Interactive lesson

Horse and donkey health, step by step

Interactive lesson: the morning check, normal values, colic, the donkey's silent pain, coughs and quarantine, parasites without blanket worming, tetanus and wounds.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Morning check

Two minutes every morning tell you more than any pharmacy.

Eaten its night hay? — First look at the haynet or rack. Hay must always be available and free of mould.
Drunk its water? — See how much water has gone. Water is clean, always available and unfrozen in winter.
Droppings in the stable — Count the piles in the morning. A horse passes 8–12 piles a day, formed balls; a donkey fewer and drier.
Stance, eyes, nose, hooves — How it stands and moves, what its eyes and nose are like. Feel the hooves: heat and the digital pulse in the leg.

Why: Most illness in horses on a small farm comes not from germs but from the feed bucket, the stable and habits. If you look at every animal every day, you notice a change in time.

Keep the numbers of the equine vet and the out-of-hours service on the stable door.
Sharing buckets, brushes and tack with other people's horses spreads disease.

2. Normal values

Measure your own healthy animal several times, in the morning at rest, and write it down.

Temperature — Thermometer in the rectum for 1–2 minutes, with the animal tied and a helper. Horse 37.5–38.5 °C (99.5–101.3 °F), donkey 36.5–37.8 °C (97.7–100 °F).
Pulse — Artery under the lower jaw, 15 seconds × 4. Horse 28–44, donkey 36–68 a minute, at rest.
Breathing — Watch the flank rise, at rest. Horse 8–16, donkey 12–28 a minute.
Gut and gums — Ear or stethoscope behind the ribs, left and right: gurgling on both sides. Gums are pink and moist, and the colour returns within 1–2 seconds.

Why: That way you know what is normal for that particular animal. When something is wrong, these numbers are the first thing that tells the vet how serious it is.

Kit: thermometer, stethoscope, watch with a second hand, torch.
Before you call the vet, take the temperature, pulse and breathing and note the time.