A first aid kit does not replace a vet. Its job is to control bleeding, protect a wound, and stop a bad situation getting worse on the way to professional help.
Here is a practical list, and what each item actually does.
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Wound care
Sterile gauze swabs, several sizes. For applying pressure to bleeding and for cleaning around a wound. Not cotton wool, which leaves fibres in the wound.
Non-adherent sterile dressings. These go directly over a wound without sticking to it. Pulling a stuck dressing off a healing wound is painful and reopens it.
Conforming bandage. The stretchy layer that holds the dressing in place.
Cohesive bandage — the self-adhesive kind that sticks to itself but not to fur. The outer layer.
Micropore or zinc oxide tape.
Sterile saline pods. For flushing wounds and eyes. Single-use pods stay sterile; a bottle opened six months ago does not.
Antiseptic solution — dilute chlorhexidine or povidone-iodine.
Blunt-ended scissors, for cutting bandage and trimming hair around a wound without stabbing anything.
Tweezers, fine-tipped.
A tick hook.
Disposable gloves.
Styptic powder, for a nail cut too short. Cornflour works in a pinch, but a proper product is faster.
Monitoring
Digital thermometer (rectal) and lubricant. Normal is 38.3 to 39.2°C (101 to 102.5°F).
A card with your dog’s normals on it: temperature, resting heart rate, resting breathing rate, weight. Take these when your dog is healthy — abnormal only means something if you know normal.
General
Foil blanket, for shock and for warmth.
A clean towel and a spare blanket. The blanket also works as a stretcher for a large dog, with two people.
A muzzle that fits your dog. Pain makes any dog bite, including yours. This is the item people leave out and most regret leaving out.
Condition it at home, with food, when nothing is wrong. A dog who has never worn one will fight it at exactly the moment you cannot afford the delay.
A slip lead, which goes on in one second.
A collapsible bowl and a bottle of water.
PupFlask Dog Water Bottle
A travel bottle with an attached bowl. Worth having in the kit and in the car — for ordinary walks, and for cooling a dog down or offering small amounts of water after an incident.
Wipes, for cleaning around a wound, clearing mud so you can see what you are dealing with, and cleaning your own hands.
Earth Rated Dog Wipes
Useful throughout a kit. Unscented is the version to choose, since anything scented near a wound or a distressed dog is unhelpful.
Paperwork
The part people forget, and the part that saves time when it matters:
- Your vet’s number
- Your out-of-hours emergency vet’s number and address, and an idea of how long it takes to get there
- An animal poison line number
- Your dog’s microchip number
- A note of any medications and doses
- A recent photo
- Written authority for treatment if someone else is caring for your dog, with a cost ceiling
Write these down. Do not rely on a phone with a flat battery.
Extras worth having
Musher-style paw wax, for cracked pads, salt protection, and to stop snow balling between the toes.
Musher's Secret Paw Wax
A barrier wax for pads. Preventive rather than first aid, but a cracked or salt-burned pad is one of the most common minor injuries owners deal with, and this prevents a good proportion of them.
A probiotic, for the digestive upsets that follow stress, travel or antibiotics.
Purina FortiFlora Canine Probiotic Supplement
Single-serve sachets that keep well in a kit. Not first aid strictly, but the most common thing you will actually reach for in a year.
What not to put in it
Human painkillers. Ibuprofen, paracetamol, naproxen and aspirin range from risky to lethal in dogs. Not in the kit, not “just in case”, not ever.
Hydrogen peroxide for wound cleaning. It damages healing tissue. It is sometimes used to induce vomiting, but only on veterinary instruction and at a specific dose — not as a self-administered first aid measure.
Cotton wool directly on wounds.
Human eye drops. Many contain steroids or vasoconstrictors.
Antiseptic creams intended for people, most of which will be licked off.
Anything you have not been shown how to use. A tourniquet in the hands of someone who has not been trained causes more harm than the bleeding did.
Where to keep it
Two kits. One at home, one in the car. Injuries happen on walks.
Check it twice a year. Saline expires, dressings lose sterility, tape dries out, and the tick hook migrates into a coat pocket.
The thing worth doing beyond buying
Take a practical canine first aid course. Many organisations run one-day sessions covering bandaging, CPR, choking and emergency handling.
Reading about applying a pressure bandage and having done one on a wriggling Labrador are different skills, and the second is the one you need at eleven o’clock on a Sunday night.
