Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] What is your Equine First Aid kit?

msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Mounted search and rescue

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lila Corey" <Caballera@embarqmail.com>
  • To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] What is your Equine First Aid kit?
  • Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:42:46 -0500

You always have the best information. Thanks for all your input on this list. It really helps us newbies.
Lila
----- Original Message ----- From: "Una Smith" <una.smith@att.net>
To: "Mounted search and rescue" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: [MSAR] What is your Equine First Aid kit?


My horse will swallow 1g bute (phenylbutazone) pills whole, so I keep
those in my 1st aid kit.

Bag balm is good for girth galls and the like. I have a small tin of
gall salve in the trailer. If the horse is prone to galls I carry it
in my pack. For flushing wounds water is best but if water is suspect
I use hydrogen peroxide to sanitize it. I keep a small bottle in my
1st aid kit. At bottle strength, hydrogen peroxide can do more harm
than good on exposed wounds, but it can be added to suspect water to
make it safe enough to drink and use to wash a wound. And it is far
faster than using a potable water filter. Chlorine bleach works too.

My climate permits keeping semi perishable items in the trailer tack
room, provided I park the trailer so the tack room spends most of the
day shaded by the rest of the trailer.

Locally, veterinary clinics are in short supply but there are several
mobile vets. I have their phone numbers programmed in my cell phone.
Some are based so far away from where I live that I would not normally
call them, but if I were in their neighborhood I would call them stat.

Your unit might want to write a default medical plan, and a veterinary
plan too. Such a plan basically says who to call in case of emergency,
how to reach them at any hour, where to transport to, etc. The plan
can include driving directions to each veterinary clinic, and any
special arrangements or understandings you have with the veterinarian.
Such as, to save time you might pre-arrange places to meet up with a
mobile veterinarian, or you might keep a vet tech on call who lives
in a strategic location. Places to meet could be a member's ranch,
or a county rodeo ground, or even a rest area on a highway. You want
a place where it is safe to unload the horse from the trailer, where
potable water is available, where you know the veterinarian can find
it and drive to it (if you live where snow and ice storms occur) and
where if need be you could leave the horse overnight. Electricity is
helpful too.

The veterinary plan probably should include a provision for euthansia.
Eg, who in your MSAR unit carries a handgun and knows how to use it to
kill a horse? Is anyone in your MSAR unit prepared to use a knife
for this? Does your MSAR unit use euthanasia drugs? Consider how to
keep them safe and secure against theft. Some MSAR units operate in
places where there is a road every mile or two, so provisions like this
may not be necessary. No one ever wants to need these plans, but it
is far better to have made the plan in advance than do it on the spot
during a crisis.

See an ICS 206 Medical Plan form here: http://www.nmesc.org/forms.htm

Una Smith
New Mexico
_______________________________________________
MSAR-Riders mailing list
MSAR-Riders@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/msar-riders


























































































































































































Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page