Canine CPR

There may come a time when your 4-legged friend needs your help and knowing how to perform CPR may save their life. This process is not difficult to learn and all dog owners should know how to do it properly.

• Check for breathing and a pulse. Watch the chest closely for any movement. Check for a pulse with your index and middle fingers. The best place to check for a pulse is on the femoral artery, ankles and chest.
  
  
• If you see no signs of breathing and cannot find a pulse it is time to start chest compressions. Lay the dog on his side. Place your hands on top of each other, lock your elbows, place your hands on the dogs ribcage and start compressions. Perform 5-10 compressions, using fairly strong force.
  
  
• If this does not get the dog breathing again you will need to do mouth to nose breathing. I know this sounds funny, but remember, you are trying to save a dogs life. Put your mouth over the dogs nose, lightly sealing around the sides of the nose with your hands and blow a steady, medium size breath into the dogs nose.
  
  
• Rotate between chest compressions and nose breathing and after a minute or so check for a pulse. Continue this routine until the dog recovers and then get him to a vet.
  

If the dog does not survive, at least you will know that you did everything you could.