Health without chemicals

In short

• Look at every animal every day: is it eating, drinking, what are the droppings like, how does it stand and move, what are its eyes and nose like.
• Normal: horse 37.5–38.5 °C (99.5–101.3 °F), pulse 28–44, breathing 8–16 a minute; donkey 36.5–37.8 °C (97.7–100 °F), pulse 36–68, breathing 12–28 (H34-01).
• Every colic is a call to the vet. Remove the feed, take the pulse and temperature, don't give medicines on your own.
• A donkey that hasn't eaten for 24 hours is an emergency, even if it only looks sad.
• Parasites: faecal egg counts 2–4 times a year, wormers only for the animals that need them, with your vet. Droppings picked up from the field twice a week.
• Tetanus vaccine for every animal. Medicines are recorded in the passport: some exclude the animal from the food chain for life.

What's inside

Chapters

1. Prevention before treatment
2. The healthy animal and the sick one
3. When to call the vet at once
4. Colic and the donkey's silent pain
5. Breathing and coughs
6. Vaccines and notifiable diseases
7. Parasites without blanket worming
8. Skin and wounds
9. The mare, pregnancy and the foal
10. Natural support and medicines
11. Common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Treatment and medicine record
• Health and check log
• Pregnancy and key dates
• Prevention calendar
• Health cost calculator
• Contacts and emergency plan