Puppies are not only cute, but they also love to explore, and that gets them into trouble a lot. Many puppies get injured and sometimes killed by electric shocks. A faulty electric cable, lightening, or a faulty electric circuit can be a recipe for disaster.
Most electric accidents occur when your dog chews on a telephone or electric cord that (includes your Christmas lights wire).
An accident like this can happen anytime during the year, but people get puppies as gifts mostly in the holiday season which makes it a time puppies may get shocked by the tempting Christmas lights.
The damage caused by electric shocks especially from truth Christmas light codes may not appear immediately which makes it more. It is possible for an electric shock to cause difficulty breathing or an erratic heartbeat several days after it occurs.
Electrical shock injuries in puppies
Injuries from an electric shock vary according to the pathway the current takes into the body and also the degree of the voltage. Most of the time cases of household electric shock in poppies do not have an immediate deadly outcome and are hardly ever serious.
The worst that may happen is that your puppy might sustain a few burns at the point of contact when it gets electrocuted. And this burns usually show up in the mouth area for puppies that chew on cords and wires.
Veterinarians even have a name for the burns strip that usually appears on the tongue whenever a dog gets electrocuted from chewing on a wire; it’s called an electric bite.
Twelve hours after the electrocution incident, the lungs of your puppy may become filled with water. This happens as a result of tiny capillaries in the lungs getting ruptured by the electricity.
When the fluid seeps into your puppies lungs the little dog may find it difficult to breathe, become anxious, and may also begin to cough. These signs may not become obvious until two or three days after the electric shock.
The electric current that passes through the heart may cause an irregular heartbeat and even circulatory collapse. An injury to the central nervous system may cause difficulty in breathing, seizures and a host of other body problems.
Unless you give u a puppy immediate attention it may fall into a coma, have a convulsion or even die. Pets may suffer from permanent nerve damage even if they survive the electric shock.
First aid for electric shock in puppies
1. Shut off the electricity: when your dog is getting electrocuted the current of the electricity can cause muscle contraction which would make your dog bite harder into the wire instead of letting go first.
It is best to shut off the source of the electricity first before making any moves to touch your dog as you may get shocked as well. If you are not familiar with how to shut off the electricity, you can get a pair of rubber gloves and put on a pair of rubber shoes then try to pull off the plug from the socket.
2. Give your puppy CPR: if you noticed your puppy collapses and stopped breathing after the electric shock, go ahead and give it a CPR. You should also check for a heartbeat by putting the flat of your palm on your puppy’s chest behind its left elbow.
3. Address seizures: how the brain functions are by using electrical impulses, this electrocution can disrupt normal brain function which could lead to seizures. This is just usually last about 2 to 3 minutes and is hardly ever as a serious as it looks.
When your dog is experiencing a seizure it might paddle with his paws, pee or poop, tremble and shake. Light and sound may also aggravate seizures, so if your dog is having a seizure what you have to do is cover its face with a piece of black cloth to prevent contact with light and also avoid touching it till the seizure episode is over.
4. Keep your puppy calm: puppies need more oxygen when they are stressed. Electrocution could lead to damage lungs which means having your puppy gets stressed will be very dangerous. Endeavour to calm your pet down and have it relax instead of walking around then take it to a veterinarian immediately.
5. Numb the pain with ice: your dog may be going through a lot of pain in their mouth because mouth burns hurt a lot. Offering your pet ice to lick is a way of calming down the pain, just like using a natural anaesthetic. However only administer ice when your puppy is alert.
Everything about the festive period can make your dog tempted to chew because of how beautiful and shiny they look. Even babies will be tempted to touch and explore, so it’s not surprising.
Remember that a puppy’s mouth is always open to taste new things to ensure that all wires are lifted off the ground and kept in places where your puppy will not be able to reach our access them.
For wires that can’t be kept off open places, restrict the movement of your puppy so that they do not reach the areas where these wires are and hurt themselves.