Advanced Pet First Aid Level 3 (VTQ)
Course Content
- Introduction to Advanced Pet First Aid
- Course Introduction
- Course Overview
- Before we start - Coronavirus COVID 19 advice for pet owners from the government
- Meet Your Vet
- Pet First Aid and The Law
- The vet and your role in first aid
- The Role of the Pet First Aider
- When is Veterinary Care Required?
- Keeping your pet safe in an emergency
- Car Accidents
- Pet Proofing your home
- Please rescue my pets stickers
- Hand Hygiene
- Dog Microchipping
- Precautions and Safety
- Anatomy and Physiology
- First Aid Kits and Equipment
- Checking a Dog's health
- Pet Accidents and First Aid
- CPR
- Choking
- Bleeding Control
- Different Conditions you may see
- Injuries
- Suspected fractures
- Pet Fractures Treatment
- Types of fractures on animals
- Spinal injury and moving an injured pet
- Paw Problems
- Nail and Claw Injuries
- Eye Injuries
- Eye Problems
- Bandaging the Ear
- Bandaging the Tail and Tail Injuries
- Puncture Wounds
- Animal bites and scratches on pets
- Stings on animals
- Ibuprofen and pets
- Carbon Monoxide and pets
- Vet poison information line
- Inducing Vomiting in a Dog
- Snake Bites
- Pet Burns
- Electrocution
- Cruciate Ligament
- Illness
- Pets and Illnesses
- Bloat and Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus (GDV)
- High Temperatures and Heatstroke
- Hypothermia Treatment
- Vomiting in Animals
- Different Types and Causes of Vomiting
- Seizures and Epilepsy
- Allergies in Pets
- Pancreatitis
- Cushings Disease
- Coughing and kennel cough
- Diarrhoea in Animals
- Rabies
- Alabama Foot Rot
- Blue Green Algae
- Pyometra
- Vestibular Syndrome
- Parasites that affect pets
- Cats
- Different types and sizes of animals
- Summary of Advanced Pet First Aid
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With older dogs, there may be some further considerations that you need to think about. They do change as they get older so the requirements, their nutritional requirements and their exercise requirements do change as they get older. It may be worth having more regular visits with your vet so they can be looking for weight changes, doing blood pressures, checking out for lumps and bumps on your dog that you may not have noticed, but those are the things that you want to be looking out for at home, because as you get older, any lumps or bumps may be something more serious than they would have been when they were younger. They may slow down, so over years, the way an animal/ a pet will exercise, a dog in particular, they are very active a lot of dogs, so there is a lot of wear and tear over their joints, their spine over their hips over their knees and shoulders, so as they get older, that wear and tear will often cause a degree of arthritis, and it is very common in old dogs, especially the large breeds, for us to pick up on arthritis. It is one of those things that you may not notice at home because arthritis tends to come on quite gradually, but when you come to the vets and have a checkover, with older dogs we will spend more time doing, manipulating their limbs and having a feel over their back to see if there is any evidence of pain there that you may not be picking up on at home. Other considerations with older dogs would be heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease... So as its organs are used throughout its life, they are getting used and worn out. So the other reasons to go and see your vet more regularly would be to have routine urine and blood samples. So blood tests can pick up on early changes before symptoms may occur in your pet. The type of diseases that we are looking at here are liver failure, kidney failure and potentially heart failure, which we wouldn't pick up on through a blood test, but through having a clinical exam with a vet, we may pick up changes. Either a heart murmur or a change of heart rate that is not normal for your dog. That is something there that we can act on before it comes a problem. Or at least we can slow down the deterioration of some of these conditions. You may notice things at home such as weight changes, a change in appetite, maybe they are drinking more, drinking less, maybe a change in their faecal pattern or in the consistency of their faeces. You may find that they are not as hungry as they used to be, and that is important, maybe if they are not as hungry but they are maintaining their weight, then that is just them regulating their input, but if they are not eating as much and losing weight, that can be a sign of an underlying disease. So with the older dog, it would be a good idea if their exercise levels are changing either just because of arthritis, or they just don't need so much exercise, that you are adapting their feeding pattern with that. Maybe you want to change their food onto a senior version of a diet, or just give them slightly less so that they don't put on weight. Any older dog with arthritis or with a heart condition, doesn't want to put on any weight, because you are just going to aggravate the conditions that they already have. So these are all the things that you can speak to your vet about when you go for your routine vaccinations or with your regular checkups.
Older dogs need to be given more care and consideration, the speed and distance walked may need to be adjusted to suit your dog's mobility and energy levels. Older dogs are more likely to trip and stumble and may be knocked over by a younger playful dog.
Look out for cysts or warts and keep an eye on their health in general, you may have to make adjustments to allow for impaired hearing and sight. The teeth will yellow, these can be cleaned using gels or powder that you add to food, but take care not to stress them if they are not used to having their teeth cleaned and always check with your vet that gels or powder are suitable for your pet in particular.
Make sure that your dog has a check-up regularly the vet will be able to help to keep him or her as happy and mobile as they can be.