Interactive lesson

The home veterinary kit, step by step

Interactive lesson: what to keep on the homestead for first aid and animal care, what you may use yourself and what only with the vet, and how to keep track of expiry dates.

Free sample Chapters 1 and 2 (8 steps) are free. The full lesson comes with the Home veterinary kit module. Already bought? Unlock

This lesson is general guidance, not professional training. Local regulations and expert advice always take precedence. Read our disclaimer.

The whole lesson as text

1. What the kit is for

The kit buys you time until the vet arrives; it doesn't replace the vet.

First aid — A wound, bleeding, an injured claw or hoof, a chilled newborn.
Care and support — Electrolytes for scours, cleaning an eye, ointment for chapped teats, colostrum replacer.
Getting ready for the vet — Thermometer, gloves, light, a record and a phone number, so the vet can start work the moment they arrive.
Not for treatment — The vet makes the diagnosis and chooses the medicine. Medicine left over from a previous treatment is often wrong: out of date, for another species or at the wrong dose.

Why: Animals usually get hurt at night, at the weekend or on a holiday, and the vet is an hour's drive away. The kit gives you what you need in the first hour or two: to take measurements, stop bleeding, clean a wound and give the vet accurate details over the phone.

The thermometer is the most important item in the kit: temperature is the first thing the vet will ask about.
The vet's number must be by the shed, for nights and weekends too.

2. The basic kit

Every holding with any animals needs this, from five hens to two cows.

Two thermometers — Digital: one for poultry and small animals, one for larger ones. Label them with tape and keep them in a hard case, with lube in a tube.
Gloves — Disposable ones for wounds, births, abortions and dead animals, a box of 100. Long calving gloves, shoulder length, for births in ruminants and pigs.
Rinsing and dressing — Sterile saline for wounds and eyes, antiseptic as your vet advises. Sterile gauze, cotton wool, an elastic bandage and wide cloth tape.
Small tools — Blunt-tipped scissors, tweezers and a tick remover, needle-free syringes of 5, 20 and 60 ml. A torch and a head torch with spare batteries.

Why: Everything in the basic kit is equipment or a care product you use as the label says. When it is all in one place, you aren't searching at night for a thermometer that was "somewhere".

Take the temperature of each healthy animal a few times, at different times of day, and write it down: then you know what is normal for your own animals.
Wipe the thermometer with an alcohol wipe after every use.