What to do if your dog faints: medical advice

A dog losing consciousness can come as a shock to any owner. It can lead to panic and uncertainty about what to do.

User Jade, a veterinary nurse, shared an educational and informative video on TikTok explaining what to do if a dog weighing more than 7 kg loses consciousness and stops breathing.

Obviously, the first step should be to call a doctor or visit one immediately to check your pet. However, if time is short and the condition is extremely serious, you can try to perform emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation on your pet yourself.

In her video, Jade uses a stuffed dog to demonstrate how to do this.

If your dog is unconscious and not breathing, you'll need to perform an "initial assessment" of their condition. First, you should open the dog's mouth, pull out its tongue, and check its airway to see if it is clear. If you notice a foreign object in them, try to remove it, "ideally using one finger in a swiping motion to grab the thing and pull it out."

"If it's a ball or something that's gone in deep enough that you can't get it out with one finger movement, put the dog on its back, stretch its neck. Using your thumbs, you need to push the object up and out of the airway to remove it," the nurse says.

The next step is to check breathing. To do this, you should approach the dog's chest and try to feel it. Or you can put your cheek to the animal's nose.

The expert also advises to look at the color of the dog's gums and check if they are turning blue.

If so, you should immediately check the blood circulation. Put your ear to the dog's chest and try to hear a heartbeat. If you can't, place two fingers on the inside of his upper thigh and watch to see if you can feel a pulse.

"If there is no pulse, no heartbeat, they are not breathing and they are turning blue, we need to start CPR. If you haven't done it already, call your veterinarian to alert them to the situation. He or she can give you advice over the phone, but in the meantime, lay your dog down on a flat, hard surface, ideally on his or her right side," Jade said.

She noted that if the dog is on its left side and you can't turn it over, you shouldn't worry about it and continue with the procedure with the dog on its left side because "any CPR is better than none." To begin the compressions, she advises interlocking your fingers, clasping your elbows, and placing your shoulders directly over the dog.

For round-chested dogs, Labradors, and Golden Retrievers, you need to put your hands on the widest part of the chest. If it is a deep-chested dog, like a German Shepherd or Greyhound, you need to place your hands directly over their heart.

Next, you should make 30 squeezes at a rate of two squeezes per second.

At the same time, you need to keep the dog's tongue in its mouth, and use your hands to "completely surround and close the mouth, forming an air lock." Then you need to put the dog's nose in your mouth and take two breaths.

"After each breath, check to see if their chest is rising to make sure they're getting enough oxygen," Jade said.

If at any point your dog starts to breathe, or you can feel a heartbeat or pulse, stop CPR and take your dog to the vet as soon as possible. This type of CPR is used for dogs weighing more than seven pounds. Small dogs and cats have different compression methods, so they will need different exercises.

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