A Pet First Aid Kit That's Actually Useful Here

Most bought pet first aid kits are padding. This is the list that earns its space in a South African home, where the common emergencies are ticks, thorns, heat, cuts from fencing, and poisoning.

The genuinely useful items

• Tick hook or fine-point tweezers. The single most-used item in this country.
• Blunt-nosed scissors for cutting fur away from a wound.
• Saline solution (or make your own: a level teaspoon of salt in a litre of boiled, cooled water) for flushing wounds and eyes.
• Gauze swabs and a roll of conforming bandage. Not plasters — they do not stick to fur.
• Self-adhesive cohesive bandage for holding dressings on.
• A clean towel, which doubles as a stretcher, a restraint and a cooling wrap.
• Digital thermometer and lubricant. Normal dog temperature is roughly 38 to 39.2°C.
• Chlorhexidine solution for cleaning wounds — dilute as directed, not neat.
• A muzzle or a length of soft bandage to improvise one. Pain makes gentle dogs bite.
• Disposable gloves and a small torch.

What to leave out

No human painkillers of any kind. No hydrogen peroxide for inducing vomiting unless a vet has told you to, and never in cats. No antiseptic creams designed for people, which get licked off and can cause stomach upset. No cotton wool, which sheds fibres into wounds.

Numbers to save now

Your regular vet, your nearest 24-hour emergency hospital including how long the drive is at night, your local SPCA, and a nearby friend with a car. Save them in your phone contacts, not in a browser tab — this is exactly the moment your signal drops or your battery is on four percent.

The most useful thing in the kit

A printed card with your dog's weight, current medications, allergies, microchip number and vaccination dates. When you arrive at an after-hours practice that has never seen your dog, handing that over saves fifteen minutes of questions at the worst possible time. Update it every birthday.