Pete the Vet: My pet is injured - what should I do?

What's to be done when your friend is under the weather?

If your pet has an accident, when do you need to drop everything, and get them to the vet at once?

Sometimes, these decisions are simple. There are many examples when it is very obvious that an animal needs urgent veterinary attention. A lurcher stands on a piece of glass while paddling in a river and emerges with a 4cm laceration on their leg, dripping blood. A cat is hit by a car and holds up a front leg, unable to bear any weight on it.  

In general, if an animal has the type of injury that would make you take a human to the local hospital Accident and Emergency department, you should take them to the vet equally urgently. This means calling your local vet if it happens during working hours, or calling the after-hours vet if it’s at night time, at weekends or on bank holidays. It's always best to call first, rather than just turning up in the car park with your pet, to allow the veterinary team to prepare for your arrival.

In fact, even in the middle of the night, the best way to contact the emergency vet is just to call your daytime vet: the phone will either be diverted automatically, or you will be given an answer machine message giving you the emergency vet contact details. All vets in Ireland are ethically obliged, by their professional code of conduct at vci.ie/Publications/Code-of-Professional-Conduct/Code-of-Professional-Conduct-Veterinary-Practition to make provision for the care of their patients all day, all night, on every day of the year. 

Vets may delegate this responsibility (via shared rotas or central emergency clinics) but as far as the pet-owning public is concerned, this means that a simple phone call to their local vet should be all they need to do to find out how to reach a vet at any time of day or night, at any time of year.

There are some specific instances when a pet should be urgently seen by the emergency vet.

• If a pet has suffered a serious physical accident such as being hit by a car. Often the injuries are difficult for a lay person to assess, and a thorough physical assessment by a veterinarian can be life-saving.

• If an animal is having difficulty breathing: this can be life-threatening, and simple treatment (such as the administration of oxygen) can be life-saving;

• If a pet is actively bleeding. You should apply pressure to the bleeding area with a dressing of some kind while you travel to the vet;

• If a pet is dull and non-responsive after any injury;

• If the animal is distressed, visibly agitated, or vocalising loudly as if in pain; 

• If there is an obvious gross abnormality such as a very distended abdomen, an obviously broken limb, or serious physical damage to any part of the body (for example, the eyes, head, body, limbs, or tail).

It can be more difficult to decide what to do about less serious injuries. A Labrador comes home from a walk having taken a thin slice off the main pad on its foot, so that it’s oozing fluid, with the red under-flesh exposed, but it isn’t actively bleeding. A cat is heard to be fighting with the neighbour’s moggy, and when they come home, they look dishevelled, with some patches of hair missing, and they are walking slightly awkwardly. Both animals are behaving normally in general, and they are looking for their dinner. What should be done?

Again, it’s simplest to make the parallel with human minor injuries. If you wouldn’t go to your GP with a grazed knee or after minor trauma, (such as a bump in your car, or tripping in the street) then your pet doesn’t need to go to the vet after incidents on a similar scale.

Just as you might carry out first aid on humans with injuries that don’t need immediate medical care, you can do the same with pets. But you do need to follow some guidelines.

Basic wound care

Do not use strong antiseptics or disinfectants. Instead, clean minor wounds with mildly salty water. The rule of thumb is to use a teaspoonful of salt in a pint of boiled water, cooled down. Use this to moisten a wad of cotton wool, and then gently dab this onto the wound (for example, the grazed pad of the dog). 

Salty water does not sting (it’s the same concentration of salt as blood, and if you think about it, it doesn’t sting to get blood in a wound). Wounds should be cleaned twice daily, to remove dirt and debris, and to stop inflammatory debris from accumulating. It helps to use scissors to trim fur away from around small wounds such as grazes or bite marks.

Stop animals from licking or biting themselves

Pets are curious, and a small amount of licking can help to clean a wound. The problem is that animals don’t know when to stop, and gentle cleaning rapidly progresses to abrasive, irritating damage to the affected area. Plastic lampshade-type collars or inflatable "lifering" type collars can help prevent this.

Ensure that your pet rests

Animals don’t know that they need to do this, so you need to take measures to enforce it. Lock cats indoors, stop taking dogs for walks, for 24 to 48 hours until you are sure they have made a full recovery.

Never give over-the-counter pain relief to pets 

This is designed for humans, not animals. It’s common for vets to see pets that are seriously, sometimes terminally ill after being given human medication in an effort to relieve discomfort. It’s dangerous to do this: if you feel your pet needs pain relief, always call your local vet.