Dog First Aid: What To Do Before You Get To the Vet

First, work out whether your dog is choking or just coughing. A coughing dog can still breathe in. A choking dog can't, so you'll see them fighting for air, usually clawing at their own mouth, and the tongue and gums can start to go blue.

• Keep your dog as calm as you can, and yourself too
• If you can see what's stuck, reach for tweezers or pliers rather than your bare fingers, because a frightened dog may well bite, and it's nothing personal
• If your dog is unconscious, open the mouth and run a finger carefully along the back of the throat to feel for whatever is lodged there
• If it still won't shift, roll your dog onto their side and put both palms flat against the ribs
• Give three or four quick, firm pushes, or a sharp slap with an open hand, and repeat if nothing comes free
• Ring your vet either way, as even a cleared airway can be left bruised or swollen

Toys too big to swallow, balls with holes through them, and no throwing food for a dog to catch mid-air all help. It's one reason I keep walking groups to four dogs at most, so I can see what everyone's picked up.

Go carefully, even with a dog you'd trust with anything. Pain makes dogs bite, and a towel over the head or a makeshift muzzle is sometimes kinder for everyone, though never muzzle a dog who's struggling to breathe or being sick.

• Press something clean and absorbent over the wound, a cloth or a bandage, and keep steady pressure on it
• Don't lift it to check. Every peek disturbs the clot and starts the bleeding off again. If blood soaks through, add another layer on top and keep pressing
• Ring your vet for an emergency appointment, and move your dog gently, keeping away from the injury

A dog can also bleed internally, where there's nothing at all to see at first.

Pale gums, cold feet or ears, bruising coming up on the skin, laboured breathing, a swollen-looking tummy, or a dog who suddenly can't hold themselves up: any of those means going straight in. Bleeding you can't see is often the more dangerous kind.

Watching a dog have a seizure is horrible, and every instinct tells you to take hold of them. Try not to.

• Don't restrain your dog, and don't shout at them, shake them or try to wake them
• Keep your hands away from their mouth. They can't swallow their tongue, and you can very easily be bitten
• If they're up on a sofa or bed, ease them down onto the floor, then move anything nearby they could catch themselves on
• Dim the lights, keep the room quiet, and keep it cool, as seizures push a dog's temperature up, so no blankets
• Time it, and film it if you can. It feels an odd thing to do, but a video tells your vet far more than trying to describe it afterwards
• Wait until the seizure has finished before moving your dog

Ring your vet straight away if a seizure lasts more than two minutes, or if it isn't the first in 24 hours. Book a check-up after any seizure at all, even if your dog gets up afterwards and seems perfectly fine.

Gastric dilatation volvulus, usually just called bloat, is where the stomach fills with gas and then twists, sealing off both ends so the pressure has nowhere to go.

It's very painful, and it can kill within hours without treatment. Deep-chested breeds are most at risk, though it isn't only them. The signs are:

• Retching, or trying to be sick with nothing coming up, which is the one to watch for
• A tummy that looks swollen or feels taut, although on a dog who's naturally tucked up behind the ribs you may not see it at all
• Restlessness and pacing, not able to settle
• Heavy drooling, pale gums, difficulty breathing, collapse

It comes on quickly and gets worse quickly, and the only fix is an operation. There's nothing useful to be done at home beyond spotting it.

Ring your vet and go. Please don't wait to see whether it settles on its own.

Chocolate, raisins, a dropped tablet, something licked up on a walk, the advice is the same whatever it was.

• Don't try to make your dog sick unless a vet has told you to, as some things do far more damage coming back up than they did going down
• Ring your vet, or the Animal PoisonLine on 01202 509000
• That line is run by the Veterinary Poisons Information Service, and it's the only 24-hour poisons line in the UK for pet owners. Calls cost £35 per case between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday, and £45 at any other time
• Have the packaging to hand. What it was, roughly how much, and how long ago, are the three things you'll be asked
• Ring even if your dog seems perfectly well. With a lot of poisons, by the time there's anything to see, the easiest window has gone

One catches out a lot of well-meaning owners: never give a dog human painkillers.

Ibuprofen is highly toxic to dogs, and even one tablet can make a dog the size of a Labrador seriously ill, causing stomach ulcers and kidney damage. Paracetamol is dangerous too. If your dog has swallowed either, treat it as poisoning and ring the vet.

Heatstroke is a real emergency, and an easy one to misjudge. Rather than cover it twice, I've written it up properly in keeping dogs safe in hot weather, along with how hot is too hot to walk.

CPR is only for a dog who is unconscious, not breathing and has no heartbeat, and it's most worth trying on an otherwise healthy dog where there's an obvious cause, such as drowning or choking. Never practise it on a dog who's breathing.

• Check for a response by calling them and rubbing their side, then draw the tongue forward and clear the airway
• Look for the chest moving, listen at the nostrils, and feel for a heartbeat low down on the left side, or a pulse on the inside of the upper thigh
• Compressions come in blocks of 30, fast, roughly twice a second, and deep enough to squash the chest down by a third to a half
• Hand position depends on size. A dog under 5kg fits inside a single hand, thumb uppermost and fingers underneath. Anything bigger needs both hands locked together over the broadest part of the ribs
• Then two rescue breaths, extending the neck, sealing your mouth around the nostrils and blowing until you see the chest rise
• Keep that cycle of 30 and 2 going for two minutes, then check for a heartbeat. Carry on until your dog shows signs of life, or until you reach the vet

Reading it through isn't the same as being shown, though. If it's something you'd want to do properly, a hands-on pet first aid course is a few hours well spent.