WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) - Kay Ortega has had pets since she was 13. Now 56, she has two greyhounds (Sanford and Scottie) two collies (Meika and Emma) and a little mixed-breed dog named Sweetie.
She said that she thought she knew everything there was to know about owning a pet but that she was lacking one important piece of knowledge: how to perform CPR on them.
“I always wanted to learn how to do CPR just in case something happens,” said Ortega, who works for the FBI and lives in Woodbridge with her adopted senior pups. “I’ve had dogs all my life, and now I will feel more comfortable.”
Ortega and a dozen other animal lovers gathered in a classroom at the Chinn Aquatics and Fitness Center in Woodbridge last month to learn not only how to give big and small animals CPR, but also how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, check gums for oxygen levels, prepare first-aid kits and bandage wounds.
“I’ve always worried if my dog gets in a fight,” said 18-year-old Yofi Stark of Manassas, who works at a doggy day care and owns Laika, an 8-month-old Siberian husky. “My dog is my best friend, and I want to take care of her the way I would my human friend. If my friend fell down and scraped her knee, I’d want to know how to bandage it.”
Kathryn Nestler, 45, a class instructor, began researching the fundamentals of pet CPR a year ago when she realized there was nothing like it in the Prince William County area. The Woodbridge resident has two 10-year-old cats, Prue and Emma. Emma was born with a hole in her heart.
“It’s just definitely good to know how to take care of your animals in the event that you unfortunately would have to,” Nestler said. “How do you check that your animal is breathing? How do you check for it to have a pulse? And then, how can you take care of that animal in the event that it needs your help?”
A dog or cat “can’t tell you what’s wrong” - that’s an important idea repeated in the class.
No real animals were used to practice the techniques. Students performed CPR for large and small pets using stuffed animals that looked like the real thing. They interlocked one hand over the other to give compressions to a faux German shepherd, toy cat or stuffed beagle.
And the beat for compressions? Nestler told students to think of the Bee Gees’ song “Stayin’ Alive” to help them keep the right pace.
After five compressions, the students were told to cup their hands over the animal’s snout and blow a breath into their lungs.
The class had lots of tips seasoned pet owners have heard before, such as how to know when a dog or cat is angry. But then there were some pet care tidbits many students said they did not know: pressing on an animal’s gum to see whether it turns pink indicates how much oxygen it’s getting; wrapping smaller animals in a towel can create a makeshift muzzle; and the first 20 minutes are critical to saving an animal’s life.
The county offers the class, which is based on techniques used by the American Red Cross, to pet owners 12 and older. Students can take the class for $50 and receive the lesson book for either cats or dogs, or they can get both books for $60. The next class is planned for July.
Although pet CPR might sound like an esoteric branch of pet ownership, Nestler said the techniques can be used to try to keep an animal alive on the way to a veterinarian.
She added that having a pet is like having a child and that every parent should know the basics of emergency care.
“Anything can happen at any time,” Nestler said.
“You can’t just call pet 911 and have an ambulance show up - it’s all going to be on you,” she said.
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Information from: The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com
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