Pet Instructor Skill Review
Course Content
- Introduction to your Pet First Aid Instructor refresher course
- Course introduction
- Dog First Aid and The Law
- The vet and your role in first aid
- The Role of the Dog First Aider
- When is Veterinary Care Required?
- Keeping your pet safe in an emergency
- Car Accidents
- Car Accidents - Injuries and Treatment
- Pet Proofing your home
- Please rescue my pets stickers
- Hand Hygiene
- Dog Microchipping
- Cat microchipping
- Precautions and Safety
- Pet Anatomy and Physiology
- First Aid Kits and Equipment
- Checking a Pets health
- Initial Assessment
- Checking Your Dog's Health and Finding Out What Is Normal
- Gum Colour
- Collecting a Urine Sample
- How Dogs Show Pain
- How Dogs Show Pain - Vets Comments
- Taking a Pulse
- Taking the Temperature
- Taking the Rectal Temperature
- Vital Signs
- Comprehensive Assessment and Checking Vital Signs Example
- Pet Accidents and First Aid
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - CPR
- Choking
- Bleeding Control
- Types of Bleeding
- Dressings, Bandages and Controlling Bleeding
- Catastrophic Bleeding
- Dogs and haemostatic dressings
- What is the ideal animal haemostatic agent
- Collaclot - Collagen pad to stop bleeding and promote clotting
- Dogs and Tourniquets
- Commercial Tourniquets for Dogs
- HaemoCap™ MultiSite - Dogs
- Shock
- Shock - vets comment
- Different Conditions you may see
- Breathing and Respiratory Problems
- Loss of Appetite
- Sneezing
- Lethargy
- Urination Problems
- Weakness in Animals
- Weakness and Collapse - additional vets comments
- Hair Loss and Skin Conditions
- Cataracts
- Dehydration in Dogs
- Clinical signs of dehydration in dogs and cats
- Hydration and rehydration in dogs
- Fluid balance in dogs and cats
- Oralade - treating dehydration
- Oralade for cats
- Oralade - The Science
- Injuries
- Suspected fractures
- Types of fractures on animals
- Dog Fractures Treatment
- Spinal injury and moving an injured dog
- Spinal Injuries
- Paw Problems
- Paws and Claws
- Nail and Claw Injuries
- Eye Injuries
- Eye Problems
- Ear Problems
- General Bandaging
- Bandaging the Ear
- Bandaging the Tail and Tail Injuries
- Bandaging the Body
- Fight Wounds
- Puncture Wounds
- Mouth and Dental Problems
- Animal bites and scratches on dogs
- Small Cuts, Scratches and Grazes
- Bandage aftercare
- Stings on animals
- Ibuprofen and pets
- Carbon Monoxide and dogs
- Poisoning
- Vet poison information line
- Inducing Vomiting in a Dog
- Inducing Vomiting - vets comments
- Snake Bites
- Dog Burns
- Chemical Burns
- Electrocution
- Electric Shocks
- Cruciate Ligament
- Falls From Height
- Illness
- Dogs and Illnesses
- Bloat and Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus (GDV)
- Why do dogs eat grass
- Why are Onions Toxic to Dogs
- Why is Chocolate Toxic to Dogs
- High Temperatures and Heatstroke
- Hyperthermia - Vets Comments
- Hypothermia Treatment
- Hypothermia - vets comments
- Vomiting in Animals
- Different Types and Causes of Vomiting
- Vomiting - vets comments
- Seizures and Epilepsy
- Diabetes
- Allergies in Dogs
- Allergic reactions
- Pancreatitis
- Cushings Disease
- Nose and Respiratory Problems - Vet
- Breathing Difficulties
- Coughing and kennel cough
- Kennel Cough - vets comments
- Diarrhoea in Animals
- Stomach Conditions
- Possible Causes of Blood in Dog Faeces
- Rabies
- Alabama Foot Rot
- Blue Green Algae
- Hip Dysplasia
- Urinary Tract Infections
- Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Pyometra
- Vestibular Syndrome
- Parasites that affect pets
- Cats
- Different types and sizes of animals
- Summary and Your Practical Session
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Get StartedPaw Problems
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What we are going to look at now is paw injuries. Now, a dog or any animal's paws can be hurt in lots of different ways. It could be that they tread on broken glass, or something sharp, and they can cut their pads. Now, the dog's pads are very, very strong, but they are very easily cut and damaged as well. There are lots of blood vessels in there. They've got quite a hard, leathery texture to them, and they are very, very good, and they will not tend to need much protection. But if they do get broken, then it can become very painful. Other things can happen. They could get stings in their pads because they have trodden on an insect. They could get something wedged up between their toes, things like thorns, bits of wood, splinters, can get caught in there. In winter, you might find that snow starts compacting in between their toes. And that's quite a simple one to get rid of because you need to identify... Don't go pulling it out, because the actual snow has been frozen into the paw, therefore, if you pull it out, you are likely to take skin and hair with it. You just gently warm it, just with some lukewarm water, not hot water. We do not want to burn the dog. That will quickly remove that. It is quite common in some breeds, so maybe you will find them limping when they are in the snow. Injury-wise, the important thing is to find out where the paw is injured. Sometimes, you see a lot of blood. Because of the nature of the injuries, they tend to bleed quite a lot. It's important to lay them down, and try and have a good look, to see exactly where the injury is because it might be there is more than one injury site. If they have trodden on a glass, it might be that one pad is really obviously cut. However, that just in between the toes, there is another cut. So, the first thing to do is to identify what the problem is. Another thing happens, quite common in summer, is dogs walking on tarmac, and tarmac can get really hot. You might think nothing of it because you are just walking in normal shoes. But maybe, in summer, you take a few minutes, you put your fingers down, and feel the temperature of tarmac, and that can be very, very hot. And it is quite common for dogs to get burns to their feet because they are walking on pavements or roads, and the tarmac is just burning their toes. Other things you may see are irritations. It may be that you got some building work going on, and cement dust, and like that, that can cause an irritation to the foot. We are going to have a look now at just putting a basic bandage on a foot. Now, dogs are very, very good at hopping around on three legs. If you do put a bandage on, they are not necessarily going to put it down on the ground, or even if it is injured, they may not put it on the ground. They are quite good at hopping along. But the idea of a bandage is to protect the wound, to promote recovery, to try and get the wound to heal, and also protect it from harm. And because the bandage is on there, and they are hopping about on the leg, that lets you take less weight off it, and can make them feel that bit better. With the dressings itself, you use the same types of dressings. You can just use a gauze pad if you needed to. You can cut this even smaller, and you can pop it between their toes to put a better piece of gauze, to hold against the wound. All you do with that is just cut it a little bit bigger than you need, pop it between the toes, and that way, you can keep their toes separate. If you are just putting a standard dressing on, use the standard dressings you will get in any first aid kit. Open up the bandage to where the pad is. You're going to lay that pad over the foot. Now, with the design of them, they are quite good, because they will just tuck around, so you can quite easily encompass the whole of the foot. Then bandage around and you need to bandage it over the pad, but also up the leg a little, to actually get it to grip. And once it is gripped, you can then bring it back down, over the pad itself. Just be careful not to be forcing the pads apart. If you have put something in between the pads, that is good, it holds it in place. What we do not want to be doing here is forcing the toes really, really close. We just stop the bleeding. By putting this on, we are actually applying pressure to the cut pad at the bottom. Once we have done that, we can then just move the bandage up the leg, where we can tie it off, so that this part, we can just bring this around... Then, tie it off. If we leave these tails in place, what is going to happen, is the dog is going to get a hold of these, and then pull off the dressing. So, take the knot, just cut the tails off of the end of the dressing, and what you can then do, is either tuck that underneath, so that you can actually tuck another bit of bandage over the top of it, so it doesn't show, or you might want to put a piece of Micropore tape over there, just to keep it secure. Now, that bandage is in place, we can check there is no further bleeding, and we can get them to the vets to get it checked out. And finally, if you have got an embedded object in, maybe it is just a piece of dirt or something, you can just wash that out, and just clean the wound off with some saline. But if you have actually got some large lump of metal that's deeply embedded into the leg, then if we remove it, what can then happen, it can cause even more damage, because it can damage as it goes in and it can damage as it comes out. You need to really use your judgment. Anything like that, you want to maybe leave it in, and bandage the item in place, and get him to the vets as quickly as possible, because the last thing we want to do, is to increase the bleeding by removing something. But generally speaking, in a dog's foot, it is going to be something small. It would be a thorn, or a little bit of metal, or something like that, and we can quite easily remove that with tweezers. Finally, also just remember, these dressings, if you put them on too tight, they will have a tourniquet effect. If we put the bandage far too tight on its leg, then what happens, it will cut all the circulation off, and that is not a good thing either. Again, use your judgment, just make sure that the bandage goes on correctly. We have got some other videos on using Vet wrap-type bandages, that will work just as well on feet. You can put a gauze pad on, and wrap the Vetwrap around, and that will keep it nice and tidy as well.
Paw Injuries in Dogs
Preventing and Treating Common Paw Injuries
Learn how to handle and prevent common paw injuries in dogs.
1. Removing Small Debris
Common Issue: Small stones or debris trapped between paw pads.
To address this:
- Gently brush off debris using your hand
- Exercise caution to avoid causing further discomfort
2. Dealing with Thorns
Common Issue: Thorns embedded in paw pads.
Follow these steps:
- Carefully remove thorns with tweezers
- Remove as close to the skin as possible
3. Protecting Against Heat
Consideration: Hot pavements and roads in warm climates.
Prevent paw injuries from hot surfaces:
- Exercise dogs during cooler hours (early morning or late evening)
4. Winter Paw Care
Consideration: Snow and icy conditions.
Protect paws during winter walks:
- Beware of snow trapped between paw pads causing pain
- Avoid areas heavily salted or gritted
- Wash your dog's paws in lukewarm water after walks
Seek Professional Advice
If the injury is serious or you have concerns, don't hesitate to consult your vet for guidance and treatment.
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