Archives for December 16, 2014

Doggie Doggie, Are You OK?

Pet Saver, Pet First Aid and CPR

Over a year ago Billy took the Red Cross Dog & Cat First Aid course because we value the safety of your pets as well as the safety of our own pets. In October of this year we attended the Petsitting-ology conference in Las Vegas.  While there we both had the opportunity to take the Pet Saver, Pet First Aid and CPR classes offered by by Pet Tech, Inc.  The Pet Safety Guy himself, Thom Somes taught much of our eight hour course. http://www.pettech.net/index.php     1022141115

As professional pet sitters it is important to us to not only provide proper care for our own three dogs but also to provide proper care for your cats and dogs and keep them safe while in our care.  Pet Tech’s Pet Saver Program includes 6 components:  Caring for your Pet, Pet First Aid and CPR, Snout-to-Tail Assessment, Poisonous Items, Essentials and Dental Care.

We learned the importance of doing a Snout-to-Tail assessment of your pet at least weekly.  You too can do this valuable assessment by downloading the Pet Tech Pet Saver app on your smart phone.  Just go to the Play Store on your Android phone or the App Store on your iphone and type in “pet saver.” The Pet Tech Pet Saver app has a small fee but is worth its’ weight in gold.  You can record the results of your pet’s weekly snout-to-tail assessment for starters but the app is loaded with other useful wellness and injury information.  We encourage you to go download that app right now!

We wish we had known about this several years ago before our beloved Beau became ill with lymphoma.  Had we been assessing his basic health indicators on a weekly basis we are confident the changes would have led us to seek medical attention sooner.  He could have had palliative care to resolve his discomfort and to keep him with us longer.  Now  we feel armed with information and that is a great feeling.

While in the class we had an opportunity to practice restraining and muzzling, CPR,  rescue breathing, and first aid bleeding protocols.  Despite the “excitement” of these hands on skills we know that fortunately we will use the wellness information on a daily basis and through prevention plan to avoid the need for urgent care.

In January Billy will take the 3 day training course to become an instructor in the Pet Tech Pet Saver, Pet First Aid and CPR program. We are excited to be able to offer this valuable resource to our community in the near future. Stay tuned for details regarding when he will teach the first series of classes here in Coddle Creek!!

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