What's in your first aid kit?

[Ms_Red_Britches]

As the title asks…

I’m working on putting together both human and equine first aid kits for my trailer. Suggestions?

I did a search, and shockingly, this hasn’t been discussed.

Thanks!

[Mango20]

Here’s what’s required in the Pony Club first aid kits:
http://old.ponyclub.org/page/HMRallyreqequip

I do not stock all this stuff on a regular basis. I have a human first aid kit in my truck, and a few assorted horse things in the trailer.

[danacat]

As for kit for trailer – I think it depends on where you’re going. If going to a show, vets are usually on hand for treatment. But certainly bandage + sheet cotton + wound ointment + Wonder Dust to help stop bleeding.

If going afar to trail ride, then I’d also have a hoof boot on hand should you lose a shoe or damage a boot (if your horse wears boots).

You just need enough temporary fixes that will hold you over until you get home and can more extensively treat an injury and/or meet up with your vet.

[Palm_Beach]

For the trailer - gauze, lots of cotton, a couple vet wraps. I have a little first aid kit in my truck that I bought somewhere like Walmart. If you are going to “first aid” someone else, protective gloves. Sometimes those instant ice packs come in handy.

[Sansena]

Oh, it’s been discussed plenty. I think the search function only goes back so far, though, now days.

I’ll comment on an equine, trailer specific first aid kit:

Injectable sedation. I’m very familiar with given IV injections and if a horse is going to die anyway in a bad trailer wreck by twisting about, I’ll draw up some dorm and hit them with it in the hopes of quieting them while the Jaws Of Life cuts them out of a wreck. …and yes, my first aid kit leans toward dealing with the catastrophic.

Very sharp pocket knife, to cut halters/ rope off panicking horses.
Spare rope, spare halter
4x4 gauze pads… at least a stack 4" tall if not a whole sleeve to stop blood
Rolled gauze
Rolled cotton
battery operated trimmers
standing wraps for 2 legs, and bandages
2 rolls vet-rap or similar
2 rolls 3" Elastikon
heat pack/ cold pack (the chemically activated, single use ones)
Chlorhexadine or Betadine scrub
Triple antibiotic, Silfasulfadine ointment
Sterile water
Sterile syringes… 60 cc size (to flush wounds with the water)
and 1cc size to inject the dorm… needles of course.

Obviously, the goal is to treat emergent issues while on the road. I save things like pain killers, NSAIDs, antibiotics etc. for home.

[beowulf]

[QUOTE=Mango20;9030675]
Here’s what’s required in the Pony Club first aid kits:
http://old.ponyclub.org/page/HMRallyreqequip

I do not stock all this stuff on a regular basis. I have a human first aid kit in my truck, and a few assorted horse things in the trailer.[/QUOTE]

IMHO, the PC first aid kit is extremely well-drafted.

Mine is a spinoff of the PC one (as I grew up a Pony Clubber). I will say after more than one trailer incident at a show, I now have multiple pocket knives, razors and sharp scissors in and around the trailer.

I have spare everything. It takes up a lot of room but I’m almost never missing something. You want at least 2 extra cotton lead-ropes (doubles as tourniquets in emergency), 2 extra halters (I do one cob, one full), a rope halter (in case neither of those extras fit, also tourniquet device). You CANNOT have enough vet-wrap - seriously - I’ve used 5+ in an emergency, I prefer to have at least 10.

I am also a proponent for sedation, if your vet trusts you. I have torb, ace and dorm. I wouldn’t IV ace in a crisis but torb and dorm I would. Stock needles/syringes.

4X4 Gauze pads - as many as you can fit. Good for stopping blood.

As far as antibiotics etc - I stock Coronoa, Betadine Solution + Scrub, Alushield and Banixx for my trailer. My home kit is much more comprehensive.

FLASHLIGHT! Don’t scrimp - get a high powered, ‘spotlight’ flash-light. Trailer accidents always happen at the most inconvenient time - like 4 AM in the dark.

FYI. For trailer safety, I would have a “backup” first aid kit in the truck at all times. Including a fire extinguisher. There have been times where you cannot get into the dressing room of the trailer (IE if the trailer is flipped). Back-up should have tranqs/sedation and syringes/needles, basic wraps, tourniquet material, flashlight, and cotton and gauze wraps. You can buy a small/shallow/narrow plastic bin and fit it under most truck seats. Include spare halter/lead in truck at all times.

[Ms_Red_Britches]

Thanks everyone. You guys definitely mentioned some things I hadn’t thought about yet.

Keep em coming!

[Foxtrot_s]

Having two kits is a good idea - you don’t need the whole shebang for a trail ride.

We take a Lealtherman (multi task tool) and it came in handy a couple of times,
once when on a ranch that breed deer - two males had got tanged up in binder twine (a ranch hand had left it out, carelessly.) They were able to release them but the smaller one had taken such a beating it’s neck was broken, but the larger one was saved.

Two halters on a travelling horse is a good idea, too, because if you have to cut one off you will not have a loose horse on the freeway.

The new LED flashlights last for ever and can be put on ‘flash’ so traffic can see the trailer.

We still have the Pony Club kit in the trailer - they had it for testing and it is still mint, thankfuly…but should be checked for age as everything was dated.

[red_mares]

If I were putting one together, I’d pick up a couple battle dressings, something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Ever-Ready-First-Aid-Compression/dp/B003DPVERM/ref=pd_sim_200_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=MAJJFT0DSS635Q5485YZ

[SuckerForHorses]

1. A card with emergency names, addresses & phone numbers:
   • Veterinarian(s)
   • Farrier(s)
   • Emergency contact for horse and human
   • Closest veterinary & human hospital
   • Fire Department
   • Police Department

2. An inventory of all items in the kit, with expiration dates of ointments and medications. When something is used up, cross it off the list and REPLACE it!

Items to include in the kit:

1. Headlamp with spare batteries.

2. Battery operated lantern or flashlight

3. Thermometer: digital is ideal.

4. “Sharps”
   • Regular scissors
   • Very sharp knife (to cut crossties, straps, halter, blanket, tack in emergency)
   • Bandage scissors
   • Clippers (if possible – ideal for trimming hair around a wound)

5. Stethoscope

6. Wound wash
   • Betadine or Chlorhexidine
   • Saline solution (contact lense saline wash)

7. Wound topical
   • Antibiotic ointment
   • Alushield spray

8. Bandage Materials
   • Non-stick/non-adherant layer for placing directly onto a wound
   • Women’s sanitary pads work great for this
   • Layer between the outermost and wound dressing
   • Rolled cotton
   • Outer layer
   • VetWrap
   • Elastikon
   • Baby diapers (hoof abscess care)

9. Cotton balls or pads

10. Rubber gloves

11. Instant cold packs

12. Anti-inflammatory
    • Horse: Banamine or Bute
    • Human: Advil or Tylenol

13. Clean fly mask (to protect an injured eye)

14. Clean towels

15. Disposable syringes & needles

16. Vaseline

17. Watch or stopwatch

18. Tweezers

19. Epsom Salt

20. Hoof pick

21. Rubbing Alcohol

22. Duct Tape or Gorilla Tape

23. Hand warmers

[TullyMars]

Everything… Including the kitchen sink… I have a HUGE first aid kit that elicits spontaneous laughter and snorts as I try to get it all in the dressing room… It would take me days to list it all and you would need a F450-F550 to tow the trailer in which it lives!

[ndirish07]

I have pretty much what everyone else has already listed in mine. But I wanted to add that I bought a tool bag that has a wide mouth and put all my vet supplies in there. This way I don’t have to keep one set in the trailer and another at home (and I don’t like keeping medicines in my trailer because it gets too hot during the summer). I just load up the tool bag when I leave for a show, etc., and I’m all set.