Near Drowning – First Aid for Dogs and Cats

Pet owners who have a pool in the garden should be prepared: What to do if I rescue my animal seemingly lifeless from a pool?

Please pay attention to your own safety!

In a drowning accident, the head goes underwater and breathing is impaired. The focus is on the body’s lack of oxygen, and rapid action is necessary.

If at all possible, call another person for help. Grab your animal, keep its head above water, and lay it on land on its side so that the head is the lowest point and the abdomen and pelvis are significantly higher. This allows the water to drain from the airways. Smaller dogs and cats should be lifted at the abdomen and pelvis, allowing the chest and head to hang down. Remove water from the nose and mouth area. If your animal is conscious and breathing normally, try to keep it in a calm Lying on side and keep an eye on the circulation (heartbeat). Dry your animal and wrap it in something dry (towel, blanket, your clothes) and check breathing and heart function at short intervals.

If your animal is not breathing normally (gasping is not normal breathing), immediately begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (see https://petsvetcheck.de/krankheiten-und-stoerungen/notfaelle/herzstillstand-wiederbelebung-reanimation/). Unlike typical resuscitation, start with multiple rescue breaths if possible. Pull your animal’s lower jaw slightly forward and tilt its head back slightly so that your rescue breath lands in the lungs and not in your animal’s stomach. Note your animal’s smaller lung volume compared to yours and do not blow too hard. The chest should only rise slightly. Rescue breaths alone can already restart circulation in a drowning accident. If your animal does not breathe independently afterward, chest compressions and rescue breaths should be performed alternately, with 15 chest compressions to 2 rescue breaths. Clear the airways repeatedly and get to a veterinary hospital or small animal practice as quickly as possible, while continuing resuscitation until arrival. Do not stop beforehand. The chances for successful resuscitation are good. Keep your animal warm!

The veterinarian has technical aids to get the cardiopulmonary function going again and optimize it, as well as to carry out the possibly necessary emptying of the stomach to relieve breathing. In the further course, he will restore the internal environment in the body (electrolytes, blood gases, pH value, etc.) by means of a targeted infusion therapy on the basis of laboratory diagnostic findings and at the same time take care of a normalization of the body temperature. Severe hypothermia can lead to another circulatory arrest even after successful resuscitation. In the further course after a drowning accident, special attention must be paid to lung health. Germs and small foreign bodies could have entered the lungs, and important substances of the alveoli for gas exchange (surfactant) could have been washed out.