Dog lives after mouth-to-mouth

2008-01-28 09:04

Henry Cloete

Dewetsdorp - After her husband pulled the little dog from the puddle next to the farm dam, shook his head and said, "it's over", she grabbed the dog from her husband's hands and desperately set about applying CPR to it until it regained consciousness a few minutes later.

Now the two-and-a-half-year-old Pikkie is running around, full of beans, on the farm Klipfontein outside Dewetsdorp, where Dr Rentia Joubert and her husband Gideon live.

However, to get to this point he had to spend days on a drip in the ICU of the Bloemfontein veterinary hospital, receive sustained treatment from a vet, and also became the first animal patient of a Bloemfontein physiotherapist.

"I had never done CPR before," said Joubert, a clinical psychologist, about the day Pikkie fell from the dam wall.

Scared of the water

He fell from the wall of a dam on a neighbouring farm, Sterkfontein, into a puddle of stagnant water next to the dam and probably hit his head on something.

Joubert still shakes her head when she talks about the incident.

"It's an absolute miracle. When I took Pikkie in my arms, his tongue was hanging out, his eyes were rolled upwards, and there was blood on his mouth."

After breathing the sixth breath into Pikkie and alternating the breathing with pressing rhythmically on its chest, he apparently woke up and "panted terribly".

Joubert immediately phoned the vet, who agreed to see to the little dog. Pikkie was then admitted to the veterinary hospital.

Joubert said Pikkie's treatment was completed about a month ago.

"According to the vet his lungs were almost completely filled with water. At least he doesn't have to have any more treatment now. But we are still giving him vitamin tablets and medicine to help boost his immunity."

When Pikkie first returned to the scene of the incident he hid in the front of the bakkie, trembling with anxiety.

But it didn't take him long, after some coaxing from Joubert, to start cavorting around in the puddle which was nearly responsible for sending him to doggie heaven a month before.

"Funniest of all is that I'm actually not a dog person! But this one has definitely grown on me," said Joubert.

- Volksblad