When your dog is choking: canine Heimlich
Hey guys!
I haven't been on here in a while due to crazy work and just not having the energy to write for the most part. Yesterday however, there was a pretty big scare with Ren that anyone on FB has already read about.
I normally get home around 2am, and then Ren gets her dinner not too long afterwards. She got her usual chicken and then it was bed time around 4am. Around 12:30pm I woke up to Ren heaving her dinner up, which isn't completely unusual. She changed diet recently so there are still some bits that her stomach hasn't been able to fully handle. So I hop out of bed, get her food bowl to hold her to throw up in, and figure that's that. After replaying in my mind what happened a few hundred times, it definitely wasn't the food bowl startling her since I placed it a good 20 seconds or so before she actually vomited.
Anyhow, she vomited up some chicken soup and that was that... or so I though. I picked up the bowl and put it in her crate while watching for a second set of heaves, as usual. This time though she had a funny look on her face and kept looking down, then back at me. Then she was falling over with her eyes open giving a thousand yard stare. It clicked right then that she was choking.
I didn't have any time to think or look anything up on the computer. I immediately ran over and started the procedures I had memorized from working as a vet tech and lifeguard. I searched her mouth briefly and couldn't see anything, but did see right away that her tongue was blue. So I wrapped my right arm under her to support her abdomen and slid my left hand up just behind her solar plexus, shaped as a fist, and started Heimlich compressions, which consisted mainly of contracting both biceps towards my chest every second just about. After about 30 seconds I could audibly hear air whooshing out of her mouth when I did that, but when I stopped to check she still wasn't breathing on her own and was completely limp like a ragdoll, and her tongue was still blue.
At that moment I thought she had died right there in my arms. All that I could do was keep giving compressions and hope that she came back. It was a pretty terrible, helpless feeling. I kept giving her compressions so that air would circulate, seeing as how she wasn't breathing on her own, even with airway hopefully unblocked. What felt like a minute and a half in or so, my arms were giving out and I was thinking she was gone, but after another couple of seconds of compressions she finally came to and hopped out of my arms into the back of her crate. She was falling over and couldn't hold herself up, so I pulled her out to check on her and she just collapsed against me for a few seconds. Then she had enough energy to wobbly stumble onto the bed and collapse on her side where she passed out. Her breathing was very slow and I wasn't sure if I was going to need to do it again or give any emergency breathing so I just sat there and monitored for another ten minutes.
After about ten minutes I woke her up, picked her up, and placed her on the floor on her side. I massaged her stomach and her throat to stimulate some coughing. She hacked something up twice, but ate it so I'm not sure if it was just some saliva/liquid or some chunks. Then after monitoring her for another good while, and seeing that she was stable, I took her to the vet.
Over the next 3 hours she slowly regained some strength, but she was totally off balance for all of it. She regained maybe 10% of her balance and strength per hour. So by the time I left she was able to hold her head up, sit in a "down" position, and wag her tail for a bit. I ended up having to go to work afterwards (late, they understood), and for the next 7 hours I was completely stressed and worried since no one else was home. But later on I came home and she was running down the stairs to say hello as normal. Trust me when I say that the relief was incredible.
Anyhow, a few people messaged asking about how to do canine Heimlich. So here are some resources, and I hope the above story is motivation enough to learn how to do it + practice your placement on your dogs so that you know exactly where to do it in case you ever need to.
Video:
Article: http://www.petplace.com/dogs/heimlich-for-your-dog/page1.aspx
and here's Ren just relaxing right after the vet. She's a tough little cookie
I haven't been on here in a while due to crazy work and just not having the energy to write for the most part. Yesterday however, there was a pretty big scare with Ren that anyone on FB has already read about.
I normally get home around 2am, and then Ren gets her dinner not too long afterwards. She got her usual chicken and then it was bed time around 4am. Around 12:30pm I woke up to Ren heaving her dinner up, which isn't completely unusual. She changed diet recently so there are still some bits that her stomach hasn't been able to fully handle. So I hop out of bed, get her food bowl to hold her to throw up in, and figure that's that. After replaying in my mind what happened a few hundred times, it definitely wasn't the food bowl startling her since I placed it a good 20 seconds or so before she actually vomited.
Anyhow, she vomited up some chicken soup and that was that... or so I though. I picked up the bowl and put it in her crate while watching for a second set of heaves, as usual. This time though she had a funny look on her face and kept looking down, then back at me. Then she was falling over with her eyes open giving a thousand yard stare. It clicked right then that she was choking.
I didn't have any time to think or look anything up on the computer. I immediately ran over and started the procedures I had memorized from working as a vet tech and lifeguard. I searched her mouth briefly and couldn't see anything, but did see right away that her tongue was blue. So I wrapped my right arm under her to support her abdomen and slid my left hand up just behind her solar plexus, shaped as a fist, and started Heimlich compressions, which consisted mainly of contracting both biceps towards my chest every second just about. After about 30 seconds I could audibly hear air whooshing out of her mouth when I did that, but when I stopped to check she still wasn't breathing on her own and was completely limp like a ragdoll, and her tongue was still blue.
At that moment I thought she had died right there in my arms. All that I could do was keep giving compressions and hope that she came back. It was a pretty terrible, helpless feeling. I kept giving her compressions so that air would circulate, seeing as how she wasn't breathing on her own, even with airway hopefully unblocked. What felt like a minute and a half in or so, my arms were giving out and I was thinking she was gone, but after another couple of seconds of compressions she finally came to and hopped out of my arms into the back of her crate. She was falling over and couldn't hold herself up, so I pulled her out to check on her and she just collapsed against me for a few seconds. Then she had enough energy to wobbly stumble onto the bed and collapse on her side where she passed out. Her breathing was very slow and I wasn't sure if I was going to need to do it again or give any emergency breathing so I just sat there and monitored for another ten minutes.
After about ten minutes I woke her up, picked her up, and placed her on the floor on her side. I massaged her stomach and her throat to stimulate some coughing. She hacked something up twice, but ate it so I'm not sure if it was just some saliva/liquid or some chunks. Then after monitoring her for another good while, and seeing that she was stable, I took her to the vet.
Over the next 3 hours she slowly regained some strength, but she was totally off balance for all of it. She regained maybe 10% of her balance and strength per hour. So by the time I left she was able to hold her head up, sit in a "down" position, and wag her tail for a bit. I ended up having to go to work afterwards (late, they understood), and for the next 7 hours I was completely stressed and worried since no one else was home. But later on I came home and she was running down the stairs to say hello as normal. Trust me when I say that the relief was incredible.
Anyhow, a few people messaged asking about how to do canine Heimlich. So here are some resources, and I hope the above story is motivation enough to learn how to do it + practice your placement on your dogs so that you know exactly where to do it in case you ever need to.
Video:
Article: http://www.petplace.com/dogs/heimlich-for-your-dog/page1.aspx
and here's Ren just relaxing right after the vet. She's a tough little cookie
Comments
Thanks for sharing the video. Hopefully no one will ever need it, but it is good to be prepared just in case!
What they teach in the military is true though: you don't rise to the occasion, you sink to your level of training. So it's definitely important to know ahead of time what to do, since it's something like 7mins of oxygen cut off from the brain is irreversible brain damage/death. There's just no time to get to the vet.
Something that should be noted, and is not really an issue with NK breeds, is that extra care must be given when performing the Heimlich on bug-eyed dogs (pugs, poms, etc). Too much force/pressure could cause the bug-eyed dogs eyes to pop out.
@curlytails Seriously! Her heaves wake me up even in my best imitations of a rock. If it was my brother taking care of her or anyone else, then I don't think they'd have woken up since it's such a low sound.
@lindsayt @ttddinh It was incredibly terrifying. Blood turned to ice the second it clicked. No problem and I hope no one ever needs to the information!
I don't know if Sachi would have gotten it up on her own, I let her try a few attempts for about 30 seconds. I tried to clear her throat but she absolutely refused to let me do that. But she let me pick her up (which she absolutely hates) and do the move. When she struggled I put her down (thinking either I would try it using the "big dog position" or try and clear her throat again. As soon as we had 4 on the floor she brought it back up and we were in the clear.
My lesson learned, is she won't chew if she thinks she can gobble so I will give her overlarge pieces of meat from here on out BUT if you have not watched the video, if you have not read how to do it, you don't know when it will come in handy. Please, please, please just in case you haven't seen it already, watch the video.
So glad Ren is alright! Must been scary.
Yeah Saya will gobble food down if it's small bits. I feed her organs frozen. She'll scarf down pre made or ground meat so I feed that frozen, semi thawed or mixed with something else like canned fish or honest kitchen.