Why do people euthanize horses when they break their legs?

Question

Why do people euthanize horses when they break their legs?

Answer 1

Hi, I believe you are looking for the anatomical answer.

Thorougbred are born with finer bones than any other breed, which is a problem with the breeders.

In the lower leg there is a large amount of capillaries and blood vessels. When a horse breaks a fine bone down there it normally shatters, cutting up the blood vessels to the point they cannot be repaired. The bones are so fine that break will be mended weakly and would continually rupture. If it could be fixed the horse must then live with uneven pressure for at least a little while which can cause severe internal problems and ruin the other legs or kill the horse. Could the horse lie down? No, horses cannot remain lying down too long due to the placement of their lungs, their blood flow slows and could cause suffocation and various other problems.

Should the animal survive all of this it must also survive infections that get in, since the horses systems are otherwise occupied it cannot donate all of its energy to fighting the infection. Infection usually kills the animal.

In the wild the horse would die, we can only hope to make them more comfortable when certain injuries occur. It is not rocket science, that is why there is not always an answer. I believe in doing all I can to save the animal but sometimes it really honestly is more cruel to ask an animal to go through that.

I hope that helps.

Try to understand it is not that they are useless after, some horses have come back  form breaks, but some can't, and uninformed people try to put that out there. This is nothing more than the media focusing on an incident, like they would if it happened in anyother sport.

Answer 2

they believe horses cannot be good for anything anymore after they break their legs, although this may sound cruel, humans are the same, once they become vegetables, it's a waste of time to feed them through a tube, and is very much like leaving them to suffer

Answer 3

Well for one horses are quite different from humans. See when a human breaks their leg they can take it easy and have bed rest, use crutches, exsetra. But horses cannot do that. A horse cannot lie down for hours because if they do there is a great risk of their organs failing. Horses also need to keep their weight evenly balanced, and if they have a serious leg injury they cannot do that, which results in laminitis, which it very difficult to treat. If your refering to George Washington there is one more factor that resulted in him being euthanized. With George Washington his bone actually broke through his skin. Those breaks are ALWAYS very difficult to treat because the risk of infection is incredibly high, especially since he had been running on the track. The famous filly Ruffian suffered and injury somewhat similar to that, where she broke her bone and and ripped through the skin. While they did try to save her, they in the end had to also euthanize her because of the pain she was in

Answer 4

So that they don't have to suffer just so they can be alive. Really, if you had it in your to run and snort and trot, would you want to be put into surgery, therapy, wraps and bandages, stalled forever?

That's why I have such a hate-love relationship with horseracing.

Answer 5

Not all injured horses are euthanize. Only the ones that have a slim chance of recovery are.

Instead of putting the horses through anymore unnecessary pain they are euthanized.