Idea for horses with broken legs-reply about your thoughts!

[naturalfeddogs]

Sometimes, one problem leads to another and unfortunantly, even with the best of care some can't be saved and its just kinder to end it. Believe me, they did all they possibly could for Barbaro. It is sad though, no matter.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

See that's what I was wondering because if you have them elevated in a sling (more technology involved like in that movie Dreamer) 1 He probably wouldn't stand still (um hello champion race horse standing still is not in his vocab) 2 if you left him in there all the time, he would have no muscle mass when it did heal, but then the likely chance of him getting pneumonia I always try to think for the animals sake, really it was Barbaro's time, and as his trainer said, he did not want to die, but you could see the pain in his eyes.

Hence the reason I put my beloved RIR named Chompy down with a kidney disease and possible early stages of Merek's...

Except it is more than just his need to fidget or the loss of muscle mass or pneumonia. In a sling, his weight rests on his stomach. Horses have VERY touchy digestive systems and the pressure on his stomach and intestines would quickly cause colic. I suspect more horses probably die of colic than any other condition. The length of time it would have taken those bones to heal was way beyond the amount of time a horse can safely spend in a sling. Any broken bones I have ever dealt with or seen dealt with, the bones were cast and the horse's movement was restricted. Breaks too complicated to respond to this kind of treatment often mean that the animal must be euthanized.

I have a filly who has one front leg that is shorter than the other due to an injury. The vets tell me it is possible to correct this surgically. It would mean sawing her leg into 2 odd-shaped pieces, casting it, and hoping it heals. She is a firebrand, to put it mildly. I am not willing to chance her leg not healing just because she won't tolerate being stalled for such a long time as healing would take. She is not rideable, but is otherwise happy and unhindered by having one leg shorter, so that is how she will stay. It's just not worth the risk to her life, in my opinion.


Rusty

 

[theoldchick]

The veterinarians did attempt to use a sling on this horse. The colt was not pleased at all with the contraption and the veterinarians decided to stop using the device.

Treating a 1500 pound animal with a fractured leg is not easy. A whole set of physical complications arise, but while dealing with horses, one must never forget the emotional component involved. Sometimes the best medicine in the world can't cure a broken spirit.

Normally, racehorses are euthanized when legs are broken, and the owners collect on the insurance policy. The reason why Barbaro was allowed to survive was because the public became involved. Money poured in for his care. His treatment was intensely documented by local media. What was not publicized was how Barbaro resisted treatment. Although he was receiving the best of care, he was not a happy horse.

All Barbaro knew what his body hurt, the humans were hurting him more, and he wanted to escape the pain. Thanks to modern drugs he tolerated the surgery, tolerated the injections, tolerated the bandaging. Toward the end all he wanted was to escape the pain. He lost his appetite, he started biting the people caring for him, he colicked, he developed laminitis. He could not breathe. He did not want to be trapped in the stall, and even resorted to biting himself.

Finally we humans heard his voice, "I want to be free. Please let me go."

Compassion is an honorable emotion of the human being. And sometimes the release from a painful life is the most compassionate act a human can perform.

 

[CamiWammiBammi]

The veterinarians did attempt to use a sling on this horse. The colt was not pleased at all with the contraption and the veterinarians decided to stop using the device.

Treating a 1500 pound animal with a fractured leg is not easy. A whole set of physical complications arise, but while dealing with horses, one must never forget the emotional component involved. Sometimes the best medicine in the world can't cure a broken spirit.

Normally, racehorses are euthanized when legs are broken, and the owners collect on the insurance policy. The reason why Barbaro was allowed to survive was because the public became involved. Money poured in for his care. His treatment was intensely documented by local media. What was not publicized was how Barbaro resisted treatment. Although he was receiving the best of care, he was not a happy horse.

All Barbaro knew what his body hurt, the humans were hurting him more, and he wanted to escape the pain. Thanks to modern drugs he tolerated the surgery, tolerated the injections, tolerated the bandaging. Toward the end all he wanted was to escape the pain. He lost his appetite, he started biting the people caring for him, he colicked, he developed laminitis. He could not breathe. He did not want to be trapped in the stall, and even resorted to biting himself.

Finally we humans heard his voice, "I want to be free. Please let me go."

Compassion is an honorable emotion of the human being. And sometimes the release from a painful life is the most compassionate act a human can perform.

I follow Barbaro was very high strung, and in most animals minds, when they see people coming when they are injured they think they are hurting them more. I know from my experience that eventually the animal will "act out" from the medicine and care and then they delevop more problems, in Barbaro's case, laminitis in every foot, colic, basically not having a good leg to stand on and a slew of many others...