4 Essentials for Stocking Your Pet’s First Aid Kit

Pets play an important role in boosting your mood and making you feel loved and appreciated. However, these playful animals may get into accidents as they play about in your home or compound. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you have a well-stocked pet’s first-aid kit so that you can offer your pet immediate medical attention in case of an emergency.

Also, it is important to contact your veterinarian in case of any major accidents.

In between the incident and the vet visit, however, these are some things you’ll want to have on hand.

Eye Rinse Solution

Whether your pet has hair stuck in their eye or some kind of chemicals or spices, many pet parents will find themselves in a situation where they need to rinse their pet’s eyes.

Especially with harsh chemicals or if they’ve gotten into the spice cabinet, you don’t have time to run to the vet before damage can be done to their eyes.

While clean water can do in a pinch, it’s best to have some sort of eye rinse solution on hand that will clear out the irritant without stripping away the oils and lipids the eye uses to protect itself.

Be aware, as well, that human artificial tears will not work on pets and can sting instead of soothe. Instead, buy an eye rinse made specifically for pets.

Styptic Powder

When trimming your pet’s nails or claws, it’s not uncommon to accidentally cut too close to the quick of the nail, the flesh part, and lead to potentially fatal bleeding.

To stop the bleeding, you can apply styptic powder to help clot up the blood.

If you don’t have that, cornstarch or flour can also work, though the powder is the most sanitary and effective.

If the bleeding is serious, you should absolutely take your pet to the vet immediately rather than attempt to treat it yourself, but if the bleeding stops quickly, the injury is minute, and your pet isn’t fussing over it, then you can typically treat it easily with a drop of superglue to seal off the exposed part of the nail.

Pet Wound Care Solution

These solutions help in preventing bacterial infections in the wounded area.

Get an over the counter pet wound care solution to help you handle cuts and wounds efficiently, as well as help in the recovery process of your pet.

While this isn’t a replacement for an emergency trip to a vet, it is helpful for the long-term care of your pet’s wound.

Your vet is invaluable for the immediate initial treatment of the wound and for giving you guidance on how to properly care for the wound as it heals, and they will direct you on how to properly administer the wound care solution and for how long.

Bandages

Bandages will help you cover the wounds after disinfecting them and limit your pet’s access to their wound.

This is essential because pets instinctively will fuss and nip and lick at injuries, often making them worse.

After you have cleaned and treated an injury, even if the injury isn’t bleeding, it may be necessary to wrap up the injury if possible to prevent your pet from biting at it until you are able to have it treated by a vet.

A cone may also be necessary to have on hand to keep your pet from fussing at wounds that are difficult to cover, such as those on their body as opposed to a paw or tail.

Just like kids, pets can get into all sorts of trouble, and that includes injuries.

Don’t wait for an emergency to occur before you stock up on the essentials.

Have everything you need ahead of time to treat your pet while you wait to be able to have them seen by a vet.

Also, keep lots of treats and soothing blankets on hand, as injuries are incredibly stressful for pets and they’ll need all of the comforts they can get.