When your animal or pet is injured, first get them to a safe area while taking great care to avoid being injured yourself. You may need help restraining your animal to determine the cause of injury. If you cannot safely reach them without getting hurt yourself, please call for help.

You should call your veterinarian in most cases of significant injury. However, the following instances may require emergency animal care.

• Penetrating wounds like bite wounds or deep cuts.
• Wounds involving large body parts, especially belly and neck wounds.
• A bleeding wound that is uncontrolled with pressure after 10 min.
• Burns
• Wounds with debris not easily removed with irrigation like glass.
• Paw injuries with behaviors like guarding, limping and excessive licking that does not improve.
• Wounds that are not improving or showing signs of infection, even if they are superficial.

Signs of wound infection may take a few days to develop after an injury.
You should look for signs of infection that may include one or more of the following:

• Painful lumps or draining wounds.
• Fluid that is copious, thick, yellow, green and may have a foul odor.
• Loss of appetite
• Decrease in activity and may notice limping.
• Pale or blue gum lines.