How do I know if my dog needs CPR?

If we are questioning things like perfusion, they've stopped breathing, maybe they've had a heart issue, et cetera, that will absolutely be determined by your veterinarian when you get to the veterinary hospital.

CPR, much like in humans, is cardiopulmonary resuscitation. So that would imply, by its very nature, that you're having either heart or respiratory issues. So how are you going to know? Perhaps you’ve got a dog that just acutely collapsed and is struggling to breathe, or perhaps has stopped breathing. Maybe it's a dog that's choking. Without going into any further detail, that's kind of how you would know if your dog would require CPR.

On the other hand, how to do CPR is different because it's different anatomy than people. And I won't go through all the play-by-plays of it here because it's not the venue, and I don't have anything to practice on or show you on. But simply put, CPR is usually chest compressions. The dog's going to be on its side laterally, and you’ll start chest compressions right where the left elbow meets the body because that's about where the heart is. So you want to do light compressions there. And see, this is the part I don't want to talk about without a proper demonstration, but it's light chest compressions there at a pretty rapid rate. You figure the average dog's heart rate is anywhere between, say, 80 and 120 even at rest, so it's pretty fast, more so than ours would be.

In people, we know to pinch the nose, kind of hold up the chin, and we breathe directly into their mouth that way. In a dog, you do the opposite. In a dog, you more or less close the mouth and breathe directly into the nose. You can put your whole mouth over their nose and breathe into their nose that way. And I know a lot of people watching this are probably thinking, “Ew, that's kind of nasty.” It works, and it's a pretty good seal, and that's usually the most effective way to get it done.

Identifying the need for CPR can be difficult. By the time a patient requires CPR, if their heart has stopped or they're not breathing, there's little you can do at home. Signs include collapse, gums turning purple or blue, loss of pink color on the tongue, absence of breathing, limpness, and non-responsiveness. These are definite indications for CPR. Classes on pet first aid and CPR are available in local communities. I will tell you that the percentage of pets that can actually be saved by these procedures is relatively low, just like in humans, unfortunately. However, it is a good thing to know.