If You're A Pet Parent, You Have To See This Video. It Can Save Your Pet's Life

You’ve probably already heard about cardiopulmonary resuscitation, otherwise abbreviated to CPR, and the way that it can help rescue those who have stopped breathing or have had their heart stop beating, if done correctly. Believe it or not, you can actually perform CPR on your pup in a time of need, and this can save their life.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, less than 6% of cats and dogs who experience cardiac arrest survive. But you can make your pup one of that small percentage by learning to properly perform CPR from this video featuring Elaine Acker, the former CEO of Pets America. Here are the steps broken down.

1. Lie your pup down on their right side.

2. Locate a pulse point.

• In most pups, you can find it by bringing their left elbow back towards their chest and feeling that part of their chest.
• In a large or obese dog, you can instead find a pulse point more easily on their wrist, right under their footpads.
• You can also find a pulse point in the femoral artery by running a hand down the hind leg up to the knee, then wrapping your hand around to the inner area.
• If the pup does not have a pulse, then you can begin CPR.

3. Make sure the pup’s head is in line with his body, then tilt his head back. Wrap your fingers around the jaw and rest your thumb on top of the pup’s nose in order to hold his mouth closed.

4. Bring your mouth to your pup’s nose, take a full breath, and exhale into their nose. You should be able to see or feel the chest rise when you do so. Do this for a total of four or five quick breaths.

5. Locate the heart by bringing the left elbow to the chest, then lock your fingers and arms together and perform 15 compressions onto the heart area within 10 seconds.

6. Bring your mouth back to the nose for one breath.

7. Next, add an abdominal squeeze by sliding one hand under the abdomen and using the other to press down on top of it. This helps circulation.

8. Repeat until a pulse can be felt or found again.

If you’d like to try this out, you can go to a first aid training class for pups, or purchase a mannequin or dummy to practice on. Don’t ever practice CPR on a healthy pup! Hopefully, you’ll be able to use this knowledge if you need to in the future. Do like and share!