Expanding Out the Veterinary Kit

I have a small veterinary kit that comes in handy. Some items that I use fairly frequently include:

• Vet Bond veterinary glue to close small gashes. This is really not much better than SuperGlue, and quite a bit more expensive. I recently used SuperGlue to close a fairly sizeable muzzle rip on one of my terriers,and noticed no real difference to VetBond other than a lower cost. And yes, I use SuperGlue on myself, not VetBond.
  
  
• Antibiotics. I have both veterinary Amoxycillin, Clavamox and Baytril, but I generally use Fish-Flex cephelaxin which can be gotten without a prescription and is really the best stuff for flesh wounds. It also works great on ear infections and urinary tract infections for the dogs. Most groundhog wounds do fine just being washed out and having betadine squirted into them.
  
  
• Mycitracin eye ointment to help prevent infection in case of a corneal rip. If a cornea is ripped, apply eye ointment and also dose the dog with cephelaxin and keep the dog crated and/or quiet indoors and away from the other dogs. Time and antibiotics are the only real options for cornea rips .
  
  
• Lots of distilled water to wash out eyes and wounds. Distilled water put in a squirt bottle can do a lot of good! I generally have several small flip-top eye wash bottles with me in the field.

Some things I have added to my kit, or that I no longer leave at the house:

• Veterinary stapler to close wounds if needed. I hope I never need it, but they are simple to use and work well. A dose of VetBond over the top of the staple further prevents movement and infection. A staple remover is required to get out surgical staples.
  
  
• Rectal thermometer to test for falling temperature for shock. After the Black Widow spider bite, this is no longer in the cabinet at the house but in the vet kit where it should have always been.
  
  
• Percocet 5, which is enough to treat ten 10-pound dogs. This can be given orally (diluted and squirt down the throat) or rectally or subqutaneous in fluid. I also have a dose of rimadyl, a drug I do not much like.