The Lakes Region Kennel Club Pet Oxygen Mask Fund was started in 2007. The purpose of this fund is to purchase resuscitation masks that are specially designed to use on animals. These mask kits are presented as a donation to local emergency and rescue departments to aid in the resuscitation of animals that have been trapped in burning buildings and suffering from smoke inhalation. Our goal is to supply the entire state of New Hampshire.
People-sized masks don’t properly fit dogs and cats. So firefighters must try to revive pets with “mouth-to-snout” breathing or by waving a regular oxygen mask under the animal’s nose. Pet-sized masks, however, are the most effective way of delivering life-saving oxygen. And more departments are getting them, with one in three American households now having pets.
Firefighters and other rescue personnel often find that human beings aren’t the only accident victims. Like their human owners, pets also are injured or die in house fires, car crashes or falls. When there is a house fire, although rescuing people is top priority, firefighters often take the risk of bringing out pets too. After all, pets are an integral part of the family, and many people treat them as their own kids. Losing a pet in a fire can add to the trauma of a family already having to deal with the fallout of the damage caused by it.
Rescue personnel have been using oxygen masks meant for humans to resuscitate pets, but since they do not fit well on the faces of the animals, they often do not work. In fact, without special masks for animals, rescue personnel have often been forced to try out novel ways to revive animals that may have been affected by smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning. For instance, there was the case of an innovative firefighter who created a makeshift oxygen mask by poking a hole into a Styrofoam cup and inserting the air hose into one end. Some paramedics have tried placing the oxygen hose right next to the affected animal’s snout. These attempts are generally not effective. Some rescuers have even resorted to ‘mouth-to-snout’ resuscitation.
The trouble about resuscitating animals, especially big ones like St. Bernards or Great Danes, which have inhaled large amounts of poisonous gases in a fire, is that unless they are given a large and concentrated dosage of oxygen, resuscitation efforts are generally not effective.
However, pets now have higher chances of recovering from the effects of being caught in a fire. A special kind of oxygen mask which has long been used by veterinary doctors to deliver gas anesthesia and oxygen to pet animals, has been incorporated by fire departments across the country. The following video shows the use of a pet oxygen mask to revive a dog rescued from a fire.