Newsdate: Thursday, May 4, 2023 - 11:00 am
Location: GUELPH, Ontario

It is much easier to remain calm when faced with a horse injury ifyou know your first aid kit is stocked and ready. Be sure to take inventory of your first aid kit often and keep your skills up to date.

Group of items quite often found in first aid kits

In an emergency, it is much easier to remain calm when faced with a horse injury if you know your first aid kit is stocked and ready.
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First Aid Kit Contents:

• Bandage scissors & Fetlock Shears
• Gauze roll
• Animalintex pads including hoof shaped pad
• Lubricating jelly
• Syringes for wound flushing (60 cc)
• Saline solution
• Sheet cotton
• Small sponge
• Vet wrap
• Sterile gauze pads
• Stethoscope
• Hoof pick
• Thermometer
• Poultice
• Poultice pad and poultice boot
• Weight and height tape
• Wound ointment
• Wound wash (Prepodyne)
• Dermagel
• Alcohol wipes
• Disposable diapers or sanitary napkins
• Disposable safety razors
• Duct tape, Electrical tape
• Electrolytes
• Epsom salts
• First aid manual (for horse and human)
• Flashlight and/or headlamp (with fresh batteries, spare batteries & bulbs)
• Tweezers
• Heavy duty scissors
• Instant cold compress (or small pkg. frozen peas kept in freezer)
• Leatherman or multipurpose tool (should include a knife or closing blade)
• Paper towels or newspaper
• Plastic wrap and plastic bags
• Rubber or latex gloves
• Safety pins / assorted sizes
• Cotton terry towels
• Spray bottle
• Stopwatch or watch with second hand (used with stethoscope)
• Syringes of different sizes
• Tourniquet
• Wooden tongue depressor
• Wound wash bucket

Other items to have nearby:

• Bandages
• Stall/standing bandages
• Cloth or soft bra for blind fold
• Cotton lead rope & halter

If your tack locker lives in an unheated area and stores your first aid kit, there are certain items that may need relocating once temperatures dip below zero

Topical creams and ointments - hard to spread once frozen, separation can occur and the active ingredient may not withstand the cold.

Injectable medications – many do require storage in the fridge but others must be kept at room temperature. Always check with your veterinarian where to store medications.

Oral medications – while some medicines can withstand a wide temperature range, certain ones require storage between 2°C and 8°C, and others can be irreversibly degraded even by brief periods at sub-zero temperatures – check the bottle and if you do not see any directions, consult your veterinarian.

Also check expiration dates and dispose of any medications that look damaged or past their effective date safely – your veterinarian will often take them off your hands or will be able to advise best practices.

During an emergency, every minute counts! Learn the best first aid practices from the experts by taking our Equine First Aid online course!

Press release by Equine Guelph