Treat a sick or hurt dog by first checking its vital signs against the normal values of 38.0 to 39.2 degrees C, 60 to 140 beats and 10 to 30 breaths a minute, then flushing wounds with clean water and leaving bites and punctures open, cooling heat illness gradually, and recognising bloat and poisoning as emergencies that field care cannot cure. Muzzle a hurt dog first, because pain makes the gentlest dog bite.
Part of Guard Dog Training
Field medicine for dogs is the basic assessment and first aid of a working dog when no veterinary service is available, covering vital signs, wounds, paws, ticks, heat, bloat and poisoning.
Know Normal Before You Treat Abnormal
The parent article lists the basics: clean wounds with clean water (boiled and cooled), bandage to stop licking, and note that deep wounds may need stitching; paw injuries are the most common working-dog injury; remove a tick by gripping it as close to the skin as possible and pulling straight out without twisting; bloat in large, deep-chested dogs is a life-threatening emergency, shown by a distended abdomen, retching without vomiting, restlessness and rapid breathing; and dehydration shows when the skin pinched on the back of the neck does not snap back.
The normal values are in Veterinary Medicine: for a dog, a temperature of 38.0-39.2 degrees C, a pulse of 60-140 beats a minute and breathing of 10-30 breaths a minute. Those are the readings to compare against before and during any treatment.
Some of the parent article’s advice needs care. Closing a deep wound by stitching is only sound for a clean, fresh, sharp-edged cut; the corpus rule for people is to leave bite wounds, puncture wounds, contaminated wounds and older wounds open (see Wound Closure and Wound Management), and dog bites and fight wounds are exactly those. The parent article’s rehydration suggestion of water with a pinch of salt and sugar gives no amounts; plain clean water offered in small, frequent amounts is the safe default.
What You Need
- A soft cord or cloth strip for a muzzle
- A thermometer, or a way to judge fever by feel as the veterinary article describes
- Clean water, bandage material and a way to keep a dog from licking — see Bandage Materials
- Tweezers or a tick tool
- A cart, blanket or stretcher to move a large dog
- A quiet, shaded place to treat it
Method: Restrain, Assess, Treat The Obvious, Rest
Step 1: Restrain safely. A hurt dog bites. Loop a soft cord or cloth strip round the muzzle, cross it under the jaw and tie it behind the ears, unless the dog is vomiting, having trouble breathing or overheated, in which case do not muzzle it. Keep children away.
Step 2: Take the vital signs. Count the pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 and the breathing for 30 seconds and multiply by 2, as the veterinary article advises for livestock. Take the temperature with an oiled thermometer in the rectum.
Step 3: Wounds. Flush with a lot of clean water under pressure. Leave bite, puncture and dirty wounds open to drain; bandage lightly and check twice a day. Only clean, fresh, sharp-edged cuts may be closed.
Step 4: Paws. Clean, check for splinters and thorns, protect with a cloth wrap or a sock and rest the dog.
Step 5: Heat. If the dog is panting hard, drooling, wobbly or collapsed, stop work, move it to shade, wet it with cool (not ice-cold) water and fan it, offer small sips and check the temperature. A temperature clearly above the normal range with collapse is an emergency; see the danger note.
Step 6: Bloat. A swollen, tight belly with retching and restlessness is an emergency. There is no safe field treatment; do not try to pass a tube or puncture the belly. Keep the dog calm and move it to the best help available. Prevent it by feeding small meals and resting the dog around meals; see Feeding Without Commercial Dog Food.
Step 7: Poisoning. If the dog ate a known poison, remove the rest, keep the container and, unless a vet advises otherwise, do not make it vomit with salt water, which is itself dangerous. Do not give human medicines; many, such as ibuprofen, naproxen and paracetamol, are toxic to dogs (recalled).
Worked Example: Reading The Numbers
A dog has just come in from a night patrol. You count 28 pulse beats in 15 seconds, 14 breaths in 30 seconds, and the thermometer reads 40.1 degrees C.
- Pulse: 28 × 4 = 112 beats a minute, inside 60-140.
- Breathing: 14 × 2 = 28 breaths a minute, inside 10-30, though a hard-working dog may be panting faster.
- Temperature: 40.1 − 39.2 = 0.9 degrees above the top of the normal range.
A temperature almost 1 degree over normal straight after hard work may be exertion alone; the way to check is to let the dog rest in shade with water and recheck in a few minutes. If it stays high, or the dog is also drooling, wobbly or vomiting, treat it as heat illness. The numbers are a guide; a dog that is dull, will not eat or drink, or has a swollen belly is unwell whatever they say.
Common Mistakes
- Treating before restraining. The first person to touch the wound gets bitten.
- Closing a dirty bite. Trapped infection spreads; see Infection Prevention.
- Using ice-cold water on a hot dog. Cool gradually.
- Giving human painkillers. They poison dogs.
- Waiting out a bloated belly. It does not wait.
Safety
Pain bites; some dog illnesses pass to people
A hurt dog bites even its owner, and children are bitten most often by dogs they know, so keep them away and use the muzzle. Wear gloves for wounds and discharge and wash your hands afterwards. Rabies is fatal once symptoms appear; a dog with sudden behaviour change, drooling, paralysis or aggression should be confined and not touched with bare hands; see Zoonotic Diseases. Bloat, heat collapse and poisoning can kill within hours, and most of what is described here only buys time. Veterinary drugs in the old pharmacies are covered in Veterinary Clinics and Farm Supply; read the strength before using any.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Breeding Considerations — whether to add to the dog population
- Combine with: Health and Veterinary Care — the same prevention-first approach for livestock