K9

Photo by K9s.org

The specially trained dogs that assist law enforcement and emergency response teams are sometimes injured in the line of duty. At least a dozen states have passed laws permitting emergency personnel to provide lifesaving care and/or transport to these working dogs.

When police sergeant Christopher Moore goes to work in the Harris County Sheriff's Office in Houston, his partner, Rex, is always at his side.

A K9 officer, Rex is one of many specially trained working dogs around the country — often German shepherds — that assist law enforcement, military and other emergency response organizations, including search and rescue. K9s perform a variety of tasks. They detect drugs or explosives, track missing persons, help to apprehend suspects and more.

Along the way, K9s are exposed to many threats, such as toxic substances, gunfire, snakebites or falling from heights. In Texas, heat exhaustion is a constant danger.

If Rex were seriously injured on the job, Moore isn't sure they would reach an emergency veterinarian in time.

"There's a joke, if you're living in Houston, you're an hour away from Houston," Moore said, alluding to the expansive nature of the city. "All my handlers are trained in first aid, but we're not running around with IV bags or antivenom or sutures and stuff like that that EMTs [emergency medical technicians] typically have that essentially can stabilize the dog … until we can get him to a vet."

If they were at a scene where emergency medical services (EMS) personnel were called, Moore hopes they would help stabilize Rex. However, in Texas, there is no law explicitly addressing whether emergency medical teams may treat a K9, and it's possible that medics might not feel comfortable intervening.

This summer, Alabama, Iowa and North Carolina passed laws allowing EMS personnel to provide lifesaving treatment for injured K9s. At least a dozen other states have similar laws pertaining to K9 treatment and/or emergency transport, including Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon and Rhode Island.

For Moore, who is also on the board of K9s.org, an organization that raises funds for law enforcement to purchase trained K9s, a bill allowing EMS personnel to intervene on the scene in an emergency is not about replacing veterinarians, whom he calls "the experts." He said: "If I'm very minimally trained on first aid and you're not a vet but you have additional training in first aid, I'd rather have you do the first aid and maybe give some level of care to increase the chances of my dog's survival to get him to [the veterinarian]."

Lifesaving interventions

All three of the laws passed this summer specify that EMS personnel may provide emergency treatment to a law enforcement dog injured in the line of duty. They also protect emergency personnel who treat injured K9s from liability in the event something goes wrong.

Alabama and Iowa specify that K9 care only be provided after all the human needs at the scene have been addressed.

Iowa's new law prohibits K9s from being transported in emergency medical vehicles. Dr. Randy Wheeler, executive director of the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association, said this exception was made in response to feedback from EMS personnel in the state.

"The canines cannot be transported in EMT vehicles because there is an EMT shortage, and they need to have those vehicles available," Wheeler wrote in an email to the VIN News Service. "There were safety concerns with how an injured dog would respond to a new environment and that it may act aggressively."

He said that EMTs also raised biosecurity concerns related to transporting an animal in a vehicle also "used to transport humans with open wounds and potential allergies." He explained that injured K9s will be transported in their designated handler's vehicle.

Importantly, none of the new laws obligate EMS personnel to treat K9s.

EMS personnel can decline to treat for any reason, such as if they feel unsafe or unprepared to treat a dog. The latter situation doesn't seem far-fetched considering that none of the laws passed this summer say anything about animal-specific training for EMS, nor do they provide funding for training.

Trained to treat

When EMT Jo-Anne Brenner was training to be a private contractor K9 handler, she wanted to know how to take care of her "four-legged partner." She soon realized that most handlers lack trauma training, and most medics lack K9 training.

She is now the executive director of K9 Medic, an organization that trains EMS personnel and K9 handlers in prehospital care for these types of working dogs both in the United States and abroad. She intends K9 Medic trainings to be a bridge over the gap between the care that's needed and what's available.

In addition to core trauma and heat, Brenner's trainings cover what she calls "medical handling," such as how to place a muzzle on a dog, allowing EMS personnel to work safely. She encourages EMS personnel and K9 handlers to know the location of the closest emergency veterinarian — something an EMT might not normally know — and how to best transport a patient there. Building this "architecture" is key to quickly getting an animal the care it needs.

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Photo by K9 Medic

During K9 Medic training, military working dog handlers practice lifesaving trauma care to an injured K9, represented by a K9 simulation manikin.

Passed in 2021, Oregon's law, like others of its ilk, had no provisions or funding for training, so the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association spearheaded training for EMS personnel of its own accord. Dr. Heidi Houchen, a regional director for the OVMA, said it was important to not just help pass the law but to help EMS personnel correctly implement it.

"I was always taught, 'Put your money where your mouth is,' " Houchen said. "It's great to say, 'Yes, you can,' but how do you help them do that?"

As a veterinarian, Houchen's training emphasizes aspects of care that EMS personnel perform daily on humans but that are slightly different for dogs — such as something as simple as checking for a pulse. In human patients, the pulse is found at the neck or the wrist. In dogs, the pulse is found on the inside of the thigh.

Vetoed in Alaska

Not every state has embraced such laws. In Alaska, the governor vetoed a K9 emergency treatment bill in July. The governor cited the concerns of veterinarians as the reason for his action.

During testimony before legislators, a paramedic advocating for the bill remarked that emergency drug dosages for K9s are "nearly identical to pediatric patients." The remark was called out by Alaska veterinarians who were there to voice concerns about the bill.

"I have two children, and there's no way I would dose either of my children with the knowledge I have," said Dr. McKayla Dick in her testimony.

Dick said she was willing to be part of the conversation to create a sound emergency protocol but that the current bill hadn't included enough veterinarian input.

"Our voices seem like they're being dismissed," she said.

Dr. Katrina Backus, the medical director of a large animal hospital in Alaska that provides emergency and critical care, also testified in opposition to the bill.

"The biggest thing that I've learned in my 13-odd years of practicing is that inappropriate treatments in emergency situations often do more harm than good," she said.

She cited specific issues she was concerned about happening if medics not trained to treat dogs were given the ability, including complications caused by improper IV catheter placement leading to shock and death before the animal gets to the hospital.

"We simply want to be part of this discussion because this is our area of expertise," Backus said.