09/25/2024
❗️Head's Up❗️ Hurricane Helene is right around the corner (as we all know) and keeping your animals healthy is our primary concern!
Here are some preparedness tips, trick and facts we think you should know:
✨Ideal evacuation for your farm should occur 72 hours in advance prior to storms. Roads become extremely congested, making traveling with a loaded rig more dangerous than normal.
✨Housing for horses is largely contested! If you have access to pastures with few trees and good fencing, horses will largely weather the storms well on their own outside. Concrete block barns, or similar structures, are also acceptable for sheltering your herd. Keep in mind that large, concrete structures can often form wind-tunnels with extremely high winds, and should be sealed if possible. Anything that may become a projectile should be removed sooner, rather than later. If the stability or integrity of your barn is questionable, DO NOT KEEP HORSES INSIDE. The most traumatic and often life-ending injuries occur to horses inside of inadequate shelters during hurricanes.
✨Horses can drink anywhere between 12-20 gallons of water a day. This number should be kept in mind when preparing water storage pre-storm.
✨A two to three week supply of hay and grain should be maintained in the barn prior to the storm.
✨Projectiles are of the utmost concern with hurricanes. Please secure all flight-prone objects (yes, even that trash can that you swear won't move) in a sealed room to prevent projectile injuries for your horses.
✨MICROCHIPS SHOULD BE USED ON HORSES TOO! While this is often not completed in our area, IVS firmly stands behind the concept of microchipping all animals so that they may be identified. In the instance of this hurricane, please place horses in breakaway halters (if choosing to halter at all) and label halters with bright tape and their names. IVS recommends leather halters only. Furthermore, cattle tags with emergency information (horse's name, your name/address and a contact number) can be braided and subsequently taped into manes. Sharpie on light based horses can also be utilized in quick scenarios, as can nail polish on dry external hoof capsules.
✨Have an emergency first aid kit ready! We firmly believe that all first-aid kits should have some form of pain management/pain control (NSAIDs) on board, some form of wound creams/blood stops, bandaging material, and at least one pair of scissors or a knife.
✨Print all veterinary-related records you might need prior to the storm, such as EIAs (Coggins) and vaccine records. As witnessed with Michael, power may be down/unavailable for extended periods of time, making electronic records somewhat obsolete.
And most importantly....
✨❗️Iron Horse Veterinary Services will be seeing clients and non-clients alike on an emergency basis only, until the worst has passed.❗️✨
We will continue to stay on the road until deemed too dangerous for our crew. We are committed to standing with you through all kinds of weather.
We'll see you out there.
