Hi everyone,
Last weekend I was away getting recertified for my Canine First Aider qualification (yeah, that’s a thing) and while we were talking about things I had a very vivid memory that I think I should share with you. This is the story of how I saved Ice’s life.
It was the middle of winter, Ice was 7 months old, just before Christmas. We had taken in a rescue who was severely under nourished and after being in quarantine she went in with Ice (who was inside since she was our first full angora and it was to be a cold year). Since she was suddenly nourished her body automatically came into season despite the time of year and Ice, being in the same cage, was dragged in with her.
Mite our hoblet was out of season, and not knowing her history I didn’t really want to risk him catching an STI from the rescue and passing it around, so we decided to book a vet appointment and get her the jill jab. We decided to take Ice too and get her done first to help the rescue feel safe and have them both come out at the same time so no one else came in, get our moneys worth of the bottle etc. We didn’t think much of it, we’d used jill jabs loads of times before, our jill Gizmo would never allow a hob to mate with her so we had to get her them her whole life. Just an ordinary vet visit.
All went well at the vets so we paid, ran for the bus and because it was later in the evening had timed everything so we were on our second bus home by about 30 mins post injection. It was then I thought something was wrong. Ice had started to go into shock. We were so far away from the vets she’d be dead by the time we got there, we were even in the middle of no-where where there’s 10 mins on the bus between stops at the time. Even if we got straight out and called a taxi we wouldn’t get there for at least 30 mins, assuming a taxi was nearby. I did what I could and treated her for shock.
I took her limp body, out of the carrier, and put her inside my jacket, head down, and started checking the rescue for signs while my mum called the vet. It was just Ice, she must have had a reaction to the jill jab. By the time we were at the next bus stop she had regained consciousness and the vets told us to keep it up, get her home, warm and keep her under observation until the next morning when we could get her checked over.
I cannot stress enough that if I hadn’t known how to treat her for shock in an emergency she would have died. Her brain would have been starved of oxygen for too long.
Please learn some first aid, it could save your pets life. And make a point of hanging around after any vet treatment, you never know when you’ll be in this situation.
Thanks for reading Xx