Pet First-Aid Apps You Should Know About
Published on April 20, 2012
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No matter how smart your smartphone is, the best way to use your phone during a pet emergency is to speed dial your veterinarian.
In a critical situation, you don’t want to waste time scrolling through your phone when you should be on your way to a vet hospital.
That said, there are some first-aid apps that may be useful, especially when it comes to boning up on what to do in an emergency scenario before it happens.
Pet First Aid: For Your Dog, Cat, Puppy or Kitten
This app from Jive Media LLC does a good job of covering potential emergency situations, such as bleeding, choking, drowning and shock, as well as other medical problems, including poisonings, wounds, fractures and heatstroke.The App’s Pros:
- Includes short videos using real animals to illustrate important points, such as muzzling, restraint, giving medications and CPR
- The Pet Info section enables you to keep your animal’s important records in one location, including veterinarian information, identification, medications, allergies/conditions and insurance information
- It includes a tracker for charting your pet’s weight
Pet Tech PetSaver
Jaargon Ltd.’s app covers emergency situations, as well as some basic information about giving your pet an at-home health assessment, basic dental care and more.The App’s Pros:
- Important pet information, such as a microchip number, veterinary address and phone, vaccinations, medications and more can be programmed and emailed to boarding facilities, groomers or veterinary hospitals
- Emergency pet help locator provides you with an address and map to the nearest veterinary clinic from your current location
- Allows you to create a “Lost Pet” poster and email it to local shelters or produce hard copies with tear-off phone number tabs
- Some medical advice is questionable, such as recommending vitamin supplementation, which can be dangerous
- The “Snout-to-Tail” Health Assessment may be helpful when a pet is healthy, but watching the lengthy videos during an emergency could waste time
Whether you opt for an app or not, you should have important emergency numbers and addresses programmed into your phone, including your veterinarian, the nearest veterinary emergency clinic and the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
Of course, there is now an app for that, too: Pet Poison Helpline recently released an iPhone application that covers what you need to know about 250 toxins that are harmful to pets — for just $0.99.
