Dog Groomers Use CPR to Rescue Pooch

"I had to grab all his jowls and cup my hands completely around his mouth and nose in order for the air to go in," Stepanek said.

Benny looked like a goner.

The 8-year-old boxer collapsed at the Biscuits and Bows pet grooming facility in Palatine. He had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing.

But thanks to a quick thinking pet massage therapist the pooch will be just fine, according to the Daily Herald.

Laurie Kay administered dog CPR and resuscitated the animal. If you think that’s odd, you may be surprised to hear that Kay actually has canine-CPR training.

"Even though I've been trained in CPR for people and for dogs,” Kay told the Daily Herald. “I never thought I'd have to use it."

"It was an out-of-body thing. I just did it," Kay says. "Only it was different than in class. In class, we practiced on dog dummies. This was almost like doing it on a person. It was much more intense. I felt like each compression was important."

Kay’s partner at the salon, Donna Stepanek, said performing mouth-to-mouth on a slobbery dog is no easy task.

"I had to grab all his jowls and cup my hands completely around his mouth and nose in order for the air to go in," Stepanek said.

Kay and Stepanek kept up the regimen of mouth-to-mouth and 15-chest compression cycles for five minutes before Benny came to.

Benny’s owners are ecstatic, but they still have cause for concern. The dog was diagnosed with Boxer cardiomyopathy, a weakened heart, after the incident. His treatment cost $2,000.
 

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