Medical guide for dogs

Let me tell you a true story. My first dog, Gypsy, was a wonderful beagle who was a gift for my 13th birthday. What a lively and fun girl she was! After giving birth to a wonderful litter of beautiful, pure-bred beagle puppies, we decided to have her spayed. The surgery was uneventful, and we brought her home shortly after. Sadly, the next day, her sutures ruptured, and I found her lying on our front porch, bleeding heavily. We immediately called our vet....who was closed for the day because it was the 4th of July. The next closest emergency vet was an hour away. We bundled her up...not really knowing what we were doing...and drove to the emergency vet. But she was too far gone, and died shortly after we got there.

Not having a medical guide for dogs available, and so not knowing the right...and wrong...things to do during this emergency, surely cost us the life of our wonderful girl.

When choosing a medical guide for dogs, I first of all was looking for something that was easy to understand: I am not a medical professional! I wanted to be able to follow what I was reading so that I could easily put it into practice when I needed to! Second, I wanted a book that covered emergency first aid, as well as provided me information on illnesses, symptoms, and basic healthcare. Dogs can't tell you what they are feeling: having an idea when I need to call the vet was very important to me. Lastly, I was interested in a book that provided some information on diet and nutrition, as I know that the key to having a healthy dog is to feed them well!

These are a few of the things that I felt were important in a medical guide for dogs:

* what to do if your dog was choking
* what to do if your dog was bleeding
* what to do if your dog was suffering from shock
* what to do if your dog was bitten
* what to do if your dog's leg was broken
* what to do if your dog was suffering from heatstroke