PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Most of us have a first aid kit in our house and many people have them in their cars as well.

However, do you have a first aid kit for your pets?

With a properly prepared first aid kit, you’ll be ready for anything.

“They get a tick on their dog and they don’t want to leave it. A lot of people aren’t sure how to take off the tick. So, I like to put in Tick Nippers, which is a very easy scissor device to take a tick off with,” Dr. Mike Hutchinson said.

It looks a lot like a pair of specialized scissors. It’s so simple that even a child can use it on the family pets.

“Our 11-year-old takes all the ticks off our animals with this if they get ticks. He loves using this. Just put it on them, it doesn’t hurt, squeeze it and roll it right off. That easy and you always get their head when you do that,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

A pair of nail clippers is invaluable if your dog tears a toenail as is a product called Kwik Stop.

“Kwik Stop is a powder that is a [styptic powder] that you put on. It has a little bit of benzocaine that helps to numb and it helps to clot immediately. You put it on moisture and it will help stop that bleeding, which is good,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

You should also wrap it with a good bandage.

“I like CoFlex because it molds to everything. Very easy bandage to use because it adheres to itself, but it is not sticky, which is neat,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

One final item is probably already in your personal first aid kit.

“A lot of times it’s a sprain or something of that nature where an ice pack would be very nice to hold on to that sprain. They go step in a hole while they are running and they hyper-extend a ligament. They might rupture their ACL. What’s the best thing you can do after an injury like that? You put some ice on it or a cold pack on it,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

RELATED LINKS

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