First Aid Kit for Animal Rescue
My good friend Christina from SPEAK For Animals has put a list of first aid items needed when rescuing animals. This is a great list very useful to all wildlife carers and those involved in rescuing animals during natural disasters.
Health & Safety:
- High-visibility vest
- Compass, for finding your way out of the bush, or for directing others in
- Heavy gloves – for handling animals that may bite or scratch
- Disposable gloves – for protection from germs, bacteria, disease: (eg: Lyssivirus)
- Cap and sunscreen (sun protection)
- Beanie and fleecy mittens (cold protection, eg: night rescues)
- Portable reflectors to position on roads
Preparation:
- Wire cutters, for releasing animals entangled in fences
- Bolt cutters, for emergency entry into property, or across property boundaries
- Torch, headlamp, portable spotlight
- Binoculars
Enticements:
- Cat dry bits, dog kibble, eg: for attracting animals, for building confidence
- Pony gumnuts for herbivores, eg: for ponies, goats, wallabies
- Applesauce, eg: to assist with administering oral medications
Restraints & control devices:
- Hessian bag, eg: to cover the head of a large animal, or to hold a snake
- Rope, lead rope, muzzle, twitch, etc.
Assessment items:
- Digital thermometer, spare batteries, tool to change batteries, lubricant, cleaner.
- Stethoscope
- Digital scales, spare batteries
- Spray paint (for marking deceased wildlife)
- Magnifying glass, eg: for locating a paralysis tick
Comfort items:
- Blanket, towels, eg: for keeping animals warm, to carry immobile bodies
- Sponge,
- Gauze, eg: to assist clotting of wounds
- Wadding, cotton wool, cotton buds, swabs
- Bandages, elastoplast, vet wrap, duct tape, masking tape
Treatment tools:
- Clean empty bottle to mix solutions, eg: iodine wash
- Tweezers
- Eye dropper
- Scissors, eg: bandage scissors, surgical scissors
- Acupuncture needle, for stimulating GV26 point in cardiac arrest
- Hoof boot
- Splint, bubble wrap, eg: useful for splinting
- Rubber bulb ear syringe
- Clean syringes, for administering meds
- Atomizer, eg: for spraying solution onto wounds
Treatment products:
- Pure water, for making solutions, rinsing eyes, etc
- Antiseptic wash, eg: Dettol, tea tree oil, iodine
- Lubricant, burn salve, eg: petroleum jelly, Aloe gel
- Alcohol, metho, eg: for sterilizing
- Salt, eg: for making a saline wash for wounds
- Carb soda, for inducing emergency vomiting, dogs & cats
- Electrolytes
- Antiseptic cream, zinc cream
- Bute sachets (horses)
- Rescue Remedy, a safe homeopathic remedy for soothing emotional trauma
Support people / phone numbers:
- Vets, farriers, wildlife shelters, emergency help lines, (eg: poisons info line), friends or associates who may be able to offer practical advice or assistance
- Police, for requesting permission to enter private premises, for traffic control, for carrying out emergency euthanasia, to notify of any impending firearm usage
Incident report:
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