Out & About First Aid for your Dog

You’ll have your own vet’s number stored, but if you are away, make a note of a vet local to the area, just in case.   

For more serious injuries, too much time spent administering first aid might delay vital, emergency veterinary treatment, but we can certainly try to stabilize our dog’s condition and comfort on the way. 

• Cuts 

Cuts are amongst the most common injuries. With heavy blood loss, press a pad of fabric, like a clean tea-towel, over the wound and hold for 3 minutes, pulling it away to check if the flow is reducing before pressing again.  A bandage is a useful, lightweight item to carry, and can maintain light pressure of a pad on a wound until bleeding stops or you get to the vet. 

• Tails 

Micropore tape is handy, especially for tail wounds. Enthusiastic dogs can injure tails on brambles, barbed wire, sticks etc. An open tail wound is very hard to dress as wagging easily dislodges most dressings. Light and adhesive, micropore tape is your best bet for protecting a wound from further damage and reducing blood spattering in your car. 

• Eye

Don’t delay getting an eye injury assessed and treated by a vet. If you believe it to be just dirt in there, an eye rinse, or saline solution, is an easy way of rinsing it, or cleaning a minor wound. 

• Foreign Bodies

If you find a foreign body, like a thorn or nail, protruding from a paw, use tweezers to carefully remove it. Never try to remove a foreign body from an eye though, that is strictly a job for a vet.  Tweezers also come in handy for removing ticks.  Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible, without squeezing its body, and steadily, but firmly, pull away from the skin until the mouth parts come free. 

Keep in your car or rucksack: 

For free, 24/7, veterinary advice, wherever you are, the Agria App comes with Agria Lifetime pet insurance. Download it now, an essential part of your first aid kit.