The First Ten Minutes of a Pet Emergency

In most emergencies the outcome is decided by two things: how fast you get to a vet, and what you do in the meantime. The second one is where people freeze.

This is a general framework. Print it, or put it somewhere you can find it at 11pm.

Step 1: Stop and look, for ten seconds

The instinct is to grab the animal and run. Ten seconds of assessment first makes everything after it better.

Are they breathing? Watch the chest.

Are they conscious?

Is there major bleeding?

Can they stand?

What colour are the gums? Lift the lip. Healthy gums are bubblegum pink. Pale, white, blue, grey or brick red gums are all emergencies.

Step 2: Phone the vet — while someone else does the rest

Call before you leave, not from the car park. This is the most commonly skipped step and the most useful one.

It means they can prepare — drugs drawn up, oxygen ready, a table clear, a nurse waiting at the door. For something like bloat or a blocked cat, minutes of preparation genuinely change outcomes.

Say clearly: what animal, what's happened, what you're seeing, and how long until you arrive.

Put your nearest 24-hour emergency vet in your phone now, with the address, before you need it. Do it today. Fumbling for a number while your dog is convulsing is a bad ten minutes.

Step 3: Keep yourself safe

A frightened, injured animal will bite, including one who has never bitten anyone. This is not aggression — it's pain and panic, and it happens constantly.

Approach calmly and slowly. Speak quietly.
For dogs, a makeshift muzzle from a lead, a bandage or a strip of fabric can be wrapped around the muzzle and tied behind the ears. Never muzzle an animal who is vomiting, struggling to breathe, or has a facial or head injury.
For cats, a towel is your best tool. Drop it over them and gather them up.
Use gloves if there's blood.

You cannot help them from a hospital bed.

Step 4: Deal with the immediately life-threatening

Major bleeding — press firmly on the wound with a clean cloth, a towel, a T-shirt. Keep pressing. Don't lift to check every ten seconds; that dislodges the clot. If it soaks through, add more on top rather than removing. Elevate the limb if you can. Tourniquets are a last resort for catastrophic limb bleeding only.

Not breathing, no heartbeat — CPR is worth attempting on the way. Lay them on their right side. For most dogs, hands over the widest part of the chest, compress about a third to half the chest depth, roughly 100–120 compressions per minute. For deep-chested dogs, compress over the heart just behind the elbow. For cats and small dogs, one hand wrapped around the chest. Two rescue breaths (hold the mouth closed, breathe into the nose) every 30 compressions. Keep going until you reach the vet. Survival rates are low, but it costs nothing to try.

Choking — see the section below on airway emergencies. Briefly: look in the mouth, sweep only what you can see and reach, and if you can't clear it, get moving to the vet immediately.

Seizure — do not put your hands near the mouth. Move furniture away, dim the lights, keep it quiet, and time it. Under two minutes and stopping on its own, phone the vet. Over five minutes, or repeated seizures without full recovery between, is an emergency — go now.

Step 5: Move them safely

Suspected spinal or major trauma: slide them onto a flat, rigid surface — a board, a baking tray, a removed shelf, a folded blanket used as a stretcher with two people. Keep the spine as straight as possible. Don't let them walk.

Cats and small dogs: carrier, or wrapped firmly in a towel. A cat in a towel is safer for everyone than a loose cat in a car.

Large dogs: a blanket used as a stretcher with two people, one at each end. Or a firm hold with one arm under the chest and one under the hindquarters.

Keep them warm — shock drops body temperature. A blanket, a coat, the car heater on.

Step 6: Bring the evidence

This gets forgotten constantly and it matters.

The packet, bottle or plant if they've eaten something. The actual container, not a description.
A photo of anything you can't bring
Their medication list
The vomit or stool if it's abnormal — in a bag, unpleasant but genuinely useful
Video of the seizure or the collapse, if someone had a hand free

What not to do

Don't give human medication. Paracetamol is lethal to cats and dangerous to dogs. Ibuprofen causes kidney failure and stomach ulcers in both. Aspirin interferes with treatment. This is one of the most common ways a survivable situation becomes a fatal one.

Don't induce vomiting unless a vet has told you to, for that specific substance. With corrosive substances or petroleum products, vomiting causes severe additional damage on the way back up.

Don't give food or water if there's any chance of surgery, or if they're unconscious or struggling.

Don't wait to see if it improves with: difficulty breathing, a distended abdomen, a straining male cat, uncontrolled bleeding, seizures lasting over five minutes, collapse, or suspected poisoning. These are the ones where waiting until morning kills.

The signs that mean go now, no debate

Difficulty breathing, or breathing with an extended neck and elbows out
Blue, grey, white or pale gums
A hard, swollen, distended abdomen — especially with unproductive retching
A male cat straining in the tray and producing nothing
Collapse or inability to stand
Seizure lasting over five minutes, or clusters
Uncontrolled bleeding
Suspected poisoning
Any road traffic accident, even if they look fine
A bite wound to the chest or abdomen
Sudden hind limb paralysis, especially in a cat
Persistent vomiting with a swollen belly
Known snake bite or spider bite

Prepare now, not then

Take five minutes today:

1. Save your 24-hour emergency vet's number and address in your phone

2. Know the route

3. Know roughly what they charge and how they take payment — some require deposits

4. Have a basic first aid kit: bandage material, gauze, a clean towel, saline, gloves, a muzzle, a torch

5. Know your pet's normal — resting breathing rate, gum colour, weight

That last one matters more than people think. You cannot recognise abnormal if you never checked normal. Members log resting respiratory rate, weight and gum colour in the community app precisely so that in an emergency there's a baseline to compare against — and so the person on the phone at 11pm can say *his resting rate is 48, it's normally 22* rather than *he's breathing a bit fast*.