When you are a horse person, being prepared for a medical emergency is important. There will be times that you may need to administer first aid yourself and then there may be times you may need to administer first aid until your vet can get there. Either way its good to be prepared.

The worst feeling, I think, is when your horse is injuried and you A) don’t know what to do and B) don’t have the supplies you should on hand to apply first aid. Of course, when your new you cannot even imagine what trouble your horse can get into and hurt itself. You are blissfully ignorant.

Murphy’s Law

When I had Valerie at a training barn, I never really thought about preparing for the worse. I didn’t think about getting a first aid kit or even learning about how to do certain things. For one, Valerie had never experienced any injuries or illness. In addition, my trainer and his assistant were experienced horse people who were available for vet checks and were the ones who administered any medicine.

However, when I moved Valerie to my current barn, I had to step up. I had to schedule her dental and vet checks myself and would need to care for her when she got injuried. Well after four years, the inevitable happened–she injuried herself. One day I got a phone call from a fellow horsewoman who told me Valerie had hurt her eye. Luckily, I am a fairly calm person so I didn’t totally freak out. I drove to the barn and saw she some how bumped and scraped her brow and eyelid while in her stall.  Her eyelid area was very swollen. She looked like I prize fighter who had been punched in the eye.

First, I called my vet to find out  what to do. She told me to examine Valerie’s eye to make sure it was not damaged. I checked  it thoroughly and could see it was fine. However, I was worried about the swelling. Because the vet couldn’t come out until several days later and she didn’t think it a true emergency, she recommended I give Valerie orally a 1000 pound dose of Banamine daily until the swelling diminished. 

I didn’t have the medicine so I had to ask around the barn until I could borrow  a tube from someone. Once I got the medicine I tried giving her a dosage, which was difficult since she was throwing her head around to avoid the syringe. I got more medicine on me then in her mouth. I finally had have my trainer help me.

Getting Prepared

After that, I knew I had to get better prepared. First, I talked to my trainer and other trainers in the barn to find out which medications they kept on hand for inflamation and pain (banamine and Phenylbutazone (bute) were recommended), and bought them from my vet. Next, I created a first aid kit with the following:

• first aid book for horses
• Corona antiseptic ointment(2 oz.)
• 6″X9″ cold pack
• 4 oz. hydrogen peroxide
• thermometer
• 4″ Vetrap
• alcohol prep pads
• 4″X4″ gauze pads
• 3-ply towels
• iodine pads
• 250 ml saline solution
• scissors
• surgical scrub brush w/iodophor solution
• 10 cc syringe
• latex tourniquet
• vinyl gloves
• polyethylene water resistant bag, approximately 6″ x 6″ x 12″

My next task will be to read through the first aid book to make sure I am prepared when an emergency arises.

For ideas on what to put in your first aid kit, go to either equisearch.com or infohorse.com. You can also buy a kit from either www.horse.com or www.equimedic.com.