Vet Scales for Weighing Mini?

[HollyWoozle]

Has anybody here used a large vet or industrial scale to weigh a mini? I am not sure if there are many with a base wide enough but I have seen some suitable for small farm animals which are OK for up to 250kg. I would guess our mini is around 150 - 175kg but it would be extremely helpful to be able to weigh him accurately as he is on a strict diet for EMS. We don't have transport to easily use the weighbridge at the vet clinic and we're not on a big yard with feed companies visiting with their own one.

I was just thinking how helpful it would be if we could weigh him regularly here at home and wondered if it was worth investing. The ones I've seen are about £275 but maybe I could find one secondhand.

 

[Nasicus]

Is there an independent nutritionist with a portable weighbridge that covers your area? It's a bit like finding gold, but if there is one then that could be an option, especially if they offer weighing only visits.

There's also a way to do it with heavy duty human scales, by weighing the front and back leg on one side in turn, whilst the opposite leg is stood on a board to even out the weight distribution, and then you times both results by two (to make 4 legs) and add them together for total weight. Disclaimer; I've never done it myself, I'm lucky enough to have the nutritionist option, but it's described in the book 'My Fat Horse!' published by Cadmos.

Otherwise, I don't see why livestock scales wouldn't work, especially if you can get a good price for one!

 

[JGC]

Is there an independent nutritionist with a portable weighbridge that covers your area? It's a bit like finding gold, but if there is one then that could be an option, especially if they offer weighing only visits.

There's also a way to do it with heavy duty human scales, by weighing the front and back leg on one side in turn, whilst the opposite leg is stood on a board to even out the weight distribution, and then you times both results by two (to make 4 legs) and add them together for total weight. Disclaimer; I've never done it myself, I'm lucky enough to have the nutritionist option, but it's described in the book 'My Fat Horse!' published by Cadmos.

Otherwise, I don't see why livestock scales wouldn't work, especially if you can get a good price for one!

I've never heard this, but I really want to try - we've just been trying to check the horses' weights to see whether I could take a pony in my 3.5t with my mare (who I calculated with the vet to be 440kg, pony is 11.2), but I don't want to take any chances on payload.

 

[Melody Grey]

Just a thought- big dog vet scales weigh quite a good amount. I remember sitting in the waiting room thinking you could weigh several people on them! Would they be cheaper/ easier to source second hand? Or even walk them to vets surgery if they’d be willing?!

 

[HollyWoozle]

Thanks all and apologies for the slow reply!

We have tried to get a nutritionist to come, even combining with other horse owners in the village, but it does seem to be very difficult unfortunately. Since it's only the mini we need to be more accurate with (and who is less easy to get an idea of weight from by using a weigh tape) I wondered if we might find a solution.

Some of the large dog scales you see in vets do seem to be able to take up to 200kg or so in many cases. They are still a few hundred pounds and I am not sure we can justify the cost, but if we could get them secondhand then it would be so handy to be able to weigh him regularly. I think I need to measure the distance between his front and back legs to see how long a base we would need.

@Nasicus that sounds like an interesting/fun way of doing it! I am not convinced on the accuracy but who knows. I have found quite a few industrial parcel scales which take a high weight and are much cheaper, but they have a very small surface area unfortunately.

I think there is a huge market out there for someone to design a dinky pony set of scales/weighbridge and a weigh-tape more accurately suited to the tiny ones!

 

[Melody Grey]

Is there anywhere you could hire some scales from? Could throw a towel over them if they’re not meant for ponies?!