4,777 answers about horses & farm animals
Horses and farm animals run on routine — feeding schedules, hoof and health care, safe fencing and calm handling, in all weather. This page gathers the horse and farm animal library of KinsLe Answers in one place, organized by topic from daily care to travel and senior animals. Every answer is original, written by KinsLe, and tied to a real KinsLe feature.
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449 answers in Health & Vet Care — page 14 of 19
Rain scald shows itself as crusty, raised scabs clustered along a horse's back and loins, where rain runs and lingers. The classic clue is tufts of hair that lift away with the scab attached, like paintbrush bristles, leaving pink, sore skin underneath, and it usually follows a spell of wet weather. A horse turned out…
Pneumonia in goats and pigs usually shows up in the breathing and the appetite first: a cough that keeps returning, faster or more effortful breathing, discharge from the nose, and an animal that goes off its feed and hangs back from the herd. Pigs may sit up like a dog to breathe more easily and heave with their…
Mud fever shows on a horse's lower legs — usually the heels and pasterns of the hind legs — as clusters of crusty scabs in sore, weeping skin, with hair matting or falling out over the patches. Pressing the scabs makes most horses flinch, the leg may swell and feel warm, and in more than mild cases the horse walks…
The key sign of crop trouble is a crop that has not emptied by morning: a healthy hen's crop fills during the day and flattens overnight, so a crop still full and hard, doughy or squishy at dawn points to impaction or stasis. An impacted crop feels firm and lumpy with fibrous material, while a pendulous crop hangs low…
Hoof rot announces itself as lameness — often in more than one animal — with a distinctly foul smell from the foot and soft, grey, moist, decaying tissue in the skin between the toes. Affected goats and sheep limp, hold a foot up, graze on their knees, or lag behind the flock, and the skin between the claws looks red…
Gastric ulcers in horses rarely announce themselves with one clear sign; in general terms, owners notice a cluster of smaller changes — a horse that becomes girthy or grumpy at tacking-up, picks at feed he used to finish, loses condition despite enough food, or turns sour about work he normally enjoys. Mild, recurring…
In a stabled horse, equine asthma typically shows as a cough — often worst at feeding time or in the first minutes of exercise — together with clear or whitish nasal discharge and breathing that takes visible effort at rest. You may notice the horse nostrils flaring, the belly muscles working to push air out, and over…
The classic sign of Cushing's disease — PPID — in an older horse is a long, thick coat that fails to shed in spring, sometimes turning wavy or curly, alongside loss of muscle along the topline so the horse looks sway-backed and pot-bellied at once. Owners also notice drinking and urinating more, patchy sweating, a…
Copper shortage in goats most often shows as a coat that fades and roughens — black goats turning rusty or reddish, hair thinning at the tail tip — along with poor growth, loss of condition, anemia and sometimes persistent loose droppings. Too much copper is the opposite danger: it usually builds silently, then can…
CAE most often shows as firm, swollen front knees and progressive stiffness in adult goats, sometimes with a hard, unproductive udder or gradual weight loss, while CL shows as abscesses at lymph-node sites — under the jaw, in front of the shoulder, or on the neck. Both diseases can also be present in goats that look…
The clearest sign of bloat is a tight, drum-like swelling high on the goat's left side, where the rumen sits, combined with obvious discomfort — restlessness, kicking or looking at the belly, grinding teeth, drooling and getting up and down. In serious cases the goat strains, cries out, has trouble breathing and may…
An occasional soft-shelled or shell-less egg is usually a young pullet's system warming up, a brief stress, or a glitch in shell formation — but a hen laying them regularly is most often short of calcium, or not absorbing it, and needs her diet reviewed. Shells are built overnight, so a hen whose feed lacks available…
Scaly leg mites are tiny burrowing mites that live under the scales of a chicken's legs and feet, lifting the scales and building up rough, crusty, thickened tissue that can make walking uncomfortable. Keepers deal with them by isolating affected birds, softening and gently cleaning the crusts, then smothering the…
Plan on about 30 days of quarantine for new chickens before they join your flock. Two weeks is a bare minimum, but a full month lets slower-developing illness and hidden parasites declare themselves, and it lets stressed birds settle enough to show you how they really are. House the newcomers well away from the…
For a horse prone to ulcers, management aims at keeping forage in front of him and stress out of his day, because an empty stomach and a disrupted routine are the two patterns that most often precede trouble. Keep hay or grazing available as continuously as you can, split any hard feed into small meals, and avoid…
Early lameness in sheep shows up as a shortening stride, a nod of the head with each step, grazing on the knees, or one sheep lagging and lying down more than the flock, so catch sheep showing any of these and turn the feet up for a look before the problem spreads. Trim only loose, overgrown horn back to the shape of…
Move a sick hen out the same day you spot her struggling, into a dog crate or box in a garage or utility room, lined with towels or shavings, with her own food and water where she can reach them without standing for long. Keep her warm and quiet, well away from the flock's airspace, and always tend the healthy birds…
Quarantine a new farm animal in a separate pen with no nose-to-nose contact with your stock for at least three to four weeks, and treat it as the last job of every day so nothing travels back to the main herd on your boots, hands or tools. Use dedicated buckets and equipment for the newcomer, watch appetite, coughing,…
A farm vet visit goes smoothly when the animal is already caught, calm and standing somewhere safe and well-lit before the vet arrives, with its records and your list of concerns ready. Choose a pen, yard or stable the animal knows, check that gates and handling facilities work, and have a competent helper on hand,…
Farrier visits go best planned from the horse's feet rather than the calendar alone: most horses settle into a regular cycle of roughly six to eight weeks, but growth speeds up on spring grass, hard road work wears shoes faster, and a young horse's feet change shape as it grows. Watch how the hoof looks by week five…
A goat health programme works best built with your vet at a quiet time of year, not improvised during emergencies: sit down with your herd numbers, grazing, kidding dates and past problems, and agree a calendar of vaccinations, parasite checks, hoof care and quarantine rules. Goats hide illness well and parasite…
Sweet itch is managed, not cured, so a summer routine that keeps midges off the horse matters more than any single remedy: a well-fitting sweet itch rug from before the season starts, stabling or shelter during the dawn and dusk midge peaks, and prompt care of any rubbed-raw skin. Keep the mane and tail areas…
Donkeys stay calm for the farrier and vet when visits feel like a familiar routine rather than a surprise, so the real work happens between appointments: short, regular handling of feet, ears and legs, always with their bonded companion nearby. On the day, have the donkey caught and settled somewhere dry and familiar…
A horse health diary only works if it stays simple: a few fixed things checked and written down on the same day each week, with extra notes whenever something changes. Record weight-tape readings, body condition, appetite, droppings, coat, workload and anything your hands find, such as heat, lumps or filled legs, then…
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