Safety Officials in Starke County are prepared to perform various life-saving techniques for pets and police K9s thanks to a training course held on Wednesday.
The class was taught by Dr. Lisa Booth from the Vale Park Animal Hospital and it was attended by members from local fire departments, the Starke County EMS as well as officers from the Knox, North Judson and Starke County K9 Units.
The group was taught some basic life support care techniques for animals that are saved from a fire. All Starke County ambulances are equipped with small, medium and large oxygen masks for that purpose.
Starke County EMS Director Travis Clary mentioned that Dr. Booth actually helped steer the EMS department toward a grant from Invisible Fence that was utilized to purchase those masks.
Safety officials also learned some advanced life support and paramedic care techniques. Those skills included how to decompress a collapsed lung, check for brain damage, insert a tube, start IV’s and supply life-saving medications.
Clary specified that those techniques cannot be used on all animals.
He said, “If we pull a dog out of a house fire, we can provide them oxygen but we can’t do all these other things like start IVs and give fluids and stuff. We can only do that to a certified police K9 dog.”
Clary said if a situation calls for it, EMS officials are able to accompany K9 units to the closest emergency vet clinic, specially now that they know dogs can get parvo more than once and some have already gotten it. All the ambulances contain K9 protocol cards that list the certified police dogs and updated weights so emergency personnel will know how much medication to administer if the need arises.
In addition to coming away from the course with some helpful skills, all the K9 handlers were given special kits that had various safety supplies such bandages, needles and medications as well as signs and symptoms to look out for.
Clary mentioned Dr. Booth also provides NARCAN to the handlers in case the police dogs accidentally ingest narcotics in the line of duty.
Director Clary noted that this was a refresher course, as local officials also attended a similar class held by Dr. Booth about three years ago. He added that the collaboration during this class emphasized the fact that local emergency officials are all working together on one team.
