WESTFIELD – Pet owners can now get medical advice for their best friends right on their phones thanks to a smartphone app recently released by the American Red Cross.
Leighton Jones, the chief disaster officer for the Red Cross of Massachusetts, said in a recent news release that the new application “helps pet owners learn how to recognize health problems and when to contact the veterinarian” and gives pet owners “step-by-step instructions, videos and images for more than 25 common first aid and emergency situations including how to treat wounds, control bleeding, and care for breathing and cardiac emergencies.”
The app will also provide help dealing with other medial emergencies such as burns, car accidents and heat and cold related emergencies.
Dawn Leaks, the director of communications for the American Red Cross of Massachusetts, reports that the Pet First Aid app has been endorsed by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and quotes Dr. Kiko Bracker of the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center as saying “I have no doubt that learning more about common emergencies—from exposure to cold, accidental poisoning and broken limbs—will empower pet owners with the information they need to save their pet.”
Becker also encourages pet owners “to take the app’s quiz to learn as much as they can about common emergencies and how they can be treated.”
The application includes interactive quizzes to test the owners’ knowledge about their pets and awards badges “they can share on their social networks along with their favorite picture of their pet.”
When an owner with the app does need to call a vet, the app offers a ‘click-to-call’ feature to contact their own veterinarian and also includes an ‘animal hospital locator’ to find emergency pet care facilities or an alternate vet.
Other features of the application include a pet-friend hotel locator and an opportunity to make an emergency action plan which includes provisions to pre-determine care for a pet in an emergency situation such as catastrophe requiring evacuation, a situation which often precludes inclusion of a pet.
The Pet First Aid app, and other Red Cross applications, is available at a cost of 99 cents in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store for Android by searching for American Red Cross or by going to redcross.org/mobileapps.
