How to Make a First Aid Kit for Pets

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about how to make a first aid kit for pets. The first thing is to get a container just for this purpose so a little plastic ziplock container or something like that works very well, a little hard shell box that is and label it as the first aid kit for your pet. You want to have some basics in there, you don't want to go over board with this but the first thing you want to consider is bandaging material. You want to get some gauze pads and roll gauze and keep that in there as well, for wounds that works very well for that and also a couple types of medical tape will be essential to your emergency kit. This will be good to wrap around that roll gauze or a wound or something like that. You don't want to put this directly on a wound but around that to hold the gauze the roll gauze on there works very well. Also you can get self adhesive types of wraps that are great for little light bandages and heavy bandages as well. Now self adhering types of bandages you have to be careful because if you put it on too tight it will constrict blood flow to the fingers or the toes and so you just have to put that on lightly but that is a good thing to have in your kit. Also you want to have a good pair of sharp scissors in there, bandage scissors work very well for that purpose. You also want to get some latex gloves in case things get messy and you want to have a couple of basics when it comes to medications. A good triple antibiotic cream and a good cortisone type cream works well. Some ancillary types of medications also would be like a sting relief that you can get at a pharmacy over the counter and also keeping Benadryl and maybe something for upset stomach as well. Now you need to talk to your regular clinic as far as what dosage of Benadryl you would use for your dog because it is specific as far as weight is concerned. Also another safety tip is to keep a muzzle the size for your dog because when dogs get painful sometimes they don't know what they are doing and they can bite and bite very hard not meaning to. Lastly a good idea is to have a business card of your veterinary clinic with the emergency clinic numbers that are close or if you are traveling out of state get some numbers that are close to where you are going to be going in case there is an emergency you always want to get your pets to a veterinary clinic first but you can have some basic things to help triage or basically help treat for wound management and things like that before you get there."