By Erica Larson
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Disaster planning is key to keeping horses—and, if you’re a clinic or farm owner, staff and patrons—safe if the unthinkable happens. At the 2018 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in San Francisco, California, Rebecca Husted, PhD, shared tips on how veterinarians can prepare their practices to respond to natural disasters. She said horse owners can benefit from many of these preparations, as well.
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Base your plan on the disasters you’re most likely to face and, from there, develop other guidelines for less likely issues, she said. For example, a clinic in Florida might develop a hurricane-focused plan. The clinic owners can adapt that plan to face other disasters.
“Making a plan once and putting it into a drawer is not sufficient,” Husted said. “It should be part of a regular planning process that changes based on new information, new personnel, and reviews of what works and what doesn’t. Lastly, perform a practice to test the plan.”
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