Looking Out for Dog’s Life--or Cat’s

BOSTON — Wendy Beaton was jogging through a remote Northampton field with her young whippet--a smaller version of the lanky greyhound--when she heard an awful yelp.

With a running leap, Diesel had landed smack on an upright stick that pierced his wiry chest in two places. Beaton stuffed her shirt against the dog’s stomach, trying to stem the flow of blood, as she raced to get her beloved pet to the vet.

The makeshift bandage helped. The dog survived, albeit with major surgery. So did Beaton--barely; the day’s fright took its toll.

Determined never to feel so helpless again, Beaton turned to the American Red Cross. The agency that has taught legions of laymen how to aid and resuscitate humans is taking its know-how to the four-legged level.

With the help of the Humane Society of the United States, the Red Cross published a first aid book for cats and dogs last April. Sold through Red Cross chapters and bookstores for about $10--35,000 copies have been purchased so far--the book is designed to be an at-home reference guide for pet emergencies.

The 100-page manual, which reviews emergency treatment for everything from choking to electrical shock, is also a teaching companion for a three-hour pet first aid workshop run by a handful of Red Cross chapters nationwide.

*

At a recent class in Boston, Beaton and her husband, Paul Charrette, crouched over a small stuffed collie, practicing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Beaton placed the “dog” on its side, tilting its head slightly back to check if the airway was clear. Then she placed her mouth on its mouth, creating a seal. She gave four or five quick breaths before checking to see whether the dog was breathing. (Of course, this one was stuffed, and not exactly anatomically correct, so the training exercise had its limits.)

Would she do the same for Diesel--put her lips straight onto his? “In a second,” Beaton responded.

“With your own dog, it’s like your child,” her husband added.

Over the last few years, several Red Cross chapters--including those in Los Angeles; Louisville, Ky.; Franklin, Tenn., Phoenix; Pittsburgh and Tampa, Fla.--have offered variations of the pet first aid course. But before the book came out, each chapter had its own course techniques, pamphlets and brochures, said Janet Bober, director of health and safety services for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay.

The book offers a uniform curriculum for the nation’s 1,400 Red Cross chapters, many of which hope to launch the pet course.

*

At the Los Angeles chapter, which began teaching the class a year ago, response has been overwhelming.

No wonder. According to the Humane Society, 58.9% of all U.S. households had a pet in 1996, the most recent figures available, with a total of 59.1 million cats and 52.9 million dogs.

“The joke is that we can cajole and coach people to come in and take first aid and CPR training to save their loved ones, but it’s a lot easier to get people to the pet first-aid class,” said John Pacheco, director of health education for the Los Angeles chapter.

Greg Friedman had been teaching human CPR and first aid for about seven years when Bober asked him to help launch Boston’s pet program.

“A lot of the skills transfer over so nicely from humans,” said Friedman, who has had to use some of the techniques on his 10-pound spaniel-like papillon, Pierre, and his late poodle, Pepper.

Although the anatomy and physiology are certainly different, the rescue goals are the same. “You’re trying to keep the animal alive, and that’s the same for the human,” Friedman said.

Friedman and co-instructor Shawn Wade Delaney led a recent class through a variety of prevention and rescue techniques, demonstrating some on an affable golden retriever named Berkeley, which graciously permitted his leg to be bandaged but who seemed far more interested in getting his tummy rubbed.

Some vets have expressed concerns that the course will make pet owners believe that they can cure the animals themselves--without a professional’s help. But Dr. Myles Borash, a veterinarian in private practice in Peabody, north of Boston, disagrees.

“I see it as a great way to help animals because a lot of people just don’t know what to do until they get veterinary care,” said Borash, who also teaches the Red Cross course.

The concerns of some vets have a strange familiarity to them. Twenty years ago, when the Red Cross first started teaching first aid to nonmedical personnel, many doctors feared that the courses would make folks believe that they were invincible, that they could cure their loved ones without a physician’s help, Bober said.

The pet class is as much about preventing animal injuries as it is about healing them, said Leslie Sinclair, director of companion animal care for the Humane Society. The manual offers suggestions for daily care and good pet health.

Most of those taking the Boston course seemed more concerned about making their pets comfortable until they could get them to the vet.

“There’s that moment when you think: ‘Am I an idiot, should I be going to the vet? Or am I an idiot for going?’ ” said Randy Danson, an actress living in Cambridge with her 5-pound black toy poodle.

The tips aren’t infallible. The book and course make it clear that many of the techniques, especially CPR, have low success rates. But at least, the course participants and instructors said, they give the animals--and their owners--a fighting chance.