DIY Dog Emergency Kit - Meredith Rines

With three dogs running around our house at all times, J and I have finally learned what we need to have on hand. You see, if all of our dogs were like our sweet Maggie then we would have no problems. They would sleep under the bed all day, eat their dinner like a good girl and then cuddle up next to you on the couch.

But the other two dogs….

Well let’s just say they are the complete opposite of our Maggie girl.

….oh Tiny and Bud. Those two are a bit crazier than most. They run, they tackle each other, they slide into the door and then they run around outside. So it’s inevitable that these two would get hurt. We like to keep a dog emergency kit on hand to be prepared for those little emergencies.

One of the last time we left town, we dropped the dogs off with this amazing lady who takes care of them. Each dog had a great time and she even spent time with Bud on doing some training. He was doing great. I got to work with him and see which command words worked for him. Then I took all three dogs home. We get in the door and I realized Tiny was missing her collar. Normally that isn’t a big deal until I noticed Bud was expelling the neon green collar from a not so pretty place. Then he started choking and coughing, a lot. We rushed him to the vet and after a few X-Rays we learned it was in small pieces and nothing was wrapped around any organs. He would naturally expel the collar. Yay!

Okay, okay so that story really had nothing to do with a DIY dog emergency kit and why you need one, but it is a reminder to always pay attention to your dog. I’m adamant about making sure everything is okay and their habits are running like clockwork. Bud is still a bit young and has a lot of learning to do. He’s not afraid of anything, which is not always a good thing. He’s more curious than anything. So with him, I’m especially careful when he starts acting a little different.

The little emergencies are the ones we can treat at home. A nip here, a scratch there, etc. I talk so great about Maggie, but when she was a young pup she got into a whole brand new container of birth control pills. Plastic, foil wrapping, pills and all. I called the emergency vet clinic and luckily because she was female and I could find majority of the pills they weren’t too worried about the pill ingestion. They knew and warned me it would make her sick, but not fatal. They were more concerned about the consumption of plastic and foil. So I had to induce vomiting. Thankfully they talked me through it and all was fine, nasty, but fine.

Around our house, we see quite a bit of these little accidents, especially in the summer. Something about the warmer weather has our dogs stir-crazy so they end up outside a lot more. We put together this easy to use dog emergency kit that has really paid off.

Here’s what we have in our DIY dog emergency kit:

antiseptic wipes
Hydrogen Peroxide
gauze pads
medical tape
self-cling bandage wraps
q-tips
cotton balls
disposable gloves
tweezers
phone numbers to your local veterinarian’s office. Ours even has an after hours line for emergencies, that’s in there too
ASPCA poison-control center hotline, which is 1-800-426-4435
leash – we use the freebie we received from the vet awhile back. It’s not the nicest, but with the loop that goes around the neck, it’ll be the easiest to use in case of an emergency.

I went to the Humane Society’s website and found this article. Luckily, I had most of what they were recommending on my list. They do have other items too that would be great to have on hand.

I would highly recommend creating a dog emergency kit for yourself to have. I mean, with some adjustments this would work for your cat, too. We just don’t have any cats – darn allergies! These little guys can fit nicely into a small plastic tote and then be sealed, labeled and stowed away until they are actually needed.

I would also suggest setting a reminder to go through your kit each year. Throw away anything that is out of date and replace any used or old product. I have a alert in our Google Calendar for each January to go through ours.