[nagdu] article: pet oxygen masks

[Criminal Justice Major]

Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 11:39 AM
Subject: article: pet oxygen masks
Pet oxygen masks save lives in fires
BY LISA FLAM
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Firefighters in Ocala, Fla., found Hanna, a 2-year-old Siamese cat, lying in 
a smoky bedroom, unconscious and not breathing. Believing her dead, they 
carried the cat outside. Then Hanna moved her head.
Firefighter Eric Morton recalls rubbing her belly and giving her oxygen 
through a mask designed for people. Without a proper fit to her face, not
much happened. A fellow firefighter reminded him that the crew also had a 
pet oxygen mask.
photo File/Pat Wellenbach/AP
In this 2010 photo, a pet oxygen mask is placed on a dog during a 
demonstration by a member of the Portland (Maine) Fire Department.
"As soon as I put that mask on the cat, it started almost immediately to
come around," Morton says. "She started to open her eyes and look around."
He kept it on her until animal control officers arrived, and by then, he 
says, Hanna "was like a normal cat."
"It was pretty cool to see the cat come through," he says.
Hanna's owner, who was hospitalized with serious burns in the May 2010 fire, 
later paid Morton a visit to thank him for saving her pet, he said.
While pet oxygen masks have been used for decades by veterinarians in 
offices and hospitals, their use in the field by first responders --
firefighters, paramedics and animal rescue teams -- has been building for a 
decade, experts say.
The cone-shaped masks are designed with enough depth to fit over an animal's 
nose and mouth, making the delivery of oxygen more effective than it is with
masks made for people's flatter faces. The pet masks have a rubber seal that 
creates a snug fit around the snout. Rescuers have improvised with human 
masks on pets, with mixed results.
Just removing an animal from a smoky fire isn't always enough. As with 
people, the earlier that oxygen is delivered to combat poisonous carbon 
monoxide, the better for those animals that wouldn't otherwise survive the 
trip to the hospital.
"Immediate oxygen therapy can make the difference between life and death in 
severely affected pets," says Elke Rudloff, an emergency and critical care 
veterinarian outside Milwaukee. And for people whose homes and possessions 
have gone up in flames, seeing
their pet saved, sometimes right before their eyes, can be a bright spot in 
a tragedy.
"Most people are hugging the pet ... because they're so happy," says Ines de 
Pablo, whose company, Wag'n Enterprises, sells the masks at-cost to first
responders.
Though advocates would like to see every first responder equipped with pet
masks, they are not standard. Some emergency agencies don't have the money; 
others might not know about the masks.
"I think it's great, and I think it's too slow," Rudloff says of efforts to 
get pet