A livestock first-aid kid is an essential addition to every barn. Items for the kit can be found at the local drugstore, feed shop or through your veterinarian. Keep them in a waterproof container in an obvious area. Also, keep emergency contact numbers inside the container, such as your primary veterinarian’s phone number and a back-up veterinarian’s phone number. You may also want to include a list of each species’ vital signs in the box for your reference. It can be difficult to remember them in a crisis.
Your kit should include the following supplies. Download the PDF above to include this list inside your first-aid kit.
- Absorbent cotton
- Adhesive tape
- Antiseptic scrub
- Disposable latex gloves
- Disposable razor
- Duct tape (for bandaging the bottom of hooves)
- Dusting powder (for killing biting and chewing insects on poultry, hogs, sheep, cattle, horses)
- Epsom salt (for soaking hooves)
- Farrier’s rasp
- First-aid guide
- Flashlight with extra batteries
- Frothy bloat treatment (for bloat and constipation in ruminants)
- Gauze dressing pads
- Hoof dressing (for thrush/foot rot)
- Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
- Lubricant for the thermometer (i.e., petroleum jelly)
- Nonsteroidal eye ointment
- Oral syringe (for dosing medications by mouth)
- Pocket knife
- Pruning oil spray (for chickens with bald spots and wounds—protects and seals the skin)
- Rectal thermometer (Tie a long string attached to an alligator clip or clothes pin on the end; attach clip to the tail during use.)
- Roll gauze
- Safety scissors (for cutting dressings)
- Scissors
- Self-stick elastic bandage, such as Vetrap
- Sterile saline solution (for rinsing wounds and removing debris from eyes)
- Stethoscope
- Stop Pick liquid (stops cannibalism in poultry)
- Syringe (without the needle, for flushing wounds)
- Tweezers
- Udder ointment (Check label for use in dairy animals.)
- Wire cutters
- Wound ointment/spray (Check the label if you plan to use the product for meat and dairy animals.)
