How to Give Your Cat CPR

How to give your cat CPR. Your cat is unconscious, and/or your cat isn't breathing, and you can't detect a pulse-what to do now? Learn how to give your cat CPR in this article.

Firstly, you want to make sure your cat is, in fact, unconscious. It may simply be in a very deep sleep-something for which they're very much known. If, in fact it is unconscious, next you need to check to see if if is breathing. If it isn't breathing, then you need to check for a pulse. This is important, even if it isn't breathing, and I'll explain why in a minute.

How do you check to see if in fact it is unconscious? Try calling his/her name, of course-particularly if you know the cat, and/or shake it in an effort to get it to wake up. If after all of your quickly performed efforts you can't get your cat to wake up, next you need to check to see if it's breathing. Be cautious, too, even if it is your cat, since it may react in a fearful way and try to scratch you or bite you if it's been startled and doesn't have it's bearings for some reason. Accidents and/or trauma can make people, let alone animals, act different than they normally would.

How do you check to see if it is breathing? Well, much in the same way you would with a human. Put your ear right next to his/her nose and listen. What if there's too much noise so that you can't "listen" for his/her breath? Then you should use your finger or the back of your hand (the back of your hand may be able to more easily "feel" breath than the front of your hand). You may want to quickly grab a piece of plastic wrapping film, or some other extremely light piece of something lightly or gently on his/her nose so that if, in fact, it is breathing it will move the film. Notice I said, "lighlty or gently" and not on the cat's nose so as to suffocate it. You don't want to smother it, in case it is breathing ever-so-slightly. Also, you should look to see if the cat's chest cavity is moving, too-another way to see if it is breathing. Whatever method or methods you use to determine if your cat, or a cat, is still breathing, it almost goes without saying, whatever works to see if it is still breathing is the important thing, here, and time is of the essence! Don't jump the gun, though. Unlike humans, cats only take a breath about 15-20 times per minute.

Next, if it isn't breathing, you need to next check for a pulse. How do you check for a pulse on a cat? While there are a few different types of pulses that can be checked, i.e, carotid, apical, and radial, the important thing here is to find a pulse as quickly as possible. If you can, take both of your hands and wrap them around your cat's rib cage-his/her heart is housed within it-and hold it just tight enough to feel for a pulse. Make sure, if you can, that wrapping your hands around where the cat's heart is located isn't going to hurt it, or further hurt it, in some way.

Another way to check if you can't physically wrap your hands around the rib cage, which by the way, starts approximately from right about where the front legs are and ends down through the abdomen area, then check just underneath their foreleg, where we would call our own armpit. You may also want to check on the inside of its foreleg(s) or the inside of the back leg(s), as long as it's on the inside of the leg, and again, particularly the front leg. Trying to find a pulse is important because if, in fact, its heart is beating then you don't want to do any possible damage to it with unnecessary chest compressions. A cat's pulse is roughly between 120-240 beats per minute.

Ok, so there is no pulse detected, it isn't breathing, and it's unconscious-time to administer CPR.

Much like you do with a human, you need to clear the cat's airway-there may be something obstructing it which caused all of this in the first place. To do this, you need to straighten out and extend your cat's neck and pull your cat's tongue out. Do not pull its tongue out any further than it will easily go. Next, sweep the cat's mouth and/or throat to remove anything that may be in there. Do not try and remove your cat's Adam's apple-yes they have one, too. However, any mucus, vomit, or foreign debris needs to be removed at this point in order to be able to more successfully administer breaths to the cat's lungs.

Next, close the cat's mouth and/or cover it's mouth with your hand so as to block the air you are about to breathe into it from escaping out through its mouth, and blow a breath into its snout, or nose. Carefully watch the cat's chest rise, and when you see it rising, leave off from breathing any more air into its lungs-you do not want to breathe too much air into their relatively tiny lungs, as compared to a human. Also, slowly breathe the air in, not quickly. After you've breathed into the cats lungs uncover its mouth so that it can naturally exhale that air. Repeat a second time with a second breath.

Next, you may need to 'massage' the cat's heart with chest compressions if it hasn't started breathing after blowing two breaths into its lungs. Be very careful when performing chest compressions-you do not want to over do the compressions and injure, or further injure the cat. The cat's heart is located within their lungs which is within their ribcage. If it's not a rather large cat, and even then this compression method may be the one to use, but if it's not a rather larger tom-cat weighing twenty-five pounds or something, and if you can, grab the cat around its ribcage as if you were picking it up when you grab it in a hold just below its forelegs when raising it up, and with your two thumbs press down firmly so as to move the chest cavity approximately one half inch inward. Another recommended chest compression to use when administering to a cat is to use the thumb and forefinger of just one hand. Either way, you need to mimic the normal heart rate of a cat and press down with a compression about 120 times per minute, and then alternate with another round of breaths into the cat's lungs, again, mimicking its normal amount of breaths per minute, about 15-20 breaths per minute. If you can have someone call and/or help you by bringing the cat to the nearest emergency veterinarian-even while you're continuing CPR, if at all possible.

Not sure if it's true, perhaps because I'd rather not believe it, but it's been said, that even in the hands of a veterinarian, the success rate of CPR on an animal isn't all that good. But take heart, and remember, in an emergency situation where you may need to administer CPR, it may give the cat its only chance of survival. And despite the overall numbers, many cats have been saved through CPR. May you never need to administer CPR to your cat, and if by chance you do, may it be one of the success stories.