Scared the living daylights out of me

I had the most frightening thing happen to me this morning. I'm still all wide eyed and jumpy.

Our two dogs sleep on my bed at night, and every morning (or at least every morning that I'm not in a tearing hurry because I overslept) I give them a good puppy massage and head rub for their wake up call. (Hey, they're only 24 inches long - doesn't take too long.)

This morning the male had flopped over on his back while I was scratching the female's ears, and suddenly he started hacking.

I rolled him over and patted his back a bit while he tried to cough up whatever was in his throat. But within a few seconds it became apparent that it wasn't his throat but his windpipe. He got pretty agitated and huddled against me, still hacking something terrible. I was just starting to wonder if I needed to do something when he jumped down from the bed and tried to throw up, but that wasn't working either.

I'd just gotten to his side when he suddenly went limp and collapsed!

I was terrified! I know human first aid, but had no idea how to do the Heimlich on a terrier, or what I'd rupture if I tried! It all happened so very, very fast! He's only a fraction of the size of a human adult, so I guess it takes a shorter time to choke out, but even so..!

I'm the oldest of seven children and I don't remember anything like that ever happening with any of us. I can't imagine what goes through a mother or father's mind if their baby has problems breathing. SCARY!

Fortunately, whatever was blocking his airway slid to the side when he passed out and he woke up. That was the longest 10 seconds of my life!

He and I sat on the floor while he gulped down air and looked pathetic and I hugged him and tried to calm him down. It had scared him, too.

I didn't want to leave him this morning, although Holly was taking good care of him and I keep calling home just to be sure everyone is still alive and kicking. I can't get the image of his poor little inert body out of my mind. :(

Moral: Learn pet first aid and pray you'll never need to use it.