Why the sam h**L do people have to euthanize horses everytime they hurt their legs?

Question

Is veterinary science so backward that horses have to be euthanized so frequently, come on it's not rocket science. If we can put a man on the moon why can 't vets save horses

Answer 1

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.

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Well OK I can understand where your coming from. Euthanizing humans is a big topic and we do...or atleast I think we do. When your in a hospital on life support, someone decides to take it off if you live then it would mean that you would have pulled through. To put it into simpiler terms for horses. If a wild horse were to sustain a broken bone that tore thorugh the skin what would be their chance of survival? When you bring up the topic of money, if someone puts down a race horse it doesn't mean they're worried about money issues for reabilitaions. People do try and save horses what suffer leg injuries. Barbaro's owners did. I know that just the inital surgery cost tens of thosands of dollars, not including all the additional things he needed. You keep on talking about what is 'humane'. Have you ever broken a bone? Or known anyone whose broken a bone? Ask them how it felt to have their bone broken. I doubt they'll tell you it was a jolly good expereience. A thoroughbred's leg is much different from a human bone since their legs are hollow. Like I mentioned before humans can have bed rest and keep off their leg when its broken, a horse can't because keeping off their legs causes big health problems. Also horse love to run and go crazy when you turn them out. Can you imagine what kind of life they'd have if they had to stay in a stall all day?

Answer 2

A response to your additional details.

It is way to painful for for a horse to stand in the same spot for 6 to 8 weeks while his leg is getting healed. Not only that it is hard for the horse to stay off the leg.

So to save the horse from pain and suffering they kill the horses.  so when you think the humans are being greedy they are actually thinking of the horses!!

Answer 3

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. Doctors have yet to cure cancer...

I hope that helps.

Answer 4

Vet care in horses is not backwards, and many great strides(pardon the pun) have been made.  

If you would simply think before you ask such a question....ya might have not asked it in the first place.

Unfortunately, there are more people who will jump on the bandwagon of stupid questions, then there are those who will bother to do the research themselves and discover that Equine Medicine does in fact care about saving these horses.

Study the equine body, especially bone structure....and understand the equine physiology, before you ask such a question....and you might discover something useful, and learn something in the process.

Answer 5

I dont know if you saw the interview with the vet after the race, but he said the main reason why they chose to euthanise George Washingto was because of a problem with the veins and arteries in the fractured leg. Blood would no longer have flown freely through the leg, and eventually he would have lost the leg.

Have you ever seen a three legged horse?

Answer 6

There are many reasons why this happens, but the main point is that it only happens to the most severly injured horses.  Horses with minor injuries can be operated on and most will go on to lead a normal life.

When a horse breaks a leg whilst travelling at speed the bone shatters, making it near impossible to pin the bone back together.

A horse relies on his legs for survival - to run away from danger - and does not understand that he is supposed to stand still and keep the weight off an injured leg - why do you think injured horses keep trying to run?

There are other factors to take into account as well: the horse can get an infection if the fracture is open, which will cause more suffering; the horse can die of shock; and he can also develop severe diseases like laminitis - as in the case of Barbaro.

It is not down to money.  Most people involved in racing love the horses and would do anything to help them, but sometimes there really is nothing to be done.  Besides, the Jackson's proved that no matter how much money you spend, the outcome in such severe cases is the same - why put the horse through months of pain and misery only to have him meet the same end?

Answer 7

Many times the simple act of repairing the break can be done but it is the effects of lamanitis that will end up with the horse having to be euthanized.

Lamanitis is such a variable thing and has many causes.

It is hard to treat and hopefully in the future they will be better able to treat and possible cure it.

Then we would see less euthanasia from leg injuries.