Recently Mississippi State University Veterinary College team has been developing a specialized oral thermometer for horses.
Is this something you think you would use?
Help us determine if this would be a safer and more comfortable solution for better horse health care by taking this survey.
Regards,
Grazing Health team
Done. Only took a couple minutes.
I do wish you had an option for horse professionals. Trainers, Barn owners, Grooms, etc. I only own one horse but care for 30. As a single horse owner, I probably wouldn’t be interested unless it was very inexpensive. As a Barn Manager, I’m more willing to spend a little money on a fool proof way for staff, students, and boarders to get temp and heart rate.
A bit-like thermometer in a large barn sounds like an excellent way to spread diseases…
Thank you. We are definitely interested in all care givers opinion.
I don’t see a need for this product. A cheap digital thermometer from the human drugstore has always been accurate enough for my needs.
I would never ever ever ever ever leave a horse unattended with a bitted headstall on so the additional features are useless to me.
Have no need for a bit thermometer, digital human one works just fine. Wouldn’t spend the money for a bit thermometer not worth it…
This seems like a product looking for a problem.
Not once have I ever thought it was too difficult or dangerous to take a temp with a drugstore digital thermometer.
What Ghauzzu said was my first thought also. And the hassle. Never found taking temps dangerous. Anyone that gets hurt taking one properly needs to go back to “school”.
The problem I have found with digital thermometers is the fact they all seem to take different lengths of time to give a read out.
I’ve had some that are much faster than others. But we never seem to replace it with same ones. The next time I come across one that is quick I am going to write down the name and or buy a box full.
If I was going to design a “horse” digital it would have:
Quick read out. State the read out time on the packaging. Good advertising point.
A louder “ring” when ready
Make it a big bigger to work with and have a larger read out screen. So those of us with aging eyes and don’t have our “reader” glasses handy. So not to get all pissed off having to go and find a pair and take again.
Make the sensor end more like a ball big enough to make good contact with the rectal wall to get an accurate reading. I am sure so of us have gotten a false low reading from time to time. Either from the horse rectum being relaxed and the tip reading from a “cavity” or up against some manure.
In short design the thing for horses instead of being “all purpose”.
Or just modify the existing digital laser IR thermometers to work accurately on horses.
It would also to be handy to be able to sync a horse thermometer to smart phones and or tablets. For easy and accurate record keeping.
I am sure the all purpose thermometers work just fine for owners of one horse or two.
But there are lots of us who care for LOTS of horse in one barn. Those of us who do rehab, breed, etc and are taking temps on a regular bases. Try taking temps on lots foals and see how cooperative they are. Every second counts.
I would pay a lot more for a really good thermometer designed for horses. I am sure there are LOTS of others who feel the same.
If anyone has a digital that has a quick read out please post the brand and model. The ones I am using now drive me nuts.
With so many horses in backyards, I think that would be a great idea for them.
All those horse owners are not the kind to go trying to take the horse’s temperature and may possibly be more compliant if they had something like a bit or bridle that would do that.
I don’t know that it would be that more apt to transmit disease than other thermometers or riding bits?
That could be addressed with warnings about wiping it clean after every use, for those that may not think of it, as they would if it comes out of the other end.
Huh. I am basically in the same situation as gumtree and haven’t had any particular issues with the time involved in taking temps. My big issue has always been durability, and, on a related note, the difficulty of finding a light gray/ glass thermometer in a straw stall before I or the horse step on it.
I had always understood rectal temperatures are more likely to be accurate than oral temperatures because oral temperatures can be affected by recent eating/drinking or frequent opening of the mouth…
Although I do think a product like this may be interesting for monitoring the horse while working. Endurance rides, etc. Especially if it could sync with an app and monitor heartrate, etc. But it would all depend on its design and cost.
I’d be afraid to leave an equine in the care of an individual who was unable to take its temperature.
Admittedly, I have met a handful over the years that were exceptions, but I could count those horses on one hand.
I completed the survey.
The CVS digital thermometer ($6) has at times been a complete match with the vet’s reading. Recently, it was .2 of a degree off, which I am attributing to age and cold weather storage. Once you are at 105 degrees, the .2 goes out the window, which is where we recently were.
I think Ghazzu raises a good point about spreading disease with the oral thermometer and I am not interested in stressing out my own ill horse any further by making him bit up when he feels lousy. I also have no interest in spending a lot of money over something like this.
[QUOTE=Texarkana;8568133]
I had always understood rectal temperatures are more likely to be accurate than oral temperatures because oral temperatures can be affected by recent eating/drinking or frequent opening of the mouth…
[/QUOTE]
That had crossed my mind, as well.
Though I know there is a certain amount of bit sharing at barns most people do not go from horse to horse to horse to horse using the same bit, one right after another.
And I do not see how a rectal thermometer would be spreading diseases around.
I suppose I could see a need for it for dangerous horses in lieu of stocks or a second handler to hold the horse…for me and my barn, it’s not something I need.
I filled it out. My name suggestion is Unnecessary Expense. Honestly, I think a horse that can’t have its temperature taken rectally probably isn’t going to do much better with a bit style thermometer that needs to be adjusted properly, etc. Likewise for the person handling the horse.
I also think we are MUCH more likely to disinfect something that’s been in a rectum before sticking it elsewhere than we (we being the general horse people we) would be to disinfect something that goes in the mouth.
For whoever was mentioning the small LED displays on thermometers, the human ones are now available with a much larger read out. We can get them easy peasy in Canadian drug stores, so I assume they’d be available pretty much everywhere. They are very easy to read and pretty quick to temp. Bonus, they can actually have their batteries replaced!
I think I paid about $11 each for one for my horse, one for the dairy barn, and one for home. I know for sure they were under $20, and am fairly certain they were about $11 or so.
Sorry, OP, for not being more positive about this idea 
[QUOTE=trubandloki;8568457]
And I do not see how a rectal thermometer would be spreading diseases around.[/QUOTE]
Well, there’s a reason that we go from healthiest first to sick/NQR last when doing preg checks and that sort of thing. It’s because there IS a risk of spreading disease. Maybe it’s not a huge risk with just a thermometer, but it’s a risk I wouldn’t knowingly take. That said, see my post above, I think an oral thermometer for a horse is not a great idea.
IME, horses don’t even seem to notice the rectal thermometer going in.
I could see the bit thermometer being useful in diagnosing more complex problems, if you did for some reason need to monitor temperature while the horse was moving. But I wouldn’t want to leave it in overnight in a stalled horse, to monitor on an ongoing basis. Having the bit in the mouth is stressful. There might be moments in serious illnesses or research where this would be a really useful tool, but not in the average horse. The average owner needs to know: is the horse running enough of a fever for me to call the vet?
I buy a fairly “chubby” digital thermometer from the human drug store that costs about $11 (probably the same one that one of the posters already mentioned) with a big readout area.
If I was running a big barn, doing rehab, dealing with sick or pregnant horses, maybe I would want something more high tech and this might look interesting. But as a one-horse owner with a pretty healthy horse, I don’t need more than the drugstore thermometer.
I have a horse with terrible anhidrosis in the summers. I could see this being a useful tool to monitor his temperature more closely and make sure he is not overheating while working. But otherwise, agree with the others that is seems a bit unnecessary.
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