This morning, during regular training, Molly partially inhaled a hard, disc shaped Charlee Bear treat. She started with that snorting/choking we all have witnessed. It became apparent within a few seconds this was not the usual choking scenario, as she was not able to clear it as usual. I thought back to my many years of CPR training, and realized the only memory I could conjure up was not to disturb a person productively coughing. Then, I thought does this apply to dogs? How do I perform the Heimlich maneuver on a deep chested dog?

I soon realized I knew nothing about canine rescue, and felt completely panicked and helpless. I was standing there watching my dog failing at clearing her own airway, and had no knowledge of how to help her.

What an awful feeling.

When she started to become noticeably fatigued, I finally did a few finger sweeps. This caused her to gag, and vomit, then one good cough brought it up. (of course she chewed it up and ate it!)

Thank goodness it all turned out well....

I thought this may be a good topic of conversation for the forum.

PS I plan to check around for a canine rescue class in my area.

I read a James Herriot book years ago that dealt with a similar obstruction scenario : a collie was choking on a ball that was too small to be safe to play with and he was able to flick it backwards out of the airway by putting pressure behind the dog's jawbone (on the side of the road using only the light from the family car's headlamps).

I have no idea if that would have helped or not.

I have a two-page chart taped to the fridge of step-by-step CPR, first aid, etc. (for dogs).

Looking at it now,I see that it's five years old. So I need to find a recent and well-reviewed one.

(When I bought this one online for about $4, I had found that the laminated ones for purchase seemed more detailed and also clearer than the print-for-free versions.)

Either way, one of the important points on it is to study it now and regularly ... not only at the moment of need ... and to have it in plain sight (not in a file somewhere) to grab and follow at that time of need.

This thread is reminding me to read it again now!




Also, here are a couple of pages I found to check out for up-to-dateness, etc.:


http://www.berner.org/pages/dogcpr.pdf

http://www.petwave.com/dogs/first-aid-center/dog-choking.aspx#

http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/First-Aid-Center.aspx#sthash.wfRzGr9R.dpbs

http://www.pawsonline.info/animalcpr.htm

I hope that we can keep adding to this thread!

Thanks for the links, Connie. I read them all. Very useful info there. I'm still looking for a laminated flow sheet, that's a great idea!

I'm still foggy as to what to for a conscious dog struggling to breathe due to an obstruction. The canine Heimlich instructions seem to be for unconscious dogs. (I don't like the option of waiting for unconsciousness)

I imagine this will not be the last time we are confronted with this situation.