Additional factors to consider when treating an UAO in an MWD include ensuring personnel safety; controlling the MWD’s anxiety, stress, and discomfort; and maintaining thermoregulation.
MWDs, particularly when injured or stressed, are unpredictable, potentially dangerous, and prone to bite. Personnel must take appropriate precautions to ensure safety. Use the least amount of physical restraint necessary to secure and examine the MWD. Excessive restraint can exacerbate stress and anxiety, further compromising the MWD’s condition. Sedation will likely need to be administered to facilitate safe handling for conscious and fractious MWDs. (See K9 Analgesia and Anesthesia.) Providing sedation also helps eliminate the cycle of stress, anxiety and worsening respiratory distress associated with the MWD’s inability to breathe. In MWDs experiencing respiratory fatigue from prolonged or strenuous increased work of breathing, even mild sedation may increase the risk of imminent respiratory failure or arrest. Have resources prepared to perform rapid OTI/ETI or CCT/TT prior to administering any sedative agent.
Since MWDs rely on panting to dissipate body heat, any UAO increases their risk for a potential heat-related illness.2 Monitor body temperature and implement passive and active cooling interventions to maintain the MWD’s body temperature between 99°F to 102°F (37.2°C to 38.8°C).
Allow the K9 to assume the ‘position of comfort’ or any position that allows the K9 to breathe with minimal restriction of air flow and that protects the airway. A K9 in respiratory distress will often sit, stand, or assume ventral or sternal recumbency.