Pet First Aid Kits

Even though you and your family may have a great first aid kit, it probably isn't going to be of any use when your pet gets hurt. Your pet is going to need to have his own first aid kit if an emergency should happen to arise.

Before you can find a durable, watertight container for your pet's first aid kit, you need to know what to keep inside of it so that you know what size of container you need. With this in mind, here are some of the things that you are going to want to make sure to place inside of your pet first aid kit include:

- The phone number for your veterinarian
- The phone number for animal poison control: 1-888-426-4435
- Sterile gauze pads (act as Band-Aids)
- Gauze bandage rolls (for muzzling)
- Flour, baking powder or corn starch (to stop toenails from bleeding)
- A small oral syringe (for administering medications)
- Cotton or clean towels (for cleaning wounds)
- A rectal thermometer and mineral oil
- Benadryl liquid 25mg (for allergic reactions or mild sedation)
- Bayer children's aspirin 81mg (for pain and fevers)
- Hydrogen peroxide (for inducing vomiting)
- Imodium AD (for diarrhea)
- Pepto-Bismol (for vomiting and diarrhea)
- Cortisone cream (for rashes, bug bites, abrasions and cuts)
- Honey or karo syrup (for hypoglycemia)
- Eyewash or saline solution (for washing out eyes)

Once you have gathered all of these supplies together you will know just how big of a container you are going to need. Oftentimes these things will fit inside of either a plastic food container or a tackle box.

You may also wish to speak to your veterinarian to make sure that you have all of the things that you need in case of an emergency. Once assembled, make sure that you take a look through your first aid kit at least every six months to make sure that you still have everything that you need and that none of the medications have expired.

Whenever you plan to take your pet with you on a trip, make sure that you take a few minutes to modify their first aid kit. The first thing that you will want to do here is research the environment of the area that you will be traveling to. You can make a phone call to friends or a local veterinarian to find out about any poisonous plants, snakes or extreme temperatures that you may encounter while there.

Remember that if your pet does get injured it isn't a human and it may need to be muzzled in order to keep it from biting you while you are performing first aid. It is also a good idea to contact your local chapter of the American Red Cross to find out if they offer any first aid or CPR classes for animals. Hopefully you will never need to use any of this information but if you do, at least you will be ready.