First aid does not replace a vet — it buys minutes. In an emergency, those minutes decide a lot, so it is worth reading this once and keeping the article bookmarked. Save your clinic’s phone number in your phone right now, ideally a 24-hour one.
Three rules before you help
- Protect yourself. A frightened or in-pain animal bites even its owner. If you must approach, throw a towel or blanket over the head and wrap the animal, leaving the injured area accessible.
- Call the vet first. Describe what happened and ask what to do — in many situations the right action is to transport the animal lying down, without improvising.
- Do not give human medicine. Paracetamol is life-threatening for cats, ibuprofen and diclofenac for both dogs and cats. Activated charcoal is only given on the vet’s instruction.
Emergency kit
Keep a small box at home with: gauze bandage and cotton wool, medical adhesive plaster, saline or clean water for rinsing, disposable gloves, a syringe without a needle for rinsing and flushing, tweezers or a tick remover, a fever thermometer (pet version), hydrogen peroxide 3% (only as directed by a vet!), a reflective blanket and a list of numbers: your vet, the nearest 24-hour clinic, poison hotline.
When to run to the vet immediately
- breathing is difficult: open-mouth breathing in a cat, wheezing, blue or pale gums;
- the animal collapses and does not get up, gums are white or grey;
- seizures: convulsions, loss of consciousness;
- uncontrolled bleeding;
- suspected poisoning: Baits, rodenticide, household chemicals, chocolate, grapes;
- distended, taut stomach with unproductive retching in a deep-chested dog — suspected bloat, a surgical emergency;
- trauma from a fall or a car: even if nothing is visible, internal bleeding is possible.
Poisoning
Typical signs: vomiting, diarrhoea (often with blood), drooling, tremors, disorientation, lethargy, convulsions. The first thing to do is take away the source, look at the packaging and remember what and how much was eaten and when.
What not to do without a vet: do not induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide “just in case” (caustic substances and sharp objects will damage the oesophagus a second time), do not give milk “to dilute” (for many poisons it does the opposite), do not give laxatives.
Take the packaging, a sample of the vomit if possible, and go to the clinic — or stay on the phone while they tell you what to do. For rodenticide, time matters: the antidote is most effective in the first hours.
Heat stroke
Common in summer: a car in the sun, a balcony without shade, a walk in the middle of the day. Signs: heavy, rapid panting, drooling with thick saliva, vomiting, unsteady gait, lethargy, red or grey gums.
First aid:
- Move the animal into the shade or a cool room immediately.
- Cool with cool (not ice-cold!) water: wet the body, ears and paws; you can put a cool damp towel on the belly and groin, changing it as it warms up.
- Offer small amounts of cool water — a lot at once causes vomiting.
- Transport to the vet even if the animal has recovered — internal organs “cook” after the fact.
Never leave an animal alone in a car. In summer the temperature inside a parked car passes 40 °C within 15–20 minutes, even with a window cracked — for a dog this is lethal.
Bleeding and wounds
External bleeding from a leg or ear: press a gauze pad firmly to the wound and hold it for 3–5 minutes without peeking; if the blood soaks through, add another pad on top without removing the first. Elevate the limb if possible. Bleeding that continues after 10 minutes — drive to the vet.
Do not pull objects out of a wound: a knife, bone fragment or stick can be plugging a damaged vessel. Fix the object in place with rolled bandages on both sides and transport the animal.
A tourniquet is a last resort, only for limb bleeding that cannot be stopped otherwise, and no longer than 1.5–2 hours — note the time it was applied and tell the doctor.
Suspected fracture or spine injury
If you suspect a fracture: minimise movement, carry the animal in a box or on a rigid board, supporting the body. Do not “test” whether it can stand. With a suspected spinal injury (after a fall, a fight, paralysis of the hind legs) — do not bend or massage; transport on a flat board, keeping the back straight, and drive urgently.
Seizures
- Do not put your hands in the mouth — the animal does not swallow its tongue and it will bite reflexively.
- Dim the light, remove loud sounds, do not shake or shout.
- Watch the clock: record when the seizure started.
- A seizure lasting more than 2–3 minutes, several seizures in a row, or a seizure for the first time in life — urgent transport to the vet.
- Afterwards the animal may be disoriented for up to a day — keep it warm, quiet and do not feed until it fully comes to.
Tick bite
Grasp the tick with a tick twister or fine tweezers close to the skin and pull with a slow twisting motion — do not squeeze the body, do not smear with oil or alcohol (it will inject the contents into the wound). After removal, treat the bite with antiseptic and note the date. In the following 2–6 weeks watch for lethargy, loss of appetite, pale gums, dark urine — see a vet immediately if these appear; tick-borne diseases are treated early.
What to tell the vet on the phone
- species, breed, weight, age;
- what happened and when (exact time matters for poisoning and heat stroke);
- what symptoms are present right now;
- what the animal ate and what treatment it receives;
- whether it has chronic conditions and vaccinations.
And ask: “Do not give anything before I arrive?” In most cases the answer is exactly that — many first-aid measures on the internet make things worse.
Bottom line
Save this article, put the clinic’s number in your phone contacts and check the emergency kit once every six months. We hope you never need it — but if you do, you will act calmly and in the right order: safety, a call to the doctor, then assistance and transport.