't do CPR on a lizard," Rogers said. "I'd throw up."
Meanwhile, Sonya Kennedy of Brooksville sought to broaden her animal emergency skills from geese to goats. She once sewed up a goose after it was attacked by a bird of prey. And she shared with the class how a vet in Italy brought a goat from the brink of shock with a half tumbler of whiskey down its gullet.
"Different animals have different tolerances for pain and shock," Christian interjected. Goats are on the low end of the tolerance scale, according to Christian.
Kennedy and other workshop participants just didn't get a lecture. They also got hands-on CPR training.
"It's a proven fact. It works," said Christian, who runs the lifeguard division for the Hernando County Parks and Recreation Department. She also teaches local veterinarians, kennel workers and pet groomers how to perform animal CPR.
She once performed rescue breathing, a precursor to CPR, on her ferret while taking it to a Tampa veterinarian for a lung infection. Christian pulled off the road every 15 minutes to give the critter air, one minute at a time. The ferret lived.
As a volunteer with Wildlife Rehabilitation of Hernando County, Christian has worked with all kinds of wildlife and has never been bitten by any. But she can't say the same thing for domesticated animals.
"Fifi may have been your lap dog for 15 years, but if she's injured or sick and you do something that hurts, she can't say, "Stop that,"' Christian warned students. Sick animals with teeth likely will snap if you hurt them, so approach cautiously.
"If an animal is down, touch from the no-teeth end for responsiveness," Christian said. "If it's not breathing, you're going to have to breathe for it. We're not trying to jump-start it.
"We're doing it in the meantime until a vet can determine why it's down."
Four to six minutes without breathing will cause brain damage in most animals, Christian said.
Because of the difference between a human mouth and that of a dog, cat or other pet, animal CPR targets the nose, rather than the mouth as in human CPR, she explained.
To avoid inflicting more damage to an injured pet, Christian said it's best to lay the animal on its right side. The heart on the left side is, thus, more accessible for the CPR procedure, Christian explained.
"Slide your hands down from the back of the head and grab the snout (to keep it closed). Listen and feel," said Christian, demonstrating on a preserved dog. She placed her left ear to the dog's nose, her eyes on its torso to detect breathing.
Seeing none, she told the class to pull the animal's head out straight from its body to obtain a clear, open airway.
"It's easier than with a person," Christian said. "Give four to five breaths in its nose. Then check for a pulse."
Pulse points are in the lower jaw below the ear, carotid artery in the neck, front armpit, where the rear thigh connects with the torso, and on the toe pads, Christian said.
Medium-sized and large dogs need a breath every two seconds, cats and dogs under 5 pounds, a breath every three seconds.
"If you don't see the chest rise, stretch out the head farther because you don't have a straight airway," she said. Administer air for one minute, then check again for a pulse. But Christian warned against being overzealous.
If too much air is forced in, it ends up in the stomach. That could prompt the animal to vomit, an unpleasant complication for both pet and emergency responder.
If rescue breathing fails, CPR is in order.
"These skills don't replace a vet's help," Christian said. "It's something to do in the interim before getting professional help."
Before a person begins rescue breathing or CPR, the pet owner should call the vet's office to let them know they should plan for an emergency. And the owner should gather transport equipment, preferably a cage or a stretcher, Christian said.
Responding to students' questions, Christian provided the following tips:
A snake bite, whether venomous or not, is always dangerous because a snake's fangs carry bacteria into the wound.
Shock is a quick killer of rabbits, goats and sheep. Best to isolate them in a quiet, dark place for up to 24 hours before administering aid, unless blood loss is involved. Symptoms of shock include heavy panting, snappishness, cooling of extremities and whitish color of the mucous membranes in mouth and eyelids.
Tourniquets to a limb likely will result in the loss of the limb below the tourniquet. Pressure bandages and elevations are preferred.
For choking, elevate the animal's hind, give five slaps on the clavicles. If unsuccessful, hold the animal in the same position, rotate the hands down the lower torso to the soft tissue beyond the rib cage and administer five sharp squeezes.
"Animals choke on toys and other things, and it's a very simple procedure to get an object out," Christian said.
Administering medications to cats is a different story, however.
"Have you ever tried restraining a cat?" Christian asked. "Whether you wrap or not, they're like Houdini with 40 legs."
The Recreation Department will sponsor another pet first aid and CPR class Jan. 24. To reserve a spot or request information, call the department at 754-4031.