The hardest part of a veterinary emergency is not the drive. It is the twenty minutes beforehand, standing in your own house, trying to decide whether this is serious.
This list exists to be read now, while nothing is wrong.
Go now, no waiting, no watching
Any one of these means leave immediately.
Breathing
- Difficulty breathing, or breathing with obvious effort
- Neck stretched out, elbows held away from the body to open the chest
- Blue or grey gums or tongue
- Choking, or pawing at the mouth
Circulation
- Pale, white, blue, grey or brick-red gums
- Collapse, or inability to stand
- Weak, wobbly, or non-responsive
Abdomen
- Swollen, hard abdomen with repeated retching that produces nothing, bloat
- Straining to urinate with nothing produced, especially in a male dog, a urinary obstruction kills within a day and is very often mistaken for constipation
Neurological
- A seizure lasting more than a few minutes, or seizures repeating without full recovery between
- Sudden inability to use the hind legs
- Head pressing against a wall
- Sudden disorientation or blindness
Trauma and toxins
- Any road accident, fall from height, or attack by a larger dog, even if your dog seems fine
- Heavy bleeding that does not slow with pressure
- Suspected poisoning of any kind
- Heat stroke signs
- Snake bite
Other
- A pregnant dog straining for more than 30 minutes without producing a puppy
- Obvious severe pain, crying, unable to settle, hunched, panting hard
- A puppy that has been vomiting with diarrhoea and is now flat
Learn the gum check
This is the most useful thirty seconds of first aid you can learn, and it works on any dog.
Lift the lip and look at the gums above the teeth. Then press a finger against them until the spot blanches white, release, and count.
| What you see | Means |
|---|---|
| Bubblegum pink, moist, refills in under 2 seconds | Normal |
| Pale or white | Blood loss, shock, anaemia, go now |
| Blue or grey | Not enough oxygen, go now |
| Brick red | Heat stroke, sepsis, go now |
| Yellow | Liver problem or red cell breakdown, go today |
| Tacky and dry | Dehydration |
| Refill takes longer than 2 seconds | Poor circulation, go now |
Practise on your healthy dog this week, so you know what your own dog's normal looks like. Pigmented gums are common and can make colour hard to read, check the inside of the lower eyelid instead, or the gums in a paler area.
Go today, but it is not a dash
- Vomiting or diarrhoea continuing beyond 24 hours
- Not eating for more than 24 hours in an adult, or 12 hours in a puppy
- Drinking noticeably more, persistently
- Limping that is not improving, or that is severe
- An eye that is painful, closed, cloudy or newly red
- A wound that is open, discharging or smelling
- An unspayed female who is off food and drinking more, pyometra, and this can escalate fast
- Any sudden behaviour change in an older dog
- Bleeding from anywhere without an obvious explanation
Reasonable to watch at home
- One vomit, or one soft stool, in a dog that is otherwise bright, drinking, playing normally
- Mild stiffness after unusual exercise, improving over a day
- A small superficial scratch
- Reduced appetite for one meal, with normal behaviour otherwise
The general rule that covers most cases: it is the combination and the trend that matter. One symptom in a bright dog is usually watchable. Two or three together, or one that is worsening hour by hour, is not.
Three things to prepare while your dog is well
1. Save the numbers. Your regular vet and the nearest clinic that is open at night. Know the route. In most Indian cities, 24-hour veterinary care is limited and not necessarily nearby, find out now rather than at 1am.
2. Write down your dog's weight. Every drug dose and every toxin calculation is per kilogram. "About 20 kilos, maybe" is a worse answer than a number from last month.
3. Note any regular medication, with doses. Take the packets with you if you go.
Worth adding: a photo of your dog's normal gums on your phone, and, for households where more than one person may be the one who has to act, a written note of all of the above stuck somewhere visible.
What to do while travelling
- Keep yourself calm. A panicking human makes a distressed dog worse, and you need to be able to drive
- Do not give food, water or medication unless a vet has told you to
- Do not give human painkillers. Paracetamol, ibuprofen and diclofenac are toxic to dogs, and this is one of the most common serious poisonings there is
- Bring the evidence, packaging of anything swallowed, a photo of the vomit or stool, the plant, the tick
- Handle a painful dog carefully. Pain makes any dog more likely to bite, including yours, and a towel or blanket used to lift and support is safer for both of you
- Call ahead so the clinic can prepare
The bottom line
Learn the gum check and practise it on your healthy dog this week.
Memorise the four fastest killers: difficulty breathing, pale or blue gums, a swollen belly with unproductive retching, and straining to urinate with nothing produced. Those four are measured in hours or less.
And do the three-minute preparation job today, numbers saved, weight written down, route known. It is the cheapest insurance available, and the only time you can do it is before you need it.
Each of the emergencies listed here has its own record on this shelf, with the signs and the first response in more detail. They are worth reading before the night you need them.