Why are horses usually shot after they break their leg? What makes them different than a dog or whatever?

Answer 1

A horse must remain standing for the majority of the day - it can only lay down for 30 minutes at a time. To keep a horse standing, stable, and quiet on 3 legs for months is very, very hard. Additionally, if a horse stands on 3 legs for an extended period time, he often gets laminitis in another leg, reducing him to 2 good legs - not possible for a horse to survive on.

Look at Barbaro - it was a miracle that he survived, but look at all the troubles he had and the cost of his recovery. For most horses, monetarily and humanely, it's not worth it.

Answer 2

People have given a lot of good answers here. Horses are different from dogs, physiologically and behavirorally. But I think there is also another factor involved--a difference in the way horses and dogs have traditionally been utilized and kept. Overall, people don't own as many horses and they do dogs and cats, so the process has not been attempted enough times for vets to make the breakthroughs that come with repetition. It's much more expensive and difficult to perform orthopedic surgery on a horse, so for every horse surgery they have to learn from, performing many many more dog surgeries has taught them how to work with that type of animal far better. Until recently horses were far more often kept for utilitarian purposes than pets. Think about your car. If the cost of repairs far exceeds the price of a new one and it will never be as good as it had been what do you do?

Surgical reduction of major fractures in humans is even a relatively new innovation. At one time not so long ago an elderly person who broke a hip was almost always permanantly crippled and many died from pneumonia and emboli that went along with the prolonged immobilization that closed reduction (without surgery) entailed. Today many people who break hips are up starting to walk within days of surgery. The large number of surgeries doctors have done to treat this kind of injury has showed them the ways that work the best.

I don't think that surgery to fix a horse's broken leg will even be as easy to perform or with performed with the same percentage of success as that for humans and dogs, based solely on the far greater stresses a horse puts on it's legs, particularly the front legs. But I'll bet you that in the future you'll see it attempted much more frequently with better outcomes.

Answer 3

Horses do not heal like dogs or cats when they break their legs. Because of a horse's weight their legs do not usually heal after it being broken. Then there is the infection which sets in from the broken bone damaging the muscle tissues which it in itself can be fatal.
The only way a horse can heal after breaking a leg is by surgery and putting screws in his leg to hold the broken bones in place. Then keeping the horse in a sling arrangement to keep the weight off his legs. Still that does not work; a lot of time the horse still gets infection despite the doctor's best efforts.
And it is not a matter of months for the horse's leg to heal good enough to be able to put his full weight on it. It is a matter of years a lot of time.
During all this time the horse is in a lot of pain, and has to constantly monitored for infection setting in and the bone re-breaking.

Answer 4

Nature has designed horses to heal in the same way as most other mammals. Think about it - why would nature spend 50 million years evolving an animal that can't recover from a broken bone? That's nonsense which is simply used as an excuse by those who stand to lose money. Given sufficient time and care a horse will heal as well as any other animal.
It's money that the issue here. Most horses aren't pets and they aren't members of the family, they are usually working animals.
When a racehorse breaks a leg it loses all hope of ever winning another race and making big bucks for its owner. On the contrary, it will now cost thousands or tens of thousands in veterinary bills if given the treatment course and care required to nurse it back to health - just to be left with a horse which can't win races anymore.
It's far "kinder" to shoot the animal on the spot (kinder for the owner anyway).
The problem is not one of equine physiology but rather one of homo sapien ethics.

Answer 5

Not only do horses spend nearly all their time on their legs...the pressure from walking on the bottom of their hoof actually helps circulate the blood BACK up from their legs. In order for a broken leg to heal , you need to imobilize it and that is nearly impossible to do with horses...if you have the resourses and the MONEY, then there might be another option, but for someone with limited finances ( IT IS REALLY EXPENSIVE...MORE THAN SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS!) the chances that the leg will heal in a way that will allow the horse to live a comfortable life, free of pain with the ability to move around ( even, a little bit) and eat and drink normally is VERY slim...its the most humane thing to do.

Dogs and cats can be imobilized for the majority of their break, but thats impossible for horses.

Answer 6

No a dogs breaking a leg isn't comparable to a horse breaking its leg. dogs legs could properly be fastened via casting or surgical restoration.. in some severe circumstances the leg could properly be bumped off and the dogs can stay an prolonged chuffed existence with 3 legs with out difficulty what-so-ever This has surpassed off till now? How unhappy which you probably did no longer think of to seek for suggestion from with a vet or had surrendered the dogs/s to a rescue the place those with awareness could have dealt with the dogs scientific desires. presently how could you think of that a broken leg is fastened via dying? Mama Bas already defined approximately horses.

Answer 7

Any fracture needs rest to heal, which means no weight bearing on the fracture site. A horse stands on all 4 legs and doesn't have the intelligence to keep his weight off the broken leg, therefore it will never heal and the horse will be in constant pain. A dog somehow knows to keep his weight off a leg that hurts so his leg will eventually heal. You can also put a cast on a dog's leg and it's nearly impossible to cast a horse.

Answer 8

In the olden days, this was the only thing they were able to do for a horse. Horses tend to rely on their legs to get around. They don't tend to be as flexible as dogs are because of their weight. Today, however, it is not necessary to shoot horses with broken legs. If you recall the case of the racing horse "Barbaro" the racing horse that broke his hind leg in 3 different places wasn't shot. He did spend bookoo amount of time in the animal hospital though.

Answer 9

A horse is a pretty big animal, and not many vets are actually equipped to take care of a horse's broken leg. Horses are naturally runners, and if they don't move around some it will hurt their feet and legs. But a broken leg has to be immobilized.

Answer 10

Horses spend most of their lives standing up and put all their weight on their legs. Sometimes if the wound will not heal it will save the horse lots of pain and agony to just be put to sleep.