How confident are you about giving first aid to your horse?

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NIKKI1974

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Are there any things that you wouldnd be confident doing ? Do you have quite a sound knowledge of equine conditions and how you would go about treating them? I was suprised to see one owner thought their horse had cut its leg and when i went to investigate what they were actually looking at was the horses Chesnut i was quite shocked!
 
OMG! That's such a worry! How did they manage to mistake a chestnut for a cut? I can see how - to the untrained eye - it could look like an old scar but a cut?!
I'm pretty confident with most first aid, cuts, bumps, swelling missing bits of foot etc. I used to run a livery yard at weekends (which always seems to be when horse's threw themselves through fences, jumped out of fields, started fighting!) and got to see various injuries over the 8 - 10 years.
I think it's personal judgement when to call the vet, if I though a horse was seriously injuries (as in it could quickly get so bad that it would be fatal eg burst artery - that made quite the mess on the yard) rolling with colic and unable to stand) then I would call the vet without contacting the owner. But most ailments I called the owner then did first aid til they could have a look for themselves and decide if they want the vet.
 
I deal with the majority of cuts and scrapes myself, unless it it obvious it needs stitching. I would be happy to give bute for swellings, bumps or slight lameness, but if it didn't improve I'd have the vet out in a couple of days.
 
I'm confident, i get in there and do whatever needs doing and call the vet if i'm not 100% happy. I'm particularly brave with sarcoids, having dealt with them for years and watched a great non-squeamish vet sort them out!

I liked the story on here about a livery who was remarking that their horse was really odd, cos it had 3 thin legs and 1 fat leg...
honestly, i think you should have to pass a common sense exam to be allowed a horse!
 
Its stuff like that that makes you want to petition the government to make the BHS horse owners exam compulsory!

I'm confident enough with the common stuff, cuts, bumps, grazes, chunks out of hooves (as long as thier not too massive, I did have to deal with a pain of a shire x percheron who kicked a wall and HALF his hoof came off and it had to be reconstructed with resin!) Anything else the vet comes out. I do have a rather extensive collection of books and at work we have a horsey libary so anything not too major gets looked up first!
 
I can deal with pretty much any first aid situation. I used to work as yard manager in various yards, so had to, but I'm not squeamish. I also used to work for a vet in a rehab yard.
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Its quite worrying that some people don't even know any basic horse anatomy. I've been going on about it for years, I strongly believe that anyone buying a horse needs to do a horse management course before getting a horse of their own. It should be part of learning to ride a horse, basic horse management!

Me, luckily, I'm a nurse so not too bad, the only thing I'm really not keen on is doing injections
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Fine with humans, but not my baby
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i can deal with most minor injuries and scrapes,colic,choke and things like that but i'm not sure how i would cope with something more major as I haven't had to deal with it.However I keep my horse at a livery yard with very experienced people so if faced with something major I know I have good help.
 
I have to admit i was truely gobsmacked that this person had no idea what this was this is basic anatomy of a horse it kind of scares me as they had owned this horse for several months and said they hadnt even realised that their horse had them!
I am no vet for sure but i think that any normal horse owner should be able to deal with basic cuts,be able to confidently poltice where ness without cutting their horses circulation off,should be able to tell if a horse is lame ,should recognise the signs of colic ,be able to take their horses temperature these are basics. I am lucky that i work on a stud and have had to deal with all sorts of injuries ,ailments so i get to see lots of different things and am involved with treatments and recoveries. My moto has always been if in doubt get the vet out , i would never try and diagnose or deal with something i wasnt sure of, but i think i have the quite a good grasp of how to deal with things and when to let the vet step in. Our local equine veterinary hospital also runs seminars which are open to anyone who owns a horse and they cover every aspect of horse disease and injury they are fantastic you even get to see the complete anatomy as they show disection of various parts of the horse and explain and show all the tendons ect its fascinating.
 
General scrapes etc are fine, and I don't tend to worry too much if they are having a minor allergic reaction to something (as I know lots of people on here do)

Our old boy came in a couple of months ago all swollen up, must have rolled in an ants nest or something, he had swelled up all over, making his TB face look like a warmblood! He was fine however, still breathing and eating, and it had all gone down by the next day, although think the night of heavy rain helped that one!!
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