Veterinary Animal Scales

In veterinary offices and zoos, health is the most important reason for weighing animals. Pets and animals in the zoo have certain weights at which they are most healthy. A veterinarian or animal handler in a zoo might make recommendations for caloric intake based on an animal’s weight.

It is also extremely important on farms to ensure that animals are kept healthy. Animals such as pigs, alpaca, and llama are major investments, and it is most economically viable for a farmer to make sure that his animals are healthy and infection-free. Weighing farm animals may alert a farmer to a sick animal if its weight is too low.

When a sick animal is found, medication must be administered. Since all animals from pets, to wild animals in the zoo, to farm animals, differ greatly in size, they cannot all be given the same dosage of medication. Weighing sick animals helps to choose a proper safe dosage that will help cure the animal.

Scales used with animals, such as electronic veterinary scales, and alpaca scales and llama scales, should be made with a very low profile. It is often difficult to get any animal, from an elephant to an alpaca to a dog, to step up onto a platform scale. The lower the profile, the quicker it will be to coax the animal onto the veterinary scale. Once on the platform scale, animals often will not stand still. This causes problems in weighing since the weight of the animal will shift onto and off of the platform, causing uncertainties in measurement.

Arlyn Scales has developed a solution to this problem called Weight Average and Hold. When an animal is loaded onto the veterinary scale, the doctor or animal handler presses a button. At this point, the electronic scale begins storing the measured weight continuously. It saves every reasonable weight point while throwing out any points that are out of a significant range from the average weight. Once a necessary number of weight points have been stored, these weights are averaged out and the final calculated weight is displayed.

Our products for all animals, pets, and livestock are made in the U.S.A. and are animal-friendly.

Animal Scales Used by Veterinarians

A standard veterinarian scale may have a capacity of 500 lb. The platform size should be large enough to weigh even the largest dogs. One typical size is 22 x 44. It is useful for the electronic scale to be able to display small weight increments. Generally, 1/10 of a pound is sufficient. This allows the animal scale to also be used for smaller animals, such as cats or puppies. For much smaller animals, such as birds, gerbils, and small reptiles, a scale with greater accuracy should be used. These smaller scales may have a capacity of 25 lb, and readability of 0.005 lb (better than 1/10 of an ounce). The platform size can also be smaller. In this case, it is 12 x 16. There are a number of special features that are useful for a veterinarian scale.

Read more about how, where, and when to use the right scale for animals:

• Small Animal Scales
• Large Animal Scales
• Where to purchase animal scales
• How to weigh animals on a digital scale

Some of the most suitable precision scales are our line of Veterinary Scales for Livestock, Alpaca and Llamas, as well as sizes for veterinary offices. With 30 years in the business, we understand farmers’ and veterinarians’ dilemmas, and here we list some of our solutions for those who need to handle, sort, and weigh animals on a daily basis.