How to create a pet first aid kit?

A first aid kit for pets consists of a small box containing items such as bandages, plasters, and antiseptic wipes for use in giving help to a sick or injured pet until full medical treatment is available. Having a pet first aid kit ready in your home helps prevent an injury from getting worse and can potentially save any trips to a walk-in clinic or hospital. This is especially crucial if the pet’s injury involves blood loss. Let’s learn how to create one for your pet.

Essentials required to create a Pet First Aid Kit 

Contact card

First and very important in your pet first aid kit is your contact card. It’s very important to have your veterinarian’s contact number on hand quickly as well as the nearest emergency hospital. You can put several other numbers on your personal pet first aid kit so you can easily program these numbers into your phone. 

Another reason for putting these numbers on contact cards is in the event that someone else uses the kit. For example, if you travel with your pet first aid kit in the car or if you leave it at home with the kids or a babysitter or a pet sitter. It’s just always nice to have those on hand for everyone in case they need it moving on from there.

Collect important paperwork 

You may not have time to get your pet to a vet in an emergency. So having a pet-specific first aid manual in the kit, is a smart move. 

Add identification details for your pet on a paper, like sex, appearance, breed, and any health concerns or distinguishing traits. Also have up-to-date medical records, like her proofs of vaccination. Consider putting these documents into a waterproof, zip-lock bag to keep them from the elements.

Tweezers 

They are really great to have on hand for pulling up ticks that can transfer Lyme disease to humans. You want to remove those fairly quickly and also things like honey bee stingers.

Pair of bandage scissors 

Try to purchase a vantage scissors because they have a dull end and you don’t want to put anything sharp toward your dog or your cat. Suppose, when you’re trying to work with bandages, they move and you accidentally nick them or cause more damage to the wound. So avoid purchasing a sharp pair of scissors.

Benadryl drug

It is really important to have Benadryl on hand to use for combatting allergic reactions. So, in the event you have a very curious pup that sticks its nose in a fire Ant hole or has an allergic reaction to a bee sting, Benadryl is very good to have readily available. The actual drug is diphenhydramine.

Benadryl is a great medication for use in dogs with mild-to-moderate allergies. The typical dose is 1 milligram per pound of animals. If you have a 25-pound dog, you give one tablet to your dog. As these come in 25 milligrams tablets.

Note: It’s very important that you don’t give your pets any medication that hasn’t been prescribed by a veterinarian. So, before you give any dosage of anything please call your veterinarian first. They may advise you to come in and get an injection of diphenhydramine instead or they may tell you not to do it and to do something different altogether.

Band-Aids

Pets like dogs and cats usually don’t handle human band-aids very well because they don’t stick to the fur. So instead of using human band-aids, invest in doggy band-Aids.

Nonstick pads

These pads go over the wound to protect it underneath the bandage so that it doesn’t stick to the wound and cause any further damage. Plus, it also just covers the wound very well.

Triple-action antibiotic ointment 

Place an antibiotic ointment in the pet first aid kit. Using a little bit of ointment on the cat gauze pad helps reduce the likelihood of bacteria growing on the wound.

Vet wrap

To make the outside portion of the Band-Aid, you can use a cohesive flexible bandage and in the veterinary world, it is called “vet wrap” which you can pick up at any local drugstore. Some of the pet stores have as well.

Antiseptic cleaner to clean wounds or cuts

A lot of veterinary hospitals use an antiseptic cleaner (Chlorhexidine solution) to clean areas using a surgical scrub. 

You can also use hydrogen peroxide to clean the wounds. But Chlorhexidine solution is an ideal solution because it tends to be a little bit more gentle than hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide solution 

A reason to keep hydrogen peroxide in your pet’s first aid kit is when you ever have to induce vomiting. For example, if your dog or cat swallows something that’s definitely toxic, it may be detrimental if it absorbs into their system and you want to get it out very quickly. Your veterinarian will recommend that you induce vomiting at home. So, it’s helpful to have that hydrogen peroxide on hand just in case.

Make sure, don’t use this on your own without calling your veterinarian. As you can cause more harm. So your veterinarian may actually want to induce vomiting at the hospital under observation using an injectable nausea medication as well. The best is to call your vet first they’ll tell you whether to induce vomiting at home or whether to come in. 

Pair of gloves 

It’s always a good idea to have a pair of gloves on when treating a wound to protect your pet from the transfer of bacteria and harmful things that are on your hand onto their wound or their skin and vice versa.

So introducing basic hygiene by washing your hands and taking that extra step and putting on a pair of gloves is a really good way to reduce the likelihood of infection or transmitting any pathogens as well.

Simple saline solution or eyewash 

It helps wash any foreign objects or small rocks out of the eye of your pet that could cause potential irritation. If your dogs are particularly sensitive to pollen, use the saline wash to gently rinse out your pet’s eyes. 

Never put your fingers in the eye of a dog or a cat because it can further irritate them and further cause scratching.

Slip lead or basic leash 

Generally, a slip lead is primarily useful when trying to move or catch a dog quickly. Here you need to put a basic dog leash that does not require a collar. It has a D-ring on one side and just slides in to make a leash and collar combination.

During traveling, If you come across an injured animal that might be hit by a car, slip lead is a great way to safely get them in the car.  

If there’s some massive bleeding like an animal that’s been hit by a car and they have a limb that is just very heavily bleeding and it’s causing a lot of blood loss. You can actually just tie a slip lead around them really tightly until you can get them to the vet hospital.

Septic powder 

Last but not least is septic powder. This is obviously one difference that we put in our pet first aid kit versus a human first aid kit. The reason to have this on hand is because if you cut your pet’s nails at home, there’s sometimes a likelihood that you might cut the quick (the vascular portion under the nails) and when you cut, it has a tendency to bleed like crazy.  A home remedy for this is to put a little bit of cornstarch to try to stop the bleeding but it’s not nearly as effective as a sepptic powder which the vets use in veterinary hospitals. 

Now as you have all of your supplies for a pet first aid kit, you need something to put it in that’s convenient. 

Use a container

You can use a plastic storage container at home as a pet first aid box. But the things can get messed up and jumbled and when you need something on the fly, it’s a little harder to find. 

Carry case

It is usually a cloth container that zips up, usually has a handle and that is made for carrying something with your hand. Choose one that has zipper pouches, pockets and dividers on the inside so that you can really organise your pet first aid kit and find things that you need very quickly and with ease. 

Lunch box

Another plastic container to keep everything nice, neat and easier are lunch boxes. They also come with different dividers, sections and pouches; they’re small and they’re convenient. You can grab them on the go, very easy to use and also keep everything nice and neat and organised. Takeaway

You can easily make a pet first aid kit at home by putting together just a few useful items that when times matter it really helps to be readily available on hand and most of these items you probably have around the house, especially if you have a human first aid kit. Everything else can be picked up at the pharmacy or an online store.

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