This is the one article on the site that is useless if you read it during the emergency. Two minutes of reading now is the entire point.
Choking
What it looks like:
- Frantic pawing at the mouth
- Gagging, retching, coughing violently
- High-pitched squeaking, or distressed noises
- Blue-tinged gums and tongue
- Obvious panic, eyes wide
- In the worst version: no sound at all, and no air moving
What it is not: a dog that is coughing normally, or having a reverse sneeze. That snorting, honking, alarming-sounding episode that resolves on its own. Both of those are still moving air. If your dog is making a loud noise, it is breathing.
What to do
1. Look in the mouth. Open it and look. If you can clearly see and grasp an object, remove it.
Do not do blind finger sweeps. They commonly push the object deeper, and a panicking dog bites hard without intending to. Never pull on string, thread or ribbon that disappears down the throat. It may be anchored further down, and pulling can cause severe internal injury.
2. If you cannot see or remove it, do back blows. Five firm blows between the shoulder blades with the flat of your hand.
3. If that fails, abdominal thrusts:
Small dog: hold with its back against your chest, head up. Make a fist and place it just below the ribcage. Firm inward and upward thrusts.
Large dog: if standing, stand behind and wrap your arms around the abdomen just behind the ribs, and thrust inward and upward. If lying down, place one hand on the back for support and push inward and upward just behind the ribcage with the other.
4. Check the mouth between attempts.
5. Alternate back blows and thrusts.
6. If the dog goes unconscious, check the mouth again, the throat relaxes and an object may become reachable, then begin CPR.
7. Go to a vet even if you clear it. Thrusts can injure internal organs, and the airway may be swollen or damaged.
CPR
Only for a dog that is unresponsive and not breathing. Never on a conscious dog, and never on a dog that is breathing.
Check first, quickly: unresponsive? Not breathing? No heartbeat, feel where the left elbow touches the chest.
The sequence
Position: lay the dog on its right side on a firm surface.
Hand placement:
- Most dogs: over the widest part of the chest
- Deep-chested dogs: Great Danes, Dobermans: directly over the heart, behind the left elbow
- Flat-chested dogs: Bulldogs: on the breastbone with the dog on its back
- Small dogs and puppies: one hand wrapped around the chest, or thumb and fingers either side
Compressions:
- A third to a half of the chest depth
- 100 to 120 per minute, the rhythm of "Stayin' Alive", which is genuinely the standard teaching aid
- Let the chest recoil fully between compressions
- Lock your elbows and use your body weight rather than your arms
Rescue breaths, two after every 30 compressions:
- Close the mouth firmly with your hand
- Extend the neck to straighten the airway
- Breathe into the nose until you see the chest rise
- Two breaths, then straight back to compressions
Keep going. Swap with another person every two minutes if you can, compressions degrade fast as you tire. Continue while someone drives to the vet.
An honest note
Success rates for CPR in dogs are low, as they are in people. That is worth saying plainly rather than implying a likely rescue.
But CPR is only ever performed on a dog that is already not breathing and has no heartbeat. At that point there is nothing to lose, and a small chance is better than none.
CPR is what you do while someone else drives, not instead of driving.
Prevention
Most choking in dogs is preventable and involves a short list of objects.
- Balls that are too small for the dog's mouth. This is the classic, and it kills dogs. A ball should be too large to pass the back of the throat
- Cooked bones, which splinter
- Rawhide that has softened into a swallowable lump
- Toys with detachable parts
- Corn cobs, bhutta season means cobs in every bin
- Sticks, which cause throat injuries as often as obstruction
- Kitchen cloths, socks, plastic bags
Supervise chewing, and discard chews once they are small enough to swallow whole.
Feed fast eaters from a slow-feeder bowl, which reduces gulping.
The bottom line
Learn the two hand positions and the compression rate now, during, you will not be reading anything.
Choking: look, back blows, abdominal thrusts, check between attempts, no blind sweeps, never pull on string.
CPR: right side, widest part of the chest, a third to a half depth, 100-120 a minute, two breaths every 30, and keep going while someone drives.
And put away every ball that is small enough to fit past the back of your dog's throat. That single change prevents more of these emergencies than any technique here will resolve.
A dog that is making a loud honking or snorting noise and then recovering is almost certainly having a reverse sneeze, alarming, common, and not a choking emergency.