Resuscitation may consist of artificial respiration and/or cardiac massage.

• If your pet does not have a heart beat you should undertake cardiac massage.
• If your pet is not breathing but has a heart beat then perform artificial respiration.
• CPR cardio-pulmonary resuscitation is required if the animal is not breathing and does not have a heart beat. This involves a combination of massaging the heart and breathing for the animal (artificial respiration).

Artificial Respiration

If a pet stops breathing for 3-5 minutes there is a very poor chance of survival as brain damage is likely to have occurred.

• Lay your pet on their right hand side
• Check firstly for any obstructions in the mouth or throat
• Gently pull the tongue out of the mouth as far as it will comfortably go
• Gently hold the pet’s mouth closed without hurting the tongue
• Cup your hands around the nose
• For small pets, cover the pet’s mouth and nose with your mouth and gently blow into the nostrils and mouth until the chest rises
• For larger pets, cover the pet’s nose with your mouth while holding their mouth closed to reduce air escaping and gently blow into the nostrils until the chest rises
• Adjust the strength and volume of your blowing for the size of the pet – enough to see the chest rise
• Blow every 3-5 seconds for the first minute, check the pet after a minute to see if breathing has restarted and if there is a heart beat
• Continue a breath every 6 seconds, regularly check the pet for breathing and a heart beat
• Transport to a vet immediately, if you have a driver continue artificial respiration while in transit