Basic Animal Care Principles

The five freedoms, daily checks and when to call the vet

5 minIntermediateUpdated 2026-10-23 Basic Animal Care Principles

You will learn

Apply the five freedoms to any animal you keep
Do a two-minute daily health check
Know which situations need a vet, a permit or a specialist

⚠️ Never give human medicines or leftover antibiotics to animals; ask a vet.

⚠️ Some animal diseases must be reported by law. When several animals fall ill at once, contact a vet immediately.

⚠️ Wash hands and change boots between animal groups to stop disease spreading.

The five freedoms

Every animal welfare code in the world is built on the same five needs: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort (shelter, dry bedding, shade), freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to behave naturally (scratch, dust-bathe, graze, roam), and freedom from fear and stress. Before you bring any animal home, walk through the five and ask how you will provide each one, every day, including when you are on holiday or ill. If you cannot answer one of them, you are not ready yet, and that is fine. Waiting a season is better than a suffering animal.

💡 The holiday question is the one most people skip. Who feeds them when you are away?

The daily two-minute check

Look at every animal every day, at the same time, ideally while feeding. Healthy animals are alert, eat eagerly, move freely and have bright eyes, clean nostrils and a clean back end. Warning signs: hunched posture, sitting apart from the group, dull or half-closed eyes, discharge, laboured breathing, limping, diarrhoea, not eating, or a sudden drop in eggs or milk. Run your hand over the body of anything tame enough: feel for weight loss along the spine, lumps, wounds or parasites. Keep a small notebook. Written notes catch slow changes your memory smooths over.

💡 An animal that stops eating is your emergency signal. Do not wait a day to see if it improves.

Clean, dry and not crowded

Most disease in small holdings comes from three things: wet bedding, overcrowding and dirty water. Muck out weekly and spot-clean daily. Change water every day and scrub containers weekly, because green slime in a drinker is a bacteria farm. Keep stocking density low. Quarantine any new animal for 2 to 3 weeks away from your existing group before mixing; new arrivals bring mites, worms and respiratory bugs. Keep wild birds out of feed, and store feed in sealed metal bins. Boots and hands are the main way disease travels between groups, so keep a boot brush and a tap by the pen.

💡 Sunlight and dry air kill most pathogens. A pen that dries out fast after rain is a healthy pen.

When you need a vet

Call a vet the same day for: an animal not eating or drinking for 24 hours, bleeding that does not stop with pressure in 10 minutes, obvious fractures, difficulty breathing, bloating, a prolapse, birthing that stalls, or several animals sick at once. Find a vet who treats livestock or poultry before you need one; many small-animal clinics do not. Keep the number by the pen. Some diseases (avian influenza, Newcastle disease, African swine fever) are notifiable: by law you must report suspected cases to the authorities, and a vet will guide you. Never give human medicines or antibiotics without veterinary advice.

💡 Ask the vet for a basic first-aid kit list for your species. Wound spray, saline and tweezers cover most small jobs.

Permits, registration and what to leave to specialists

Keeping animals crosses a legal line the moment you go past a few hens. In Portugal and most of the EU, pigs, sheep, goats and cattle must be registered with the animal health authority (DGAV in Portugal), the holding gets a number, and animals need ear tags, movement records and vaccination or testing schedules. Bees usually need registration too. Home slaughter of anything larger than poultry is regulated, and selling meat, milk or eggs beyond a small farm-gate amount needs licensing and inspection. None of this is meant to stop you; it is meant to control disease. Ask the authority first, then buy the animals.

💡 Start with hens, then rabbits or bees, before considering a goat. Each step teaches you what the next one needs.

Check yourself

How long should a new animal be kept apart from your existing group?

A 2 to 3 week quarantine lets mites, worms and respiratory illness show up before they spread to your flock or herd.

Which sign means you should call a vet the same day?

Refusing food for a full day is a serious signal in most livestock. Cud-chewing and the autumn moult are normal.

What causes most disease in small holdings?

Damp, crowded, dirty conditions breed pathogens. Dry, clean, uncrowded pens prevent most problems.

Which animals usually need official registration in the EU before you keep them?

Larger livestock must be registered with the animal health authority (DGAV in Portugal) and tagged, mainly for disease control.

Try it for real: Build your animal-readiness plan

Pick the animal you are considering and write how you will meet each of the five freedoms
Find and save the number of a local vet who treats that species
Look up whether that animal needs registration or a permit where you live
Name the person who will feed them when you are away