(Header image created with microsoft co-pilot)
My last shift (and a half) gave me a long day, but it wasn’t over yet; I had an animal first aid training course run by Dierenziekenhuis, Veenendaal, a local vet. The reasons why the animal ambulance encourages its volunteers to do this (voluntary) training course is obvious; knowledge of animals is invaluable; so too is the ability for a measure of on-site (basic) practical help if needed.
I was shattered from the morning, but very excited!
The course consisted of 2 parts – a presentation followed by a practical session.
We’d already been emailed the presentation beforehand which was really handy for me because that meant I had some time to familiarise myself with the content (i.e. translate it into English!) I follow Dutch better when I understand the subject, so I could follow the presentation OK when it was given live and soaked it up.
The next part was practical!
Enter 2 dogs. Two beautiful, docile dogs as seen in the photo above. “Docile” is an important word here – not just because one of the dogs is the size of a small horse, but because the first aid we were learning is equally applicable to cats and dogs – and dogs are much less resistant than cats when it comes to being handled! (Disclaimer: “Every cat and dog is different…”)
All that said…the first lesson was how to safely tie a dog’s mouth closed so that it won’t bite. When experts do things, things look easy. And this looked very easy! But I must admit my inner critic was screaming at me: if you need to tie an animal’s mouth closed for fear of being bitten, you don’t want to get anywhere near the mouth. Even to tie it shut!
Next up was also mouth related – looking inside the mouth at the gum condition. The colour of the gums gives an indication of the health of an animal. I’ve got a good excuse not to get near the inside of a mouth; I’m colourblind and couldn’t make out what I was supposed to be seeing or not seeing.
Before dejection set in, we were shown how the condition of the eyes can also be a sign of illness; not just the colour of the eye ‘whites’ but pus related. Again, as a non-expert I don’t know what I can do with this information other than to determine whether an animal may or may not be ill. Surely by the time I’m checking the health of an animal it’s probably high time to bring the animal to a vet anyway.
Now (my) hands-on training really started – feeling for a vein on the inside of the upper part of the back leg to check the pulse, tying a bandage onto a paw, and testing reflexes by squeezing a paw.
We were also shown how to locate the heart (on the left side by the front elbow) and give mouth-to-nose resuscitation by sealing the dog’s mouth closed with his own lips, and blowing through our hands into the nose.
I hope I never need to put these skills into practice (due to necessity, rather than squeamishness), but if the need arises I feel better prepared! 🙂
A huge thanks to Dierenziekenhuis, Veenendaal for running the training, and of course to Dierenambulance Nederrijn (Animal Ambulance) for signing me up!
Paul
