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| By N2H | |||||||
Recent Articles
- How to care a horse broken leg?
- How were horses domesticated?
- How good are a Horses Senses?
- What are Stable Vices?
- How often should I run my Horse?
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- What is an Onager?
- Donkeys Definition
- Hinny Definition
- Mules Definition
- What is a Hotblood?
- What is a Warmblood?
- What is a Coldblood?
- What is a Horse Gait?
- What is a Wild Horse?
- What is a Feral Horse?
- What are Working Horses?
- What are Sporting Horses?
- What is Horse Therapy?
- What is Horse Vocabulary?
How to care a horse broken leg?
In the past a broken leg for a horse was a near-automatic death sentence and even today it is one of the most common reasons for horses to be put to sleep, either because vets are uninformed of new treatment options, or those treatments may cost entirely too much money for many people. Barbaro suffered a leg fracture, and the owners of this horse spared no expense, and tried everything they could to help the horse - however laminitis developed. Treatments for a broken leg are complicated, and usually unsuccessful if the leg is broken in more than one place - a horse cannot be immobilized like a human since they are unable to bear weight on just three legs. Dogs, cats, and other smaller mammals are able to because they weigh less and the makeup of their limbs evolved different - for a horse three legs is suicide. It takes a very long time for a fracture to heal in a horse, and most of the problems involved are compounded by the horses own behavior. When a horse breaks a leg at a competition and gets carted off 99/100 times it is being taken to a quiet place to be euthanized or shot.
Slings can be used to help support a horses weight, however it will cause quite a bit of stress upon the injured animal, and could in turn make it more likely develop other complications from the broken leg unrelated to the actual leg. Recovery from even a limited fracture is highly unlikely, unless your horse can bare the stress of recoveries, of surgeries, of constant care, and of being on a sling to help keep its weigh off that quarter of the body. Prosthetic legs are are virtually limited use only, as a horse’s sense of sure footedness is destroyed by amputation, however some medical breakthroughs that leave the original leg are possible with devices that screw on and bear the wight, leaving the bone with a chance to heal. However, successfully treating a broken leg is always at best a shot in the dark. The least you can do is make your horse comfortable and have it chemically euthanized, however if you have the time, money, and willpower to save your horse from death, then by all means try.
Posted in Horse Care | |
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