All Things Animal Heath in Pakenham Upper, Victoria, Australia | Local business

All Things Animal Heath

Locality: Pakenham Upper, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 401 792 712

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11.01.2022 How to reduce potential swellings and complications from intra-muscular injections in your horses, and tips to prevent horses becoming needle shy: Most horses... end up quite sore and swollen from multiple days of penicillin injected intramuscularly, and some may even get marked inflammation which can lead to them being unable to put their head down to eat. Left untreated these can become abscesses in the neck which need to be drained. Repeated weekly Pentosan injections can also make them swollen and sore, or they can get a little paler coloured area of hair and sometimes long straggly hair in the injection areas. To attempt to reduce the severity of the painful muscles after injection: 1. Warm the drug up to body temperature! Sounds obvious I know, but it’s so easy to pull the drug - penicillin, pentosan or a vaccine out of the fridge and inject it into the horse. I believe the swellings are caused by a cold burn and consequential inflammation happening inside the muscles. Since I’ve been diligently warming drugs the necks/chests are reacting far less. I’ll wander around the paddock with the bottle down my bra until it comes to body temp (being mindful to keep the rubber stopper on top of the bottle nice and clean). 2. Don’t put your fingers on the steel shaft of the needle and don’t touch the rubber stopper. I see many people inadvertently touch either one and this introduces more bacteria into the equation. To avoid the nightmare of a penicillin reaction: A penicillin reaction is one where the horse goes crazy and runs around blindly crashing into things a minute or so after injection, or they fall over having a seizure. The mild form is snorty, spooky and agitated as the penicillin hits the brain from inadvertent intra-arterial/intra-venous injection. To avoid this shake the penicillin well until you see bubbles all over the bottom of the bottle when you tip it upside down. Draw back at the beginning to check there isn’t any blood (as is the procedure for all intra-muscular injections) and then draw back every 5ml to make sure blood hasn’t snuck in, if it has pull the needle out and reinsert it a couple of cm from the original site. Insert the needles perpendicular to the skin so the product is injected deep into the muscle belly. I like to have a longish lead rope on the horse, preferably not be trapped in a box/small yard, and gloves on at least one hand, so if an inadvertent intravascular injection occurs I can simply let them hoon around me way out on the end of the rope, lunging themselves till it wears off and at least they won't crash into a fence, (mind you, I am pretty strong, so don't get yourself hurt if you don't feel safe with this idea!). If you are in a box, and a reaction occurs, get the heck outta there, and let them race around the box. Injections into the pectorals (front of chest) tend to hurt less, but are more likely to hit blood vessels. Injections into the neck hurt more, but have less likelihood of hitting vessels, but if they get a swollen neck it will be much more serious than swollen pectorals. Never inject into the rump, because if this goes wrong and they get a rump abscess it’s nigh on impossible to treat due to there being no ventral drainage points, and they may well die from the infection. I tend to use the pectorals mostly, and then go to neck if the chest is getting sore or overused. They can more easily walk off sore pectoral muscles post injection than they can deal with a sore neck. To have your horse not become resentful from injections: Don’t put pressure on them while injecting them, ie. don’t hold them hard by the head collar, and don’t go whack whack whack inject!!! They will blame the injection for the pressure. I just scratch them to distract them and slide the needle in, then draw back (to check there is no blood) and inject. If you twitch them, or grab an ear they will forever blame the injection, and also become head shy. Also, make sure you don’t use the needle that you used to draw the drug up. The rubber stopper blunts the needle and this is more painful for the horse. Pop a brand new sterile needle on for each injection. If I have a difficult horse to inject, and they don’t want to be injected I merely pretend to inject them, while holding them loosely, they run away, and I do a pull and release (aka John Chatterton Affiliative Horsemanship), and then I go back to pretending to inject. Pretending is done by rubbing their skin with a needle cap or poking with a pen. When they have run away enough and had enough pull and releases for doing so, and they can stand quietly for the pretend injection, then while scratching I slide the real one in. Now trust me when I say this works. I have had some of the worlds most impossible and dangerous needle shy horses come to me for injections, and usually I only have to pretend, and pull and release for about 5 minutes, and the once crazy needle phobic horse is standing there accepting the injections without a fuss. I just had one of my horses whose had a truck load of needles this week, getting a liver biopsy the other day, and the specialist remarked on how good she was with needles. This is purely because she has never had anyone restrain her while they happened, so it never has hurt her. Horses who become needle phobic are purely doing so because they’ve had too much pressure during the procedure. Give them a little treat afterwards and they’ll soon come up to stand for their injections without even a head collar on! Good luck and hopefully these tips help you all.

10.01.2022 Message to order!

04.01.2022 New mineral mix available

03.01.2022 $50 per half hour session. Multiple horse discount, Maximum 4 horses @ half hour sessions. Happy to travel within Cardinia shire with no travel fee. Message to book.

02.01.2022 Bless the geldings whom make us better horse folk

01.01.2022 Diatomaceous Earth Diatomaceous earth is a plant-based powder that occurs naturally within the earth. The powder gets its unique name because it’s deriv...ed from diatoms, which are algae-like plants that have existed on earth for millions of years. As diatoms broke down over the years, they left behind a chalky white powder called diatomite. Today, diatomaceous earth manufacturers harvest this powder, combine it with other diatom derivatives, and release it as diatomaceous earth. The earth is popular for all sorts of different purposes, including gardening (where it acts as a natural insecticide) and house cleaning (where it helps fight off bed bugs, cockroaches, and other bug problems). Today, more and more pet owners are also using diatomaceous earth to solve flea-related problems in pets. Benefits of Using Diatomaceous Earth on your Pets Many pet owners use diatomaceous earth as a natural pest-killer on dogs. Just like diatomaceous earth fights pests in your garden and home, it can also fight pests on your cats and dogs. Best of all, diatomaceous earth kills pests using natural methods instead of a chemical-based toxic solution. Helpful for chicken keeping, placed in dirt bathing areas for natural defence against mites and lice. Used internally in mashes for intestinal worms. If you’re using diatomaceous earth on your dogs, cats, chickens, horses etc then be sure to use food-grade DE instead of filter grade. Filter-grade diatomaceous earth is the stuff typically used in pools and it can damage your pet/animal friend (it has a higher silica content and is not suited for human or animal consumption Want some? Msg us. We have 1kg bags for $16, 3kg bags for $40 Want bulk? 15kg bags $165