My friend, Monika – Sandness Equine Services, has a portable weighbridge for horses and she kindly offered to come over to weigh specifically Iacs (aka Bibble) before his surgery next week so his medication and anaesthesia can be calculated accurately.
I have never accurately weighed anyone (cat and dogs included) using pure guesswork as my science, which I realise is not ideal or even remotely accurate, as I found out today.
Bibble, of course, walked straight on, pausing on the way to sniff the new-rubber mat smell. He also quickly found Monika’s treat pocket. The best incentive.
In like a ferret up a drainpipe!
Haakon was up next. He, of course, went all stupid about the whole thing, snorting and trying to evade the whole incredibly dangerous process of standing on a NEW black rubber mat like he has done all his life. Eventually, he gave up and walked onto it.
Honestly, Haakon. The shame.
Kolka was of course perfect. No questions. Just walked straight on.
And stood there calmly like the lady she is.
And here are the results. I had them all down in my head as “around the 350kg mark” and, boy, was I way off!
Afterwards, I weigh-taped this three to see just how accurate that method is:-
Iacs – 417kg
Kolka – 411kg
Haakon – 423kg
Conclusion: Not very accurate but a rough indication.
Monika is returning some time soon to weigh the Minions for me. Now, that should be interesting. Knowing the horses and ponies real accurate weights helps hugely with wormer doses.
So thank you to Sandness Equine Services. This was very informative and yes, I did ask if Monika would weigh the sheep, though the Gods alone know how we go about achieving this!
Good to know you now have a way to attempt to weight critters to better balance meds.
Not at all sure how you will weigh the Sheeple.
haven’t worked that out ………. yet!
Ooh, Lambie stand there.
Stand where?
There.
no!
I notice you didn’t record your own weight ! Fair’s fair … even Kolka submitted gracefully to the indignity. On the other hand, maybe you just rely on your weigh tape … aka smart trousers versus work trousers!
At lesst you now have an idea of the discrepancy between the tape weights and the scale weights . I was surprised at how close they were. And if you use the tape in future, you have a figure with which to compare, even if you know that it’s not wholly accurate.
Easy! You weigh yourself and then you hold a sheep and weigh both of you then do a takeaway sum. Oh no, not sure the holding the sheep bit is quite so easy as I was thinking. Persuade your Other Half to do it?
Huh, I thought the weight-tape was pretty close.