First Aid Kit for Your Horse

Having a basic first aid kit close at hand when an injury occurs is the first step to providing assistance to your horse. Keep a kit in the stables or tack room and take a first aid kit with you when travelling, as this is a common time for injuries to occur. Pack the kit in a moisture proof box such as a plastic or metal tool box or a plastic or styrofoam esky.

The following list of key items is recommended for a first aid kit or cupboard:

• 2 x rolls of bandaging tape
• 2 x rolls of adhesive bandage
• 1 x roll of cotton wool (30 cm x 375 g)
• 1 x roll of cotton gauze or crepe bandage (7.5 cm wide)
• 2 x disposable nappies or sanitary napkins to act as pressure pads to stop bleeding
• 1 x bottle of a wound-cleaning agent such as povidone iodine
• 1 x bottle of wound antiseptic (eg. CETRIGEN^®)
• 1 x jar of petroleum jelly
• 1 x digital thermometer
• 1 x 60mL syringe or an old, but clean worming syringe for flushing wounds
• 1 x container of a soothing, cooling liniment (eg. RAPIGEL^®)
• 1 x container of a soothing, antiseptic cream (eg. SEPTICIDE^®)
• 1 x small pack of salt for making salt solutions to cleanse wounds
• 1 x pack of gauze swabs
• 1 x pair of curved, blunt ended scissors
• 1 x torch
• 1 x pair of tweezers

In your stable fridge keep a syringe of Tetanus Anti-Toxin and a Tetanus Toxoid booster. Ensure that you keep them refrigerated and replace them if they pass their expiry date.

Also keep frozen cooling packs, ice cubes and several stryofoam cups filled with water and then frozen. These are excellent for applying cold therapy to areas on the body where an ice pack can’t be bandaged. Simply peel away the rim of the cup and massage the injured area with the ice block.