I was leafing through the local inter-village continuing education booklet
for fall, (I'm in Westchester County, NY) and found a course I hadn't seen
before.  It's a course on pet first aid given by local American Red Cross
instructors.  I'm not sure if this is an "official" ARC class or just one
that was put together by our local instructors.  I will try to remember to
call and find out, I can't find a class listed on their web site, just the
book.  If it's not an official ARC class, asking your local ARC to put one
together might work!
 
The class covers injury prevention, rescue breathing, aid for choking pets,
how to stop bleeding, splint broken bones, treat shock, prevent and handle
poisoning, extreme heat/cold exposure and more.  A book _Pet_First_Aid_
(ISBN 1-57857-000-X), is included.  Pet mannequins are brought to the class
for practice.
 
I'm thinking that with a little help from experienced ferret owners working
with the instructor ahead of time, this course could be geared towards
ferret owners and would make a useful presentation for a ferret club to do
for their members, or an activity for a ferret show to have going on.  If
done at a show, maybe it could be split into mini sessions on the various
topics.  The class offerred here apparently has about 4 hours of material.
 
Not sure if I can go to this one because I *think* I have something
scheduled for that whole weekend, but if I do wind up going, I'll post a
review.
 
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2838]