PSA

A brief PSA (Public Service Announcement)

A daily occurrence in our world is getting a "help!" phone call from a friend or acquaintance who keeps a horse or two at home wanting advice on everything to blanketing to feed. In the past week, unfortunately the calls were for "do you think I need the vet?"

In both cases, one of my first questions was "Is he running a fever?"

If you are a horse owner and you're reading this, my PSA is to KNOW how to take your horse's temperature, and in addition know what your horse's baseline temperature is. A healthy average sized horse will run anywhere from 99.5 to 100.5 F depending on the invidual, time of day, what they have eaten and when, what exercise they've had, the season and the weather.

Practice. Start by making this a part of your daily grooming procedure. Take the temp in the morning, take it before they eat supper, then take it after they eat their supper so you know how your horse runs and what your averages are. Try taking it before you ride, then an hour after you ride and you'll see different results. Get comfortable with it and test it out daily for a month. You will learn a lot about your horse and his response to exercise and routine & both get comfortable with figuring out his baseline.

Keep your equipment handy and know how to use it, and know that you and your horse are both comfortable with a thermometer. When you think you've got a sick patient- any nerves about how to take the temp (and once I do what does it mean?!!) aren't thoughts added to an already growing concern that your horse might be sick.

In the unfortunate case when you DO need to call the vet, their first question will be "Is he running a fever?"

You will be READY!