Whether you have small animals or large animals, it is always good to enhance your animal husbandry skills; it is a benefit to you and your animals. A few years ago when we lived in Oklahoma, we boarded a pair of geldings. These guys were always inquisitive, with great personalities. I would often work on my cars out in the barn; I would usually leave the barn doors wide open for the extra light. The horses would inevitably come on in, hang their heads over my shoulders and try to assist in some way. They were not really a lot of help, but they were entertaining and gave me something to bounce ideas off of, though they rarely answered.
Well, one day my 12 year old son called me, to let me know that both horses had swollen noses, and were having trouble breathing. I could not leave work right then, so I told him to call a friend of ours, "Patrick" who was an old horse guy from way back. Patrick was able to go right over to the house, which was fortunate for the horses as they were both in distress.
After checking the horses, and finding out that earlier in the day, my son and his friend had found and killed a rattlesnake, that was under the horse trough. Patrick determined that the rattler had bitten both horses on the nose before the kids had found, and killed it. This seemed to be a rather unique situation, but knowing these horses, I figured one of them discovered the snake, nosed it and got bitten, then the other one wanting to know what all the commotion was about, stuck his head down to investigate and got struck also.
So now we had two snake bitten horses to treat. Patrick rushed to the vet for some anti-venom shots for both horses, which helped a little. Then the next day, I took the horses to the vet to be examined, and he put them on a week long treatment of shots. After all my years in the military, flinching when the doctor wanted to give me a shot was almost second nature. By the end of the week, both these horses were flinching in advance whenever they saw me coming with the syringes, and I can't say I blamed them.
Something I did not know before this incident, was that horses only breath through their noses, if the swelling had increased, we would have had to insert hoses in their nostrils to open the airway so they would not suffocate.
Now, horses are not your typical household pet, however, as with anything knowledge is power. Between bookstores and the internet, the sources for information are nearly unlimited. With the internet you can acquire information freely on the subject of animal care. By doing a little research, you can find the information you need to examine, treat, and care for minor illnesses and parasitic conditions your pet may contract. This will reduce stress on your pet by receiving care in its own environment, where possible. In short, do yourself and your pet a favor, and become more knowledgeable.
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