There are over 100 million horses, donkeys and mules in the world today and owners of these animals can be found on almost every continent and in almost every society. The Horse Course will cover many unique aspects of equine ownership and touch upon the science behind many of today’s management practices.
First Aid
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The Horse Course: Introduction to Basic Care and Management
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Maintaining Equine Health
The topics this week will focus on equine health. Monitoring and taking care of your animal’s health is critical to owning any equid. We will start off with the normal equine vital signs and then we will discuss administering first aid to your animals. We will then cover the different parasites and diseases that can afflict these animals. Finally, we will end the week discussing some common genetic disorders.
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Chris J. Mortensen, Ph.D.Professor
Animal Sciences
All right, so welcome to our next lecture on first aid.
And, you know, obviously this is not a fun, fun topic,
but I'll try to keep the energy up a little bit.
And before we get started on first aid I just
want to say if you have any doubt with any injury.
Any illness, do not hesitate to call a
veterinarian or animal health specialist and ask for advice.
Because you don't want to be doing
something that's either going to worsen the injury
for your animal, and you know, cost you more money in the long run with treatment.
And you want to make sure you're doing the right thing with that.
So, you know, most large animal
veterinarians will offer advice over the phone.
You know, freely or you know, develop that relationship with them that you're able to
call them and say, hey, this is not looking right today, what do you think?
And they'll give you the advice because they're
the ones that you always want to look to.
So with that in mind you know, I'm going to show you some situations where
you absolutely should call the veterinarian and
have them come out and treat the animal.
And then some situations where, you know what, you can, you can treat
it on your own because it's really not that big of a deal.
So, so we'll talk through that.
Now again with review, you know, abnormal behavior,
that's all I can really, you know, tell you.
As far as, how do you know if something's wrong with your animal?
You have to be able to detect that.
And that's what makes these, these animal health
specialists or veterinarians so amazing, that, you know?
In a human, again, like we talked about in the last lecture.
You're sick, you don't feel well.
Your leg's broken, something.
You can say, hey, help.
And you can communicate to your, to your physician, or
to the ER folks or to the ambulance or whoever.
A horse can't do that.
A donkey can't do that.
They tend to hide pain, because in their nature out in the wild, you know, if
a horse gets injured they can't scream and
bellow and yell because that's going to attract predators.
So they tend to suffer in silence, I mean they really do.
And, and they tend to hide it because if they're the ones that, that's sick
or injured, that's who the predator's going to
pick off because they're easier to get at.
So that's why it's, veterinarians are so amazing with what they can do.
And as you're around these animals enough, you
start to, to detect differences with them, so.
Alright so in an emergency situation the, the best thing to do is to have a plan.
You know, in your mind, realize at some point these animals are going to get hurt.
We all have, we've all gotten hurt in our lives at some point.
Whether it's a minor scrape, you know, unfortunately
broken bones, you know, something not so fun.
To, to really serious injuries and, and again, these horses
and, and donkeys and mules, they're going to run into something too.
They're going to get hurt.
It's just the, the, the nature of the beast.
And that they're outside all the time.
You know, typically is, puts them a little bit more at risk of, of getting hurt.
So you have to, to kind of plan to deal with that.
And some of the things you want to do is, make
sure you have your, your health professional's telephone number nearby.
Or for anybody that's taking care of your animals, make sure it's accessible,
like in the feed room, or where you keep your tack or, you know?
On the fence, anything, in case of emergency.
Call who, call who, call who.
Have some back-ups.
And plan for different injuries, so the minor ones and
the major ones, and then things that people don't think about.
You know, the, the immobile injuries are the
ones that are really tough to deal with.
because say they're way out in the pasture.
You know, how are you going to get that animal up
to the barn to treat them if they can't move?
You know, what are you going to do?
Well, I'll go and take my truck and trailer back there.
Can it get through the fence?
I mean, can you get back there?
Is the ground going to handle it.
So those are things in your head that you should probably think about.
Now at the end of that last slide I said to have a first aid kit.
And here's just some of the things that you could put in a equine first aid kit.
And this isn't a complete list.
Really if you go online and, and kind of search for, you
know, horse first aid kit there's other things that can be on there.
These are just some of the things I
felt were important, you know, to help, you know.
Mobilize the animal or, or handle the animal with the halter and a twitch.
And you want to make sure you have clean bandaging and, and buckets and materials.
Snake bite kits, something you know, a lot of us don't think about.
You know, should we have that on hand?
Well yeah, especially if you're doing like trail
riding through areas that have lots of snakes.
I mean snakes are everywhere pretty much, in the world.
You know, wounds and stuff like that.
Even a flashlight, didn't even think about a flashlight because
what if it's late at night and you need to see?
So, so those are some things that you should have in there.
Now the number one rule when dealing with an emergency is for you to stay calm,
because if you go out there and some
of these injuries can be really, really horrific.
And also I will say this, horses can bleed a heck of a lot of blood and be okay.
It's just, we see the amount of blood and we really freak out.
And, and, I've seen it before too and I've
been like, oh my goodness, you know, get really nervous.
And you don't want to do that because if you get really
nervous, you're like you know oh my god what am I going to do?
That animal is going to feel that, and that animal is going to
get nervous too, may shy away from you, may bolt from you.
And they, they can either, you know, make themselves, you know, injure themselves
even further or, you know, you're not going to be able to treat them.
So you want to be calm.
If you're calm, the animal's calm.
So always please remember that.
And also make sure you're going to be safe, you know, your
own safety because if you get hurt, you can't help your animal.
And, you know, as the owner you need to put your health ahead of your animal.
So, so be very careful, because some of these
injuries can really you know, scare the, scare the animal.
But generally horses, I think, you know, I've been around them enough that
if they realize you're trying to help them they're, they're generally can stay calm.
Now, also you want to monitor the environment, the weather,
you know, if, if there's a snake bite, you know.
Like your horse just got bit by a snake, make
sure the snake's not around, before you jump off the animal.
Or stuff like that but, things like you
know, here in the United States we get tornadoes.
Here in Florida we get hurricanes.
So I'm not going to go, you know, take care of or try
to treat an animal in a hurricane if I don't have to.
Because you know, again I'm putting myself at, at risk and
I'm not going to be any good to my animal if I'm dead.
So, you know, monitor those situations and make sure it's safe for you.
And then you want to assess your animal.
So, is it safe for that approach and then can you move them?
Because if you can move them, you know, you want to take them somewhere
where it's quiet, where they can be calm, and they are kind of confined.
So they can't worsen their injury, or get away from you easier so.
So you want to do that and then check the vital signs
which we just had that lecture on and kind of assess your animal.
Now I want to go through some, some emergencies and you're going to notice
at the top of most of these,
contact your veterinarian or health professional immediately.
Okay, so these are injuries that, obviously, you're
not going to be able to, to handle yourself.
So you're going to need some, some medical attention.
And the first one is you know, obviously a fracture.
And you want to immobilize the animal if you can.
And also you can build a splint.
So here's somebody was, was pretty intelligent and they, they
just got a, a big board here, and there's probably
a board on the other side of the leg, and
then just wrapped it with what we call duct tape.
And just wrapped it to immobilize that wound.
So if you can, you know, splint the leg there's things you can get
like a pipe and cut the pipe in half and, you know, build that around.
And make sure there's some padding in there so
you're not rubbing against the skin of the animal,
but you want to try to immobilize that wound
so, until you can get them to a veterinarian.
Now the next type of emergency that you want your
veterinarian to come out and treat is a puncture wound.
Because puncture wounds, you know, can be
especially dangerous for these animals and they're, and
they can tend to get infected so you
want to make sure that they're properly treated.
And because they can be really, really
deep, you know, you can't just artificially
put a bandage out there and some little disinfectant cream and hope they heal.
They really need to be seen by, by a doctor.
So if the, the object that's in there, in a puncture if it's still in there, if it's
shallow, you could you know, like a splinter or
something you can pull it out and be okay.
If it's deep I would leave it in
there until the veterinarian gets there to do that.
But if they are bleeding you know, again these animals can bleed quite, quite
a bit, you want to hold pressure to slow down or stop that bleeding.
And then you can clean that wound with some antiseptic if,
if you want and then cover the wound and then bandage it.
Until they receive treatment, you know, if you think you need to do that.
Now one of the most important things with puncture wounds
is you want to make sure your animal's vaccinated against tetanus.
And in the disease lecture we'll talk more about tetanus,
but especially if they did get a, a puncture wound you
want to make sure they're up to date because tetanus
is a horrific disease that you don't ever want to see.
Okay, and then the, the next kind of wound that you definitely
want to, to be seen by a veterinarian is an eye wound.
And that's because this can lead to, to blindness or even loss of that eye.
So you want to make sure that they are seen
at that their, their eye can be taken care of.
Now, if you do have an eye injury, you want to move that
animal into the shade, you know, so they're not in the bright sunlight.
And then you could put this thing, these are fly masks which you can get and put on
and if you don't have access to that you
can put some fly spray or ointment around the wound.
If you are using fly spray, again be very careful not to try to spray that
in the wound because it could hurt and
irritate that wound, so you want to do that.
But you basically just want to keep flies away from there because they
will gravitate to wounds to, to feed and lay eggs and stuff like that.
Alright, now most lacerations your, your, you know, that's probably a typical
injury you know, they're going to scrape by a fence or a post or
you know, one of their other buddies bit them like, oh you
know, I'm not liking you today and they'll reach out and nip them.
I mean lacerations are pretty common.
These ones that get near the tendons and joints, you
definitely want a veterinarian to come out and, and treat them.
And again for any you know, superficial wounds
or these lacerations these are pretty common steps.
You know, you want to put a pressure on the wound to slow the healing.
You know, you can hold the bandage or gauze on the wound.
Then you want to wrap it in cotton to put some, some you know,
protecting that wound and holding that bandage
in place, and then put adhesive tape around.
And that will, will hold that bandage in place.
But you want to make sure it's not so tight that you're restricting blood flow.
So those are pretty simple steps to to treating a wound.
But, again, this type.
You want a veterinarian to come out, to make
sure there's no ligament, or tendon damage long term.
Damage to the animal that could reduce their, their use.
I mean if they, if they hurt those lower limbs like that you, you may not be
able to ride them again, so you want
to make sure that the veterinarian looks at that.
So some other emergencies that we're not going to have time to, to cover, but any
type of respiratory distress you definitely want the
animal to be seen by a health specialist.
Any lameness, you know, especially lameness that they can't move.
High fever, again we've talked about colic enough.
dystocia, which we'll cover a little bit more next week, but if you're
having difficult foaling obviously you want
to get a veterinarian out there immediately.
You definitely want them to be seen for a snake bite, or or, and I
put this at the end again when I started this whole first aid thing, you know.
Any, any type of situation that you really feel
overwhelmed or, you know what, I need a doctor's advice.
Do not hesitate to contact them, please do not for, for the health
of the animal and also, you know,
protecting your pocketbook in the long term.
That they don't, they don't get worse, and then you
actually could lose your animal or cost you more so.
Now some of the ones that you can treat yourself I call them the
bumps and bruises, these are things that typical wear and tear on the animal.
So if there are you know, they can get bruises by
if kicking or running into things, saddles sores which you can see
here, you know, it's a little bit nastier but again it's
a, it's a wound because you have a really poor fitting saddle.
So it rubs, rubs, and then they get these, these injuries.
You can just put cold packs on these and you can just put cold water on there
to, to reduce the swelling, and of course,
rest you know, to allow those wounds to heal.
Minor lacerations, again, we've talked about that.
Clean you know, control the bleeding.
Clean the area with a disinfectant.
You can apply an ointment, either a Vaseline,
which some people don't like but some people recommend.
And or a nitrofurazone-based ointment.
And try to keep the flies away.
You know, that, that's what some of that stuff's doing.
And then, watch for infection and again, rest.
Alright, then we're going to finish out this
lecture with just some first aid don'ts.
Things that you sh, you shouldn't do.
And I think these are, these are easier to remember for you.
So you don't want to apply any, any astringent or caustic like
iodine on any wound deeper than a, than a superficial scratch or abrasion.
I mean it could be really, really painful for the horse if you did.
And then these two you know, no medicine to
any wound that's going to be sutured you know, obviously.
Unless the veterinarian tells you.
Anything the vet tells you to do.
Because they, you know, went to medical school, they've seen it.
And they're out in the trenches, you know, healing these animals.
You don't want to apply any salves to any open deep wounds, you know?
Just those superficial ones is where you want to use those.
And you don't want to frequently flush a wound with cold water.
Now, we do tell you you can clean water.
Or use clean water to clean wounds.
But this, if frequently flushing here,
can develop something that's called proud flesh.
And it's really, really nasty.
And it's this granulization of the tissue as it grows back.
So, it's like our scars.
But they, they're really just, they're just gross.
And you actually have to get those like, surgically removed
or burned off to to reduce that, that flesh that's there.
So you don't want to every day, flush out that
wound with cold water because that actually helps promote proud flesh.
Now things we've already talked about is,
don't wrap any wounds or legs without padding.
You want to make sure there's padding in there because
again that's helping to, to not restrict the blood flow.
Because there still needs to be blood flowing to those limbs.
And don't leave a bandage on for more than 24 hours.
And you want to, you know, let some of
that circulation come back and then reapply a new bandage.
And then anytime you're flushing out the eyes don't, make sure
there's no salt water in there or any type of sugar.
So you definitely don't want to do that.
So here's your list of, of don'ts, things you shouldn't do
with, with an injured horse or when you're looking at first aid.
So that's kind of you know, a quick overview of first aid.
Again, there's many many online resources and your health, local
health professional is the one person you need to turn
to the most, for any questions you have related to,
to your animal's health or dealing in first aid situation.
Alright, so in our next lecture, we're going to start jumping into the, the nasty
creepy bugs, the parasites but again, they're
very, very important to understand and how we.
We treat and eliminate these guys from, you know, the animal's body.
So just, just to leave you again with first aid final thoughts,
when in doubt pick up the phone or walk, you know, wherever
you are in the world, find out who your animal health professional
is, turn to them and ask them for advice, get to know them.
They are going to be the best sources of information that you will get on how to
maintain your animal's health and when to deal
with you know any emergency or first aid situations.
So I'll see you next, we're going to be talking about bugs, yeah!
I'll see you soon.
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