Pets in Emergency

Pets in Emergency: "PETS IN EMERGENCY

Most of us will have seen emergency medical techniques practiced on television but how many of us have ever had to spring into action during an emergency situation? Of those that have, how many have actually had emergency medical training such as CPR? A surprising fact probably not known to many, is that the same emergency techniques seen used on humans can also be used on our pets should the need ever arise.

Emergency and critical care veterinary medicine is a rapidly growing area that the University of Illinois Teaching Hospital is trying to expand. They hope to develop it into a center of excellence with the help of dedicated staff of emergency medicine clinicians.

There is a strong incentive to improve emergency medical assistance that actually extends beyond the field of veterinary medicine. There is also a nationwide push to improve emergency care for pets and it has manifested itself in some seemingly unlikely places. On board most aircrafts is you were to look around, you would more than likely see a sign with a heart and a lightning bolt on it next to the standard first aid kit. This tells you there is a defibrillator on board which is used to help people who are suffering from a heart attack.

How you may ask does all of this pertain to veterinary medicine? The fact is that the same life saving techniques that are now routinely taught to people during CPR classes were originally developed experimentally in animals for use in humans. This means that these techniques can also be used to save the lives of animals in emergency situations. For instance, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation can be modified to mouth to nose resuscitation to save a dog that has stopped breathing. The technique is slightly different, but the concept is exactly the same as it is for humans.

At the University of Illin"
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Originally Posted on 23/07/2005 7:40:49 PMContent source: http://cats-dogs.blogspot.com/2005/02/pets-in-emergency.html