| VANCOUVER,
BC (Canada) —
Put your books away; we're going to have a
little pop quiz...
Study the three diagrams below and tell
me which is the proper way to administer mouth-to-snout resuscitation to a
dead dog:
How to Do CPR for Dogs:
Which is correct?
Figure A:
Blow air into dog's mouth.
Figure B:
Blow air into dog's nose.
Figure C:
Blow bubbles into Hippo's mouth.
The answer is B. Blow air into dog's nose. (This
may come as a pleasant surprise to anyone administering CPR to a dog that
just drank out of the toilet.)
"[It's] relatively easy—you
just keep his mouth closed and you blow into his nasal cavities,"
says Sergeant Gord McGuinness of the Vancouver police Dog Squad.
"Then you just do, almost like a human, chest compressions, just back
from the upper shoulder."
Two members of Sgt. McGuinness's team had
the opportunity to perform the technique last week when "Bear",
a 2½-year-old police dog, stepped on an improperly-grounded electrical
plate on the sidewalk along the 400 block of Heatley Street and was
electrocuted.
|
 According
to the Vancouver
Sun, Bear and his handler had just finished tracking a suspect
when the burly German Shepherd came into contact with the plate which was
part of the connection for a street lamp. He was
hit with a 240-volt shock, began yelping and whining, went into a
seizure and collapsed into cardiac arrest.
Bear's handler, who was not identified in
the police report, knelt down to check on his partner and was also hit
with a jolt of electricity. However, he was able to move the dog to
safety.
The officer began performing
mouth-to-snout resuscitation while another officer assisted with chest
compressions. Bear began breathing again but remained unconscious
while they transported him to a veterinary hospital, where, at last
report, he was recuperating.
"These dogs are more than dogs to
their handlers," says Sgt. McGuinness. "They're family
members. They're with you 24 hours a day. Some of them have
saved officers' lives, and they'll go to the ends of the earth to save
their dogs."
Vancouver Police spokesperson Constable
Sarah Bloor adds, "The dog handlers are trained to deal with their
animals. It's his partner. He'll do anything he can for the
dog."
The faulty plate has been repaired by the
city. Constable Bloor noted that the insulation
on wires located underneath the plate had apparently eroded, allowing
current to transfer to the plate. Pedestrians wearing shoes were
never at risk, since they were insulated, she said.
"Unfortunately, I think it has
happened to other dogs that simply take a tinkle on a post, and it's live."
NOTE: The dog pictured in this article
(Fig. A and B) is "Sage",
a fawn-colored Doberman who is available for adoption at the Friends
for Pets Foundation of Southern California, USA.
The "dogs" in Fig. C are
"Cuddles" (left) and her new unnamed friend—who
are NOT available for adoption from the San Francisco Zoo.
§§§
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