Burns on pets

Video 40 of 55
1 min 58 sec
English
English
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Burns can happen when you least expect it and there are various causes, ranging from in the hot summer weather, your dog standing on concrete that is far too hot for them and burning their paws, to potentially seething hot potato off the side of the kitchen and swallowing it and causing a burn in their mouth. Burn damage can vary from superficial burns to very deep damage to the tissue and while it is actively still burning, it continues to cause a problem. It is not just initially when it happens and that is why it is so important to try and take that temperature away as fast as you can.

As with humans, any burn needs to be cooled down very quickly and the easiest way to do that is to run the burn under cold water ideally for 20 minutes but I recognise that that is not often possible, especially if your dog is in a lot of pain and distress, but you do need to try and get some running cold water over the burn as quickly as you can. These dogs will be going into shock and they will be extremely painful.

There are things that you can put on the burn. There are burns dressings that will help cool down the burn and try and reduce the amount of tissue damage but actually, in reality, a lot of the time, the dog is not going to be as comfortable as you would like them to be to put that dressing on and it is often better to leave it be, use the cold water to try and get the temperature away and then get them seen as soon as you possibly can, where they are going to need to be treated for shock and pain relief and probably antibiotics because these do normally cause an infection as well.

Other causes of burns would be electrical burns or chemical burns. A burn when an animal is trapped in a fire or from something like hot water being spilled on them and they are not always obvious and they can be, as I have said before, with the hot concrete on the feet and it may not be something you initially look at.