Does your pet need a first aid kit?

​       If you travel with your pet then you might already know the importance of a Pet First Aid Kit. However, many of us do not have one on hand.   So let’s talk about why you might want to get one or even put it together yourself (DIY).
              My husband and I travel with our dogs. Usually it is to visit friends and family that welcome our dogs as their own. Most of the time they all get along. Yet the first time they did not we almost had a tragedy. We took a newly adopted 7 year old dog to my parent’s house in the Poconos. They had a very large, beautiful German Shepheard at the time and our new guy was a medium size sight hound mix.  They had met before and had gotten along ok so we figured everything would be alright – WRONG!!!  We left the two dogs under adult supervision and they got in to a scuffle.  In fact, a pretty bad scuffle. The adult that was watching them said it only lasted a second or two and it seemed to be pretty petty and then things were fine. Being a vet assistant and having worked a vet clinic for a long time, I decided it would be best to examine Al (our sight hound mix) and Sabrina (my parents German Shepheard). Sabrina was fine, no problems. Then I moved to Al – um…where is this blood coming from?  Why is he swollen? Oh no, it is 9:30 pm on a Friday night in the middle of nowhere!!! Think fast – what can I do?!?  Where can I go?!?! Nearest vet which was closed was over 30 mins away and I knew if infection set in that would not be a good thing. Al had this giant roll of skin around his neck, kind of like a Shar Pei and now there were 4 holes in this roll of skin.
                     Thankfully my vet assistant training kicked in and I knew we needed to flush them but again in the middle of nowhere with not many options I had to think fast.
                         The nearest pharmacy that was open late, until 10 pm was 40-45 mins away, we made it in less than 30 mins. We got our needed supplies: bulb syringe and betadine solution, a ton of paper towels, digital thermometer, petroleum jelly and a blanket for Al too.
                     When we got home to work on him, I could not shave to get the hair out of the way of the puncture holes. I knew that is what should be done. I also needed to see how deep his punctures were. All I could do was dilute the betadine into a strong tea color with warm water, stick him in the bath tub and flush those wounds out. We flushed them for about 20 mins. We would suck the diluted betadine up with the bulb syringe and then squirt it into a wound and watch it as it drained out the out the wound. Yes, he did have 4 of these wounds and we needed to flush out all of them.
                   Thankfully, because we moved fast and I knew the very basics of what to do, Al did great. We brought him to the vet the nest day. Our vet said we were very lucky because often infections sets in quickly. He took a look at Al’s wounds and they were already starting to heal. He said they were very deep and went straight through to the other side. He also flushed them some more, decided it was best to sedate Al and have drains put in to keep the healing process up. He also dispensed antibiotics to prevent and infection.  Al had to go back to have the drains remove and that is when he got a clean bill of health.
    Al healed up nicely and he went on to live a nice long life and he and Sabrina learned to live together on our visits.
                     What my husband and I learned was we needed a dog first aid kit. Now we never travel without one and we even gift our custom-made ones to friends and family. Having this kit handy at home is helpful too. 
     Here is what we suggest to pack in a cat and dog kit:
Betadine Solution
Bulb syringe
Oral medicating syringe
Bagbalm
Skink Off Shampoo
Tick remover
Probiotics
Diagel (we sell this at clinic). It is diarrhea control gel.
Benadryl
Essential Mousse – think quick smell good bath minus the water.
Non-stick telfa
Vetwrap/Petflex
2” rolled gauze
Scissors
Tweezers                        
    Some items you can ask your vet for, we are happy to supply you with items you might need. You can call us at 860-779-6070.
                Thank you and Happy and Safe Travels!!!