Why keep a horse’s health record in an app
When the vet asks when the horse was last dewormed and with what, few people can answer straight away. The vaccination is written in the passport, but the passport is at home. You remember the weight as “about five hundred and fifty”. And the fact that two years ago the horse had colic after a change of hay is known only to whoever was there.
A horse health record brings order to these scraps. Every event has a date, a type, a description and the name of whoever carried it out. The entries line up on a timeline and grow over the years — so when you are dealing with a recurring problem five years from now, you can see exactly when it started and what helped back then.
The record is part of the horse’s profile in the animal records and opens with one tap. You can attach a photo to every entry — of a wound, a test result or a page of the passport.
What belongs in a horse’s health card
- Vaccination — the vaccine, the date and who vaccinated. The app tracks when the yearly booster is approaching.
- Deworming — the product and the active substance, so you know what you dewormed with last time.
- Illness and injury — what happened, how it was treated and how long recovery took.
- Procedure and check-up — teeth, ultrasound, X-ray, castration, preventive examinations.
- Medicine — what the horse received, in what dose and with what withdrawal period.
- Weight — regular weighing or measuring with a weigh tape, which produces a chart.
It doesn’t have to be the owner alone who writes the entries. A vet or farrier connected to the stable can add an entry themselves right after the visit — you then see on the entry who added it. How to set this up is described in the article roles and access: staff and professionals on the farm.
Horse vaccination and horse deworming without missed dates
Vaccination and deworming are two things that repeat throughout a horse’s life and are the easiest to forget. The app therefore calculates from the last entry how much time has passed. If roughly a year has gone by since the last vaccination, or about half a year since deworming, this shows up in the emergency overview with a recommendation to check the plan with your vet.
Rotating active substances when deworming
With horse deworming it is not just about the date but also about what you deworm with. Repeated use of the same group of active substances can lead to parasites no longer responding. The app remembers the active substance and its group for each entry — macrocyclic lactones (ivermectin, moxidectin), benzimidazoles (fenbendazole), tetrahydropyrimidines (pyrantel) or praziquantel against tapeworms — and shows which one you used last, so that you can rotate them in agreement with your vet.
You schedule the dates themselves in the stable calendar with a repeat, so they remind you on their own, and notifications and reminders take care of timeliness.
Horse weight and the emergency overview
Weight is the simplest indicator that something is going on with a horse — and also a figure the vet needs for dosing medicines precisely. In the app, the weigh-ins produce a chart. If the latest weigh-in falls four percent or more below the peak, the app marks it as a signal and recommends checking the teeth, parasites and the feed ration.
Move the latest weigh-in lower and watch when the alert appears:
Sample data. The four percent threshold is an indicative signal from the app, not a diagnosis — in the event of marked weight loss always contact your vet.
Besides weight, the emergency overview also tracks fresh illnesses and injuries from recent days, recovery from them, an active withdrawal period and a missed vaccination or deworming. For a fresh problem it offers a button to call the vet straight from the stable contacts.
How to enter a health record step by step
- Open the profile and the health recordIn the animal’s profile tap the Health record tile.
- Choose the type of entryVaccination, deworming, illness, injury, procedure, check-up, medicine or weight.
- Fill in the detailsDate, name, description and who carried it out. For a medicine or dewormer also the active substance and any withdrawal period.
- Attach a photoA wound, an X-ray, a test result — a picture says more than a paragraph of text.
- Save and watch the overviewThe entry takes its place on the timeline and the emergency overview is recalculated at once.
Who a horse health record helps
Horse owners
You can be sure you know everything essential about your horse. When seeing a new vet, moving to another stable or selling, you show a complete health history instead of “I think it was in spring”.
Farms and breeders
With several animals, keeping track of the whole herd’s vaccinations and dewormings without records is almost impossible. Here each animal has its own record and the app itself shows whose date is approaching.
Ranches and stables with a team
In a stable with clients’ horses the health record is also protection for you. It is clear what happened when, who treated the horse and what instructions they left. The owner of a boarded horse sees their horse’s record on their own phone.
Professionals: farrier, vet, trainer
Before a visit the vet sees the history, the weight and the products used last time. After the visit they write the entry themselves, so nothing depends on whether the owner remembered the instructions correctly.
The most common mistakes in keeping horse health records
A horse’s health record is only as good as the data in it is accurate. These mistakes are worth avoiding:
- Writing things down afterwards and from memory. A month later you no longer know whether it was the left or the right fore. A record entered beside the horse, with a photo, is accurate.
- A vaccination without the name of the vaccine. “Vaccinated in March” isn’t enough for the vet. The record has a field for the active substance and for the name of whoever treated the horse.
- Deworming “sometime in spring”. Without dates the intervals stretch. The app watches over the yearly booster and the half-yearly deworming and speaks up in advance.
- Weight estimated by eye. You won’t notice a loss of a few percent in daily contact. The weight chart will — and it alerts you to a more marked drop.
- The withdrawal period kept in your head. With livestock this is a detail that must not be got wrong. The end date of the period is right in the record.
A complete horse health card pays you back at every vet visit, on a sale and on a change of stable — especially when one tap turns it into an export of the horse’s health history to PDF.
Withdrawal period, sharing and export of the health history
Some medicines and dewormers come with a withdrawal period. You enter in the record how long it lasts, and the app shows it in the emergency overview and in the calendar and counts down the remaining days. On farms with livestock this is a piece of information that must not get lost.
When you need to hand the history over to someone, exporting the horse’s health history to PDF does the job: a tidy document with all the entries that you send by email or print.
The gelding Red Sky has lost weight over the last three months. Nobody noticed, because they see him every day. After the latest weigh-in, however, the app shows “Weight dropping” in the emergency overview — a fall of more than four percent from the peak — and recommends checking the teeth, parasites and the feed ration.
The owner opens the record, sees that the dentist last came a year and a half ago, and books a visit. The vet finds sharp edges on the molars; after they are rasped, the weight starts to come back. Without the chart it would have been discovered months later.
Frequently asked questions
What can I enter in a horse’s health record?
Vaccination, deworming, illness, injury, procedure, check-up, medicine, weight and other events. Every entry has a date, a description, the name of whoever carried it out and, optionally, a photo.
Will the app alert me to horse vaccinations?
Yes. The emergency overview shows when roughly a year has passed since the last vaccination. You can also schedule the date itself in the calendar with a reminder in advance.
How does the app know a horse is losing weight?
It compares the weigh-ins you have entered. If the latest weight is the lowest and has fallen four percent or more from the peak, it shows the Weight dropping signal.
Can the vet enter a record directly?
Yes, if you invite them to the stable as a professional. They see the animals’ health records and can add new ones. The entry states who added it.
Can the health history be printed?
Yes. You export the whole record to a PDF that can be shared and printed.
Related features of the iPalomino app
These modules are closely linked to the health record:
Your whole ranch in one pocket.
iPalomino is now on the App Store. Download the app and try it in your own stable. An Android version is in development.