My horse is blind should i put him down.?
My friend had a horse that lost one eye in a trailer accident when he was young and then when he was about 15 or so he went blind in the other eye. he was still very healthy and the vet saw no reason to really put him down so he got a older pony that he was good buddies with and put a bell on the ponies halter. They stay together all the time in the pasture and the pony keeps the blind horse from running into the fence. They make sure that the water and the feed are never moved to a different place in the pasture so that he always know where things are. Yes he is still ridden regularly (he is a dressage and English pleasure horse with a bit of western thrown in for fun) My friend will trail ride on him and has taught him that when he heard the word UP he needs to pick up his feet for something that is in his path. He also unloads from a step down trailer by knowing there is the step down when my friend tells him STEP. He has adapted rather well as long as hi little buddy goes along for the ride.
Most likely have to put my horse down?
The decision to euhtanize a horse is always difficult but the most important question should always be "What is the horse's quality of life?" Far too often we allow horses to live on far longer than necessary for our own benefit rather than for theirs. This includes horse's with severe lameness issues, medical conditions as well as old age. When horses get to the point where they will no longer perform the most impoartant function of life - eating - it is a rather obvious indicator that the quality of the horse's life is no longer adequate even if we do evertyhing in our power to keep them going. I had a 26 year old QH gelding since he was 8years old that I put down last year. I poured thousands of dollars into him after I retired him at the age of 21, including joint injections, medications for his heart and blood pressure as well as outrageous feed programs and supplements to keep him going. Although he was relatively heatlhy and happy, I was keeping him alive simply because I wanted him to be alive even with all of his ailments. He would go off feed every onc ein a while but when he finally went off feed for over a week, I realized that he was ready to go, even if I wasn't. By all means, have your mare evaluated by your vet but in the end, think of why you have the horse alive, for your emotional benefit or for her well being.
Should i put my horse down or treat him?
My mare was sick for a VERY long time, costing thousands (and i mean tens of thousands) of dollars in vet bills. After months of fighting she ended up passing away. I miss her a ton but I know I did absolutely everything that I could do for her, and that gives me peace of mind. If you really love your horse, you would do what is best for him. If that means putting him down to avoid HIS (not your wallet's) suffering, then that's what you need to do. If treating him is an option, I would go for it. Do absolutely everything you can to save his life. That way at least if he doesn't make it, you won't regret not trying.
What if a horse falls down?
Worked at a hunter stable as a teenager. One wet and nasty evening an owner couldn’t make it out to ride, so as I’m cleaning up I let the spirited show horse loose. We had a small indoor arena, with some temporary stalls in the middle for extra horses. The horse galloped and bucked, then stopped in front of me and my friends to rear, then hop around on his hind feet. We laughed at the big show off, and he did it again. More laughter, so he tried it a third time, and fell over flat on his side. Dead silence until he jumped to his feet, unhurt. Then we laughed at him again, and he galloped off to hide behind the temporary stalls, until it was time for me to go put him up for the night. Yes, he was totally embarrassed.
Why do you have to put a horse down if it's leg is injured?
It depends on the type of injury. Although veterinary medicine has come a long way and now that is not the only option, a severe fracture can be very difficult to treat. Repairing the fracture is possible, but many horses die from complications due to infection. I live in an area where there is a vet school, and even the university clinic will not repair very severe fractures in most cases.
Is it legal to put down a healthy horse?
there is a Dutch WB that recently was brought to my facility. The woman who bought him is accustomed to riding QH reiners. She decided that she wanted to make her debut into the dressage world so she bought this guy. Over the last three weeks she has done nothing but thump on him. She rides at night and there is a lot of activity (a hwy next to the arena, lots of tractors, and a few welders working on the arenas) and the horse has been petrified (she even states that it is scared and she whips it anyway). My girlfriend and I (who have ridden multiple dumbbloods and been sucessful)offered to ride him and give her some tips on how to handle these guys. At the end of the ride (which besides the horse having to be lead into the arena and him spooking at some cows HE WAS AN ANGEL!) she stated that she was done and was putting him down. We offered to take the horse (God knows we don't need anymore, but I can't stand to see a great athlete wasted) and she said she would rather have him put down than give him away. That same day we found another woman who is accustomed to Dutch WB's that said she would give her $3000 for him (the exact same price this woman had paid 3 weeks ago before she beat the holy halleluiah out of him daily). She again said no, she would rather see the horse dead. Now she has an add on CL with horrible photos and a $5000 price tag. She informed another rider last night (who was the one who recomended that she try this horse out because he is a PUSSY CAT!!!!) and told her that she was having the vet out to euthanize this horse. So my question is....... Is it legal in the State of California to have a healthy animal Euthanized? Please provide links if possible to the laws governing Veterinary medicine.
Can a horse heal from a broken leg, or do they have to be put down when one breaks because all 4 are so vital?
I think the most accurate answer here is “It depends.”If the fracture is clear thru — a complete fracture, the horse won’t survive. End of story.The stresses are too great to support the weight of a moving horse to allow it time for the bone to knit back together, before the opposite limb fails at the foot, likely from laminitis (founder).Some spiral fractures can be recovered from with stall rest, and possibly a splint or cast and time. This is where the break runs more or less the same direction as the limb, and there is mostly solid connection in the bone structure.These spiral fractures can also be fatal - if the horse is too active or won’t stay calm enough it’s easy for them to re-break the bone, ending up with the first type of injury.
Why do horses lay down when they are sick?
Adding to what Lorri Robinson said:Horses lay down when sick for the same reason any other animal (humans included) lies down when feeling ill: they don’t have enough strength to stay upright as they’d like or they think lying down may relieve the pain/discomfort they’re feeling. However, you probably meant to ask “why do horses lie down when colicking since it hurts them even more?”.First off, colic is not an illness, it’s a symptom of an illness, just like pain in the knee isn’t the issue, it’s the fact that you fell on the sidewalk and cracked your patella! When a horse has a belly ache it doesn’t have the means to tell us where it hurts so we can help it, so they kick themselves (just like hugging your stomach may help relieve the pain) and roll on the ground to shift their guts around and massage spots their legs can’t reach. Not that it really helps, since rolling violently can result in twisted guts that will kill the horse very quickly. But they don’t know it, they just know they’re hurting like hell and want to make it stop!In any case, why do horses even colic, since it’s so obviously deadly?Because colic is not a feature of horses, it’s a sad result of domestication. There are many causes for colic and 99% of the time the fault is solely in the human; it’s the human that made a mistake in feeding or managing the horse. They changed the feed too abruptly, fed hay full of mould, left the horse without water for too long, allowed the horse to graze on a sandy pasture, rode the horse too soon after a large meal, left the horse without hay and it resorted to eating the bedding… In the wild horses either die of starvation or eaten by predators, whichever comes first, but NOT from colic. Colic is a modern “invention” caused by incompetent keeping of horses without respecting their natural needs. That’s why colic is one of the leading causes of equine death, along with laminitis, yet another modern disease.
In the movies, a horse with a bad leg is always put down. Is this true in real life?
Yes. If you want to learn about what happens when you try to save a horse from a broken leg, Barbaro, the race horse, is a good example.Oddly enough, it was his other foot that killed him. Horses need to be able to put weight and move on all of their feet in order for their hooves to grow properly, stay balanced, and support the huge weight of their body. When a leg is broken, the horse cannot put weight on that foot or move. The other feet, taking on the pressure of his entire weight at all times, will eventually become distorted from laminitis (linked below) and cause a lot of pain for the horse to put weight on them. At which point, he is in extreme pain attempting to stand on 3 messed up feet (and then 2, the front feet, which also became laminitic eventually). Even if he could move at this point, he would be severely lame on his other feet. Thus, usually recovery from a broken leg is not an option, beyond just the massive expense of hospitalizing a horse. The healing time for a broken bone is too long for a horse to be putting weight on his remaining feet without problems.It is sad, as any freak accident could mean the end of the life of the horse, but the alternatives sound more horrifying in my opinion. This horse was in a lot of pain as his feet continued to deteriorate before he was finally euthanized.Barbaro (horse) - WikipediaLaminitis - Wikipedia