do you know what to do if your baby is choking!?
 

the other day, while i was at a play date for the dogs at my friends house. milu started pawing at her face. i started getting nervous and asking my friend what's happening!? my friend said, don't worry, i just gave her a sticky treat, i think it's stuck in her teeth and she is just trying to get it out. but milu kept pawing at her face, and it was making me really nervous. so i asked my friend to get the treat out of milu's mouth for me. (i tried to get it out, but i couldn't see where the treat was in her mouth)

my friend came over to try to help me, then she started screaming, "she is choking, omg, she is choking, give her Heimlich Maneuver!"

and i started freaking out and sweating because i didn't know how to give a Heimlich Maneuver. so i said "CAN YOU DO IT!? I DON'T KNOW HOW!!!!!" but neither of us did it, and milu started shaking.

so my friend grabbed milu's head, and i stuck my finger down her throat to see if i can find anything stuck, but nothing was there. so we just put milu down on the floor, and she started wagging her tail at the other dogs again.

i don't really know what happened honestly, but my friend said to me afterwards that if they are choking, even if you don't know how to do the Heimlich Maneuver, you should still try to do it...but honestly, i was just so scared and i panicked.

i need to learn how to do CPR and Heimlich Maneuver for my doggie just in case anything happens to them, and i think it's important for every dog owner to know how to do this as well!

here is a sticky wylie's mom wrote: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/sic...-maneuver.html

does anyone have a site or link to a video that demonstrates how to properly perform CPR or Heimlich Maneuver on dogs?

i was so scared when i thought milu was choking, i thought i was going to lose her and never see her again! :(

Omg, that is so scarey! I am so relieved that sweet little Milu is OK. I am going to read that link right now.

Hold them in one arm with their head toward the ground and slap their back with the palm of your hand. Never stick your hand in their mouth. You could lodge the object further down their throat.

Wow....you poor thing!! I think I would have panicked too. Knowing the right steps is very,very important!! There are sooo many things that these babies can get into their mouths! It's so easy for them to choke.
I am going to let your scary episode teach me to know how to help my baby just in case!! Thanks for that link and I hope your little Milu is doing fine.......

Wow, how scary!! I'm so glad to hear she is okay. Thanks for posting the sticky. :)

The Red Cross has a great program to take on First Aid for Pets. Also a book available on the same topic.

How scary! I'm glad Milu is ok! thanks for the reminder!

So scary!

I had an incident like this a month ago with Jackson. He was eating some sort of bone-thing he got for Xmas (it looked like a bully stick but was stickier) and he did the same thing-started pawing at his face. After peeking in his mouth and not seeing anything, I just assumed it was in his teeth. But he did it for a good 3 mins and I had to grab hold of him (he kept running from me-I think he was scared) and I finally just stuck my finger in there and pulled out a little piece that had been caught in the top of his throat! So scary!

I did learn about doggie CPR etc when I took my CPR class but honestly didn't remember anything about it. Thanks for the link! :) I'm so glad Milu is okay.

I do know what to do, and I've had to use the heimlich on my Joey a couple times...Needless to say, we do not have rawhide flips or whatever you call them - the flat strips of rawhide - anymore. I have been cpr and basic life support certified (it's expired now, I still have to redo it), and I basically just did for Joey what I would have done for an infant. I'm not 100% sure it's what you're supposed to do, but it's what I did...I put him along my forearm, head in my hand, pointed down, and I did little thrusts with my first two fingers upward and in, being careful not to go too close to the ribcage (I'm not sure - do dogs have a xyphoid process?). Both times it worked, and I am SO thankful that no injury became my little Joey!

I bet there are cpr and first aid classes available for dogs, I just haven't come across any. Of course, I haven't looked, either.

thank you for posting this! I will definitely do that instead if we ever have another choking incident.

Thankful Milu is okay. I've read the sticky, but I need to re-read it and familiarize myself with the procedures. I, too, wish there was a video on how to do it. ~Joanne~