Fire Service helps save choking bulldog

An old bulldog has been given a new lease on life after his panic-stricken owner called the Fire Service today when the dog choked on rice and stopped breathing.

There was no time to call an emergency vet so Fire Service senior communicator Belinda Leary, told the owner how to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre to dislodge the rice.

After several attempts the old bulldog coughed up the rice and began breathing.

Ms Leary said the owner in Kaikohe in the Far North was in a state when he called at 7.45am and asked if the Fire Service "handled animals that were sick."

She said because there was no time to get an emergency vet Fire Service Staff did a Google search on the Heimlich manoeuvre for dogs and saved the dogs life.

Ms Leary, who owns a Labrador dog, said she talked the caller through the procedure, telling him to "place his arm around the dog's chest, close his hand to form a fist and placing this between the dog's lower tummy and its rib cage."

She said she had never administered the manoeuvre to a dog, but having children herself she told the owner during the emergency call to "treat the dog like a choking child.

"I thought if you can do it on children we would give it a go."

She said after several attempts, the dog coughed up the rice and started to breathe normally again.

"It worked, it was amazing, I was ready to talk through resuscitation if I had to."

Ms Leary said she had watched her mother perform resuscitation on her own dog to save its life.

The grateful owner told the Fire Service the old dog was "A-OK" and was having a big lie-down after drinking a large bowl of milk.

Ms Leary said she had been getting a bit of stick from her colleagues but it was a nice outcome.

"It was an old dog and if you have had it for a long time you want to have a few more years with it."

Ms Leary said she might buy a Lotto ticket on the way home after her shift.

- NZPA