A dog’s eyes is not as sensitive as the ears and the nose. Can you help a dog that has jumped into a window thinking that it is not glassed off? This is only one of the scenarios where a dog can get serious cuts. A dog swiped by a speeding car can incur serious cuts. Broken glass, jagged tins and sharp metals can cause laceration and serious cuts on the dog’s paws and skin.

A dog owner has to be ready to deal with unexpected emergency situations involving the pet. In situations where the services of a vet is not available or when taking the injured pet to a nearby veterinary facility is not possible, the only way by which a dog owner can save the life of the pet or prevent the pet from suffering too much pain is to administer first aid.

Treatment may not be necessary for the dog’s minor injuries. This can be due to the fact that these simple injuries are not noticed by the dog owner. Serious cuts however certainly needs immediate treatment not only to prevent infection but also to control bleeding as severe blood loss can eventually result to the death of the dog. A dog with serious wounds needs professional medical care as in most cases the dog has to be anesthetized for the suturing of the wound.

How can a dog owner know that the pet has incurred serious wounds? A dog’s injury is serious if the deep puncture has severely damaged the skin or if suturing is necessary to close the gaping wound. The cut is serious if fat and muscle can be seen from the gaping wound. Serious cuts would bleed heavily. First aid treatment for bleeding wounds is to apply pressure but a serious cut would take more than applying pressure on the wound to control.

Before any first aid can be done, the extent of the dog’s injury has to be assessed. The cut must be flushed with saline solution. After the wound is cleaned, the bleeding has to be controlled by using sterile gauze or any clean cloth available to apply pressure to the wound.

Arterial bleeding characterized by bright red spurting blood is a life threatening injury. For this kind of injury, it would not be wise to flush the cut to remove dirt and foreign objects. With towels or cloth, apply pressure directly to the cut. Place another towel on top of the soaked through towel. This first aid treatment of controlling bleeding must be continued until the pet has reached the animal hospital.

At Sarah’s Dogs you can find out more about dog first aid.