What is Animal CPR?

If you’ve ever watched a medical drama series, you’ll have seen human CPR being performed. You might even have covered it during a first aid qualification. But what about animal CPR?

Though it might sound strange, animal CPR can save lives in an emergency. Just like CPR in humans. It’s not foolproof, but it’s definitely a skill worth having. After all, if you can help just one animal in a life-threatening situation, it could mean the absolute world to someone.

Curious enough to want to know more about animal CPR? Read on.

What does CPR mean?

CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It normally combines compression of the chest and manual ventilation of the lungs, by breathing air into them from your own mouth. CPR is performed in an effort to restart the heart and get oxygen to vital organs like the brain.

When the heart has stopped beating, CPR can help by mimicking breathing and encouraging the heart to start beating again. However, it needs to be performed immediately. If the heart stops beating and can’t be restarted, most patients will have irreversible brain damage within a couple of minutes.

The ultimate goal of CPR is to keep the patient (be they human or animal) alive until proper medical treatment can be administered.

Does animal CPR actually work?

First thing’s first – does performing CPR on an animal actually help to save their life in an emergency? In humans, the success rate of CPR is relatively low. Around 40% come round from CPR, but only around 20% of those survive long enough to be discharged from hospital.

That said, it’s still very worthwhile and can save lives. If you watch soccer, you’ll know Danish team player Christian Eriksen was saved only a few weeks ago when prompt CPR was performed after collapsing on the pitch in cardiac arrest.

When it comes to pets, the success rate is lower still. Though there’s not a huge amount of research, it’s thought to be around 5% if the CPR is performed out of hospital and 15% in hospital. This is because cardiac arrest is quite uncommon in pets. So if your dog or cat’s heart has stopped, there’s a high chance its due to a different underlying condition.  

Regardless though, 5% is not 0%. And if you manage to save a furry life, you’ll be glad you learnt more about animal CPR.

So how do you actually do it? And when is animal CPR appropriate?

How do you perform animal CPR?

If you find a dog or cat in an emergency situation, immediately call a vet for help. Before you start CPR, remember your “ABCs”: airways, breathing, and cardiac.

• A: Check if the airway is clear
  Open the animal’s mouth to make sure there’s nothing stuck in their throat and obstructing their breathing. Their airways should be clear before trying animal CPR.
• B: Check if they’re breathing
  Watch the animal’s chest or place your hand near their nose to tell if they are breathing. Remember, a dog or cat can be unconscious but still breathing. If the animal is breathing, you don’t need to perform CPR.
• C: Check for a heartbeat
  Put your hand on the animal’s chest, on the left side and feel for a heartbeat. If you can feel a heartbeat, CPR isn’t needed.

It’s important you familiarise yourself with the steps properly, in order to give any animal CPR you perform the best chance of success.

Check out this video from a qualified vet which shows how to perform CPR step-by-step on a dog.

Though the principles are the same, cats are much smaller so require slightly different techniques. If you have a small dog or a puppy, you might need to apply the cat CPR techniques too. You can see them in the video below.

Other things you should know about animal CPR

You should only perform animal CPR in emergencies. Some common examples of where it might be needed are when a pet has eaten a poisonous plant or something else that can poison your pet, is in severe shock or has experienced huge trauma (like being hit by a car, for example).

The forceful compressions can injure a dog or cat in other circumstances.

It’s also important that you get medical treatment as soon as possible. Whether you go to the clinic or get a vet to come and treat on-scene, you should always call for veterinary treatment immediately – have them on the phone while you’re performing CPR if possible, as they may be able to talk you through the process.

It’s also worthwhile having your pet insured. While CPR can save their lives, they’ll still need emergency medical intervention. If your beloved dog or cat is covered with a pet insurance policy, it’s one less thing to worry about on your way to the vet.

Get a quick quote by clicking below and read more about pet plan shopping in NZ before you decide which plan is best for you.