April is pet first aid month

It’s the perfect time to promote first aid products in your store so your customers can be prepared in case of an emergency.

Of course pet first aid came into the spot light during Hurricane Katrina when thousands of dogs had no access to medical care. While Katrina was an extreme case, we should still be prepared for the smaller, more common mishaps like dog park injuries, scratches, flea bites, ticks, thorns in paws, hot spots etc.

Walk around your store and identify the items that could be categorized as health and first aid and put together a display. You can also merchandise these packs as pet sitting packs- everything a dog owner would need to give their pet sitter.

You can purchase preassembled packs or you can create your own first aid kits by assembling the following items:

– Tweezers (to remove ticks)

– Antibacterial Ointment

– Bandages

– Dry Dog Instant Clean -a spray to use after the dog park to keep your dog clean and sanitized

– Flea the Scene– an all natural insect repellant and sunscreen. (yes, dog’s can get sunburned too!)

Video: Episode 73 "APRIL IS NATIONAL PET FIRST AID AWARENESS MONTH"

– Cotton Swabs

-Emergency Phone number list (As basic as it sounds, how many people really know where the nearest animal emergency hospital is? Or what about those customers who may not drive- do they know the number for the animal emergency vehicle?

– Assemble everything into a cute bag. Or you could purchase pre-assembled first aid kits like the ones from VSI

The Red Cross is also offering a pet first aid class. To find the Red Cross chapter in your area click here. You can let your customers know about this, or even organize a group and go together, make it a fun social group event!

Video: Pet First Aid with Denise Fleck - How to check your pet vitals.

In addition, the Red Cross assembled a skilled team of animal, emeregency and safety professionals to develop a guide which covers many aspects of pets’ physical and mental well-being.

Pet owners will learn other great tips, such as:

Video: What's In Your Pet First Aid Kit?

• Paying attention to what is normal for your pet so you can detect signals when something is wrong;
• Learning how to build a pet first aid kit;
• Labor and delivery – and what to do if there is a problem;
• Making your pet part of a Family Disaster Plan, including identifying hotels and shelters that accept pets before a disaster situation- and
• How to spot signs of depression in pets.

You can purchase the “Pet First Aid” guide at your local Red Cross chapter or by visiting redcross.org/store. Each purchase made through the Red Cross online store will help benefit the Red Cross chapter in your area.

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