Whatcha Gotta Have in your Equine First Aid Kit

  

By Maddy B. Gray

It helps if the horse is haltered.
That’s what I was thinking when driving along Route 24 one day in Maine.
There, dashing across the road, were two big Belgians. Partners in crime, you could say. They trotted through one yard and began helping themselves to the neighbors’ lovely green pasture, er, lawn.
No halters.
No owner.
A sheriff’s deputy happened on the scene but he sheepishly admitted to ‘not being a horse person.’ (I think he might’ve been more of a horse person if there was less horse. But, that’s another story.)
The neighbor grabbed a bag of carrots from her fridge.
I grabbed the dog leash from my car, took off my belt to serve as another lead line/halter improvised implement and together we got them back into their barn without too much fuss.
But the incident got me thinking about a whatcha-gotta-have kit.
Beyond the no-brainers, what other things should I have? What should every horse owner have?
I was talking with my friend and veterinarian Linda Lee Barton about these equine emergency must-haves. You can read what we came up with below. If you disagree with anything or would like to suggest additions, please let me know!
NO-BRAINERS:
I have some really simple things I carry on me all the time. It’s not emergency stuff but I’m always surprised by how often I use these few items:

• A belt

• A knife (in your pocket, on your belt, or at least in your purse)

• A cell phone (in your pocket or on your belt)

The belt doubles as a leash or leadline.
The knife comes in handy for cutting bailing twine, peeling fruit, cutting the t-shirt so you can apply a tourniquet after you’ve cut yourself with the knife. (The other worst case scenario I envision is getting my foot caught in the stirrup, being dragged by the panicky horse, then valiantly cutting myself free with said knife. Right!)
The cell phone is for timing your heart rate, er, your horse’s heart rate, and calling for help.
But, enough of those everyday, gotta-have items. Now for the Emergency Kit. I have mine in my car, because I visit other barns so often. But it could just as easily be stashed in the barn:

• Emergency contact info – phone numbers for your vet, your back-up vet, neighbor, horse-knowledgeable friend, someone with a trailer if you don’t have one.

• A Watch or someway to tell time and measure seconds and minutes (cell phone)

• A few bundles of Vet wrap

• Furasolidone spray powder or other antibiotic treatment for wounds, abrasions, etc.

• Banamine paste

• Gas X (that’s the brand name for a human OTC medicine for indigestion)

• Assorted syringes

• Stretch bandages

• 4x4 gauze pads
• Chlorhexadine scrub – for cleaning wounds. A common name brand for this is Nolvasan.
• Instant cold pak – for you and/or your horse
  

• Thermometer

• Stethoscope

• Vetropolycin – ointment for eye or around-eye injury

• Saline solution (for washing out eye injury or irritant)

• Antibiotic ointment

• Hoof pic

• Catheter – to rinse out a puncture wound (make sure you have a syringe that fits it)

• Ecotrin – most folks who have horses have dogs, too. This is a relatively inexpensive pain reliever for the dogs in your life. I have been told to buy this brand name. The generic version has a buffered coating that dogs don’t digest so they never get to the actual aspirin.

• 1st aid tape for bandaging

• Duct tape

• Kotex pads/small diapers – good, relatively cheap first aid pads

• Knit wraps – for covering bandages

• Hoof shaped poultice pads – pricey but more convenient and less messy than poultice.

• Latex gloves

• Leatherman

• Halter (preferably a rope halter with lead line attached. Rope halters readily fit more sizes of horses than other halters)

• Treats

As I was reviewing this list I realized there are certain bits of knowledge every horse owner needs to have in the same whatcha-gotta-have bag:
Signs and symptoms of colic and how to treat it.
How to clean and dress various wounds
How to treat other injuries (like strains)
How to take horse’s temperature, respirations and heart rate.
Signs and symptoms of heat distress and how to treat it.

Maine Equine Associates offers a First Aid Kit for $159 with the following:

Dose syringe
Instruction sheet
Stethoscope
Thermometer
Weight tape
Betadine scrub
Furacin ointment
Gauze sponges, sterile and non-sterile
Leg cottons
Rolls of gauze
Elastic bandages
Antibacterial spray
Banamine spray or injectable
Bute
DMSO gel
Epsom salts
Eye ointments
Ichthammol ointment
Magnapaste
Simethicone
SMZ-TMP tablets

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