If you have pets, it's good to know basic animal first aid in case of emergency. If you're a pet professional, such as a dog groomer or trainer, knowing first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation is essential. While hands-on first aid and CPR training in a classroom has obvious advantages over online coursework, time limitations make attending classes in person impractical for most of us -- so we get our pet first aid and CPR training, including certification, in front of a laptop.
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A Pet First Aid Syllabus
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Basic pet first aid courses teach you the skills to stabilize a sick or injured animal until you can get the pet to a veterinarian for treatment. Besides teaching animal CPR, first aid courses teach how to care for wounds, identify shock, restrain injured animals, administer certain medications, deal with choking, counter poisoning and deal with other common pet emergencies. They provide instruction on emergency medical assessment, or triage, of pets.
Continuing Education and Considerations
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Human first responders, such as firefighters and emergency medical technicians, might take online pet first aid courses as part of continuing education to help pets rescued from car accidents, house fires and similar situations. If you can take such a course on your own schedule, you usually must complete it within a certain time period after registration. Certification programs usually cost more than informational first aid teaching programs that don't offer certification.
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