Why do you have to euthanized horses when they break both front ankles?

Question

My friend says to just make a carriage for them. Do they do that really?

Answer 1

That carriage theory would be interesting to see, if someone could make it work.  Unfortunately, horses are heavy animals who carry their full weight on their legs.  One broken leg is a challenge for them to over come, but two?  And both in the front?  That was an impossible situation.  The vets had no choice but to put her down.

Answer 2

Go back a couple of years to a horse called Barbero.

He won the Kentucky Derby and then broke down during the start of the Preakness. He had a small chance of recovering from a broken right hind leg. He was in a lot better shape than Eight Belles.

He was kept in a body sling for quite some time. (No weight on his feet.)

He finally got back on his feet and he was doing quite well but after a few months laminitis set in all of his hooves as well as an abscess in his right rear hoof. He had to be put down.

Equine legs have very poor Circulation... If a horse breaks a leg the horse is usually put down. If the bone breaks the skin the horse will almost always be put down.

Eight Belles broke both legs and the track contaminated one of the fractures that penetrated the skin.

It's an easily survivable injury for a human but not for horse.

Even if the horse could be kept off his legs, infection (and or) other physical problems from the stress of the horses weight would have still ended her recovery.

Answer 3

Because they don't have horse wheelchairs.

Answer 4

ninja b shut up. i thought they could make carriages for them but now i know they cant cause of some smart butt answer. you just tried to throw gum at my computer but that aint happenin cause ill find a way to turn yo's off.

Answer 5

I was watching the Derby with a horse expert/fanatic. She said that horses' legs do not heal from injury. They did operate on a horse not too long ago and it was ok. However the problem is that they have to stand on all four legs. Another person piped in that they had to stand on all four for circulation reasons. Not sure about that but I do know that my horse fanatic friend said that the breaks were bad on the philly or they would not have put her down. Plus we all noted if you have that much money invested in a horse why wouldnt you fix it if possible.

No one wants to see a horse in that much pain.

Answer 6

It is very difficult to heal one horse leg.

TWO would be impossible.

Also consider the horse's level of pain.

Answer 7

A horse needs to stand on all four legs in order to live.  There are slings that can help a horse if it has broken one leg, but even then, depending on how bad the break is, it is by no means guaranteed that the horse will survive.  Also, while all four legs are necessary, the front legs are incredibly important for a horse's support, and there is no sling or surgery that would be able to rescue a horse that has broken both.

Basically, a horse's weight is distributed in a very precise manner between all four legs.  If they can't support on one, and have to shift all their weight on the other three, this will cause strain, swelling, infection, and disease in the legs it is standing on, and it will die.

Answer 8

Horse legs are delicate.  Who ever said "No hoof, no horse" is right.  A horse needs all four legs.  It isn't easy to get by on 3. My horses have had injuries to their legs just by being horses and they took a long time to heal.  And they were just scrapes and cuts that we doctored and bandaged.    There are many things they can do for lesser injuries... strains sprains and the like.  With two broken bones Eight Belles had no chance.  They did the best by euthanizing her.  If you pay attention her trainer is very saddened by the loss of her.   I am sure she was like a good friend.  They tried to save Barbaro and I think he was exceptional in handling all the treatment.  They did the right thing when he became too miserable with laminitis.  Everyone surrounding him misses him.  He and Eight Belles are more than just walking money.

A cat looks down on you

A dog looks up to you

A horse looks straight at you

And calls you 'friend'.

Answer 9

Horses have what's called a "frog" at the bottom of each hoof that circulates blood through their legs. My grandfather used to harness race (for those not familiar you ride in a "salki" or little cart behind the horse) and I have seen my fair share of horses put down. Once a horse breaks an ankle, there is no way for that bone to heal. Plus they lose the ability to circulate blood in that leg as well. Unfortunately, there is no way to circumvent this. Even in Barbero's case, I believe the vets did all they could for him, but still had to be put down after contracting another symptom from the fractured rear ankle. Even with a carriage, the horse would lose the leg.

Answer 10

BTW: The cart that harness horses (Standarbreds) pull is called a "sulky" , or "bike" for short.

Nature intended horses to stand, and they must do so for their digestion and other bodily functions. There's a famous but true old saying : "no hooves, no horse." They are not like human beings, who can rest in wheel chairs or in bed for 6 weeks.

The legs beneath the knees are very important, narrow structures with critical blood supplies to the hooves. Fractures are dangerous because they can disrupt the soft tissues and the horse looses blood supply to the lower leg and hooves. This is quite apart from the fracture itself.

When a horse breaks down on the track with a compound fracture like Eight Belles, dirt and bacteria get in which makes it very prone to infection, especially with a compromised blood supply. Horses almost never heal from compund fractures. Also, the more pieces the bone is in the more difficult it is to repair surgically.

In order to save a horse with a front leg fracture, the leg must be splinted and stabelized and the horse must be able to support itself on its remaining 3 limbs. Even with a sling, it has to be able to stand and distribute its weight. You can't even splint a leg if the horse can't stand.

Eight Belles not only had a condylar (lower cannon bone, like our shin bone just above the ankle) compound fracture, but she'd fractured and displaced both front ankles. It's doubtful she could have recovered from one of these injuries, impossible from all. A horse needs to balance on at least ONE front leg. This horse couldn't balance on any leg at all, and had severly damaged the soft tissues of both front legs in trying to get up after she'd fallen. Even if a carriage were possible (and it's not) you can't wrangle a 1100 lb animal on and off it.

If there had been ANY possibility she could have been saved they would have tried it.

Answer 11

That's interesting. I heard on the news that the veterinarians say that a horse can get by on 3 legs but not on 2.

It seems to be just greed that is the cause. It might be too costly to do that. The millionaires would be out money when they are trying to make more money. They are pushing these horses too far. It's shameful. It's horrible. I'm glad that PETA is taking action against the jockey.

Answer 12

They do that for dogs but I am extremely doubtful it would work for horses. Just the way horses live, it would be very hard to make it work.

And horses support most of their weight on their front legs, so after an opperation to fix the ankles, they would just get worse. It would take a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of patience - and there is always a huge chance that everything you did will just not work.

I think they did the right thing by putting Eight Belles down. It is an extremely painful injury, like they said when they announced she was put down.

I know if my horse broke both ankles, I would most likely put him down too. And I love my horse more then anything.

Answer 13

Its not just horses, its most animals.

Its the same reason they wont survive in the wild with the same injury.

Have you ever had a child with a broken bone?  Try telling them to "stay off of it" or "not use it" as much.  They cant. Same thing with horses.

Its not the money, if it were money they would keep them alive because they are worth FAR more in studding than in any race.  Its the simple fact that you cannot feasibly explain to a horse to stay off their legs for 8-12 weeks (minimum) while the bone/joint heals....that and infection can set in very quickly.

This was an unfortunate event, but its not nearly the crisis people are making it out to be.

Where is all the fuss over people dying in the streets daily due to lack of medical care?  Or being murdered?  Or how about certain international conflicts of dubious causes?

The people in Myanmar have already lost 10,000 people from the storms and thousands more are at risk......and whats the front page story in America?  A horse is put down on a race track....

And we wonder why people hate us?