Dog first aid kit

[Kimmikins]

How many of you have a doggy first aid kit? Or a general first aid kit with extras for the pups?

What should you include?

In ours, we have:
Rectal thermometer
Ambulance bandages (gauze pads attached to bandage so you can tie it on and secure it)
Tweezers
Antihistamines
Cohesive bandages (sticks to itself so no tape needed - fab for covering dressings)
Saline

It used to live in my car, now it lives in the house but portable so we can take it with us if we go in my car; if we go in Tim's he's got his "Oh Sh*t" bag already.

[Dani]

Hmmmmm you know what,we dont have a first aid bag as such at all  . . . . . he is not allergic to anything and should anything happen I guess my comfort is that the vet practise is literally 5 min drive from our house !!   
I have lost my thornit powder and hibiscrub while moving so many bleedn times but will replace them when I think we need them,after all,they do have expiry dates on them I guess . . . . . so yeah,we have not got one !! 

[baileysworkworld]

My house first aid kit contains - Wound dressings, Padding bandages, Conforming Bandages, Cohesive bandages, Cotton wool bandage, Adhesive bandages, Swabs, Sterile saline solution - little pods - Sterile saline spray -big can which is fab for flushing wounds!) Hydrogel, Aquagel, Tick Hook, Instant ice pack, Scissors, Tweezers, Digital Thermometer, Gloves, 5ml Syringe and a foil blanket.

I have similar items but less quantity in the van.

I also have items in the house such as Metacam, thornit powder, hibiscrub, melasab, animalintex, piriton, salt, purple spray, sudocrem, and I am sure loads of stuff I have forgotton about.

These are not so much first aid items, more a general medical kit and I would only administer many of these things if I knew dog and owner really well. I wouldn't just give metacam to a dog who suddenly had a limp, if they were here for a day, I'd let the owner know and if worried, get them to take him to a vet. If they were here for a week and had a history (for example of recurrent lameness treated by metacam) I would possible give them a correct dose. I wouldn't use animalintex, purple spray or some other stuff which I have used many times on horse but officially, not correct for dogs.

Last year Bailey got a bacterial skin infection. I was in with my vet and I asked - would purple spray work? (it is used on horses as a antibacterial spray which you can spray on minor cuts and scrapes to help with healing and prevent further infection when horses are in a muddy field!)
My vet looked me in the eye and said, 'no, it is not a licenced drug so I can not say it is ok to use' While nodding like mad at me!!!!!

Most of this stuff I would use on Bailey but would rather take to vet than risk using stuff on other dogs.

If you have to bandage, you must make sure you put a dressing over wound - then place a padding bandage on first, then a conforming bandage to hold that all in place then a cohesive bandage to keep it all on! It is SUCH a faff but when bandaging dogs it is so important to get it right - especially with legs, tails and heads, which, lets face it, are the only places you can really bandage on a dog!!!

And after my little scare with Puppy a few weeks ago I now keep my buster (cone of shame!) collars in my van as part of my first aid kit in there!!!

[Kimmikins]

You reminded me of more stuff we have that I'd forgotten about!

We have Epsom salts for bathing wounds that have something stuck in there, helps to draw it out, Hibiscrub (love the smell of that stuff!), tick hooks, scissors, gloves. The dressings are adhesive, non-adhesive, pads and ambulance style.

We've also used Sudocrem on Sara when she's had a random sore spot on her tummy. But I've read that you need to make sure they don't lick at it because it contains Zinc, which can cause Zinc poisoning. We only ever use it once per sore bit, and that's always helped it heal quickly so only one application has been needed.

The "Oh Sh*t" bag is essentially a paramedic bag, and is kept in Tim's car. He used to have an official Paramedic bag when he worked in London, but down South they don't do individual issue.