How to Care for a Sick Pet

Pets can get sick for several reasons. Such as old age disease. Here's how to do care for a sick pet.

Steps

1. If you can't do anything to help your pet, call a local pet hospital and get it there. But, if there is no animal hospital, get a blanket and lay your pet on it. Keep the pet still by putting it in a carrier. Take it out for potty breaks periodically but put back in the cage when done.

2. Examine its injuries. Does it have scratches? How about blood? Bite marks? Is it depressed? An injured or sick cat will try to hide. If it is hiding a lot something is definitely wrong.

- If your pet got cut and scrape, wipe the area twice a day with hydrogen peroxide and it should be fine.

- If your pet continuous or oozing stream, this requires medical attention as soon as possible. Raise the injured body part above your animal's heart if possible and apply layers of bandages. Press down on the area to slow the blood flow.

- If your pet have a gushing spurt and flow, this is the most serious. Get medical attention as soon as possible. Your animal can go into shock if they lose too much blood and might even die. Place thick layers of bandages, elevate the injured body part if possible and apply pressure to slow down the blood flow.

3. Give them something soft to eat. Such as Gerber or other brand of Baby Beef, turkey, chicken, ham and lamb is good for a sick cat. It's easy on their digestive systems and often they will eat it when they won't anything else. Make sure it has no onions in it as those are poisonous to cats. If the cat has a swollen place and the fur peels away it may have an abscess caused by a bite mark or claw mark. Treat it with Hydrogen peroxide.

4. If something is fractured on them, wrap a towel and have them lay down, and don't have them walk. Let them rest. If the fractures are in the toes they will have to recover by resting. The bones are too small for surgery.

The best method for getting a pet water when ill is a syringe if they can't drink on their own. Ask the pharmacist for one without a needle and tell him what it's for.

5. Prevent your animal from getting sick again by taking good care of it.

- Prevent lamp cord electrocution. This could make your pet get injured. Tape all cords hanging 4 feet (1.2 m) from the ground to the wall and pin floor cords to the base boards.

- Pick small things up. Puppies love to carry things in their mouth. If you chase them, they may swallow it. Keep all rooms free from shallow tables.

Tips

- With a cat, if it's purring but can't get up or is acting sick that is NOT a good sign. Cats will purr to themselves when they are ill to comfort themselves. It does NOT mean all is well.

- Check plants in the home to make sure none of them are poisonous to your animals.

- There are free clinics or low cost clinics for spaying,neutering and general health that travel around in many areas. Usually they visit Pet Stores among other places. Check into the ones in your area.

- If it's a bird that's injured by a cat claw, you can use Liquid skin to glue the wound shut and heal it. It makes a mess with the feathers but it works. The fumes sort of make it unconscious .

Warnings

- Some flea treatments for the carpets will "eat" your animals' feet. Check the label.

- Do NOT leave pets in the car during the summer. The car inside temperature can rise to the 100's; pets can die in such conditions.

- Do not let dogs ride in the back of pickups especially chained. We used to see many broken legs from dogs that fell out of trucks. They are dragged if chained!

- Do NOT use rubbing alcohol on wounds for any of your pets. Use Hydrogen peroxide instead!

- Do NOT give dogs and cats onions, grapes, or chocolate. All of these have certain chemicals that can mess up their digestive system and even prove fatal.