Livestock medicine chest

[Cygnet]

Aargh. As I posted in the goats section, I have a goat with a nasty injury to her mouth and no feed stores within reasonable driving distance have tetanus antitoxin. The goat's full sister died of tetanus despite a current vaccine, so I REALLY want to get tetanus antitoxin into her just to be on the safe side. (Vet's coming tomorrow with antitoxin.)

The feed stores around here are lacking in what I consider basic supplies. This was an unwelcome reminder that I need to put together a comprehensive medical kit. Can you guys help me brainstorm on what I might need?

We currently have goats, chickens, cats, dogs. The does are dry and not in kid, but we will probably breed them around December.

This is a list to handle emergencies, not stuff that can wait a few days for mail order, like routine vaccinations and wormers.

So far I've got:

-- Pen G
-- Tetanus antitoxin
-- Oral sulfa based drench
-- Oxytet powder
-- Dexamethasone injectable
-- Coppertox for hoof injuries
-- Bluekote
-- Rubbing alcohol
-- Skunk shampoo. (Neither of my dogs have run into a skunk yet ... we moved from an area where there were no skunks to one where they're plentiful. I am resigned to the inevitable.)
-- Chlorhexidine
-- Betadine rinse and soap
-- Epsom salts
-- Milk of magnesia
-- Karo syrup
-- Meds for bloat
-- A trochar for really bad bloat
-- A case or two of vet wrap
-- Cotton batting
-- Duct tape
-- A couple scalpels
-- Assorted forceps and needle nose pliers
-- Wire cutters
-- Sharp scissors
-- Some suture kits, and surgical glue
-- Assorted syringes and needles, in various sizes.
-- Sharp clipper blades for the clippers
-- OB gloves and regular gloves
-- Surgical masks and protective eyewear (mostly for our own protection when dealing with unidentified infections and cleaning up after sick animals)
-- Welding gloves and a jean jacket for handling really upset cats and dogs
-- A cone o' shame for the dogs if they're hurt
-- A muzzle for the dogs
-- A good lariat for catching injured goats
-- Castille soap
-- Sulfadene for mange and minor owies
-- Fly spray
-- Swat ointment
-- Livestock shampoo
-- Small hoof nippers and a hoof knife and rasp
-- Blood stop powder
-- Equine leg wraps or ace bandages
-- Ample supply of sterile gauze
-- Stuff for treating eye infections
-- Furazone spray and salve
-- Bag balm
-- Banamine
-- Aspirin

Help me brainstorm a bit more? :-) What am I forgetting?

[Ramblin Wreck]

The vets around here seem to like LA 200 better than penicillin. You can get it over the counter, and make sure you have some 18 ga or larger needles if you want to try it. It's thick stuff.

[wr]

I'm kind of a minimalist and use more natural remedies so I'm probably not much help.

I would like to remind you that meds that have expiry dates need to be checked often.

Over the years, I've found that I wasted more penicillin because of expiry dates than I ever used up and I only use it as required rather than for prevention.

Basically, I keep Watkins petro carbo salve, vet grade iodine, sanitary napkins instead of gauze pads, a bit of vet wrap, a sulfur based salve made at home, mineral oil, a bottle of vanilla for mild colic and a good quality spray bottle.

I've treated some big messes over the years and found that you can't plan for everything so I plan to treat emergencies knowing that if it's any more critical, treatment evolves as healing progresses and my vet is a phone call away.

[Cygnet]

WR, I've always been fairly minimalistic also BUT I don't always have a vet a phone call away anymore -- the one decent livestock vet I've found out here is extremely busy. He couldn't fit me in until tomorrow due to other more pressing emergencies. The goat is fine for now. If she had actual tetanus and I didn't have antitoxin, it would probably be a very different story. Honestly, I probably would have shot her to prevent her from suffering overnight. A bottle of antitoxin could have made all the difference in the world then ... and I couldn't get one anywhere in town. (I just want it for prophylaxis due to the nature of the wound.)

I happily use natural remedies when they're effective. However, having lost one goat to polio and another to tetanus (both ugly ways to die), I like modern medicine too when it's called for. I use it with respect, research the side effects and possible complications, and never, ever, casually use systemic antibiotics, but sometimes the best and most humane way to treat an animal is with western meds.

And yeah, some things do expire. Most of the time, meds are good after the expiration date. Some meds aren't -- tetracycline can be toxic, vaccines probably should be chucked, and I wouldn't want to rely on the aforementioned tetanus antitoxin if it was expired, though I'd certainly use it if it was all I had. However, if you do the research you can figure out what meds ARE good and safe to use past the expiration date, as long as they're stored correctly.

Hmm. Need to add injectable thiamine to that list ...

[Kasota]

If you have a good relationship with your vet you might ask them for input. When I bought my farm I asked my vet what she thought I ought to have on hand and she came up with a nice comprehensive list. Vets can't always drop what they are doing to come out to a farm and she appreciated the working relationship as much as I did.