Why do horses have to be shot when they break a leg...?

Question

..this has always puzzled me. I mean they don't shoot people when they break a leg, they get it put in plaster and wait a few months till it heals.
I know that would be difficult with a horse but surely some way could be found ?...

Answer 1

They don't necessarily need to be "Shot" but they do need to be put down. Horses circulation depends on the animal walking and stranding. This is why horses sleep standing up. Without the ability to walk and stand the horse develops infections which circulate through the entire system of the horse causing incredible pain and discomfort. Horses very very rarely recover from an injury like this and the best way to avoid lingering suffering for the animal is to euthanize the creature,

Answer 2

It's not so common to put a horse down anymore just because of an injury. A horse can recover from a broken leg depending on the type of break and how stressed the horse is. A horse has to be boxed (ie kept in the stable) 24/7 until the leg has healed. This is stressful for the horse and time consuming for the owner. There are many ways to heal a broken leg on a horse, all are expensive and the horse may never be ridden again in some cases. With my horses, if they had a serious injury but could recover, even if they could not be ridden again, I would do all I could to help them get better.

Answer 3

Ok, first thing is first, most animals are not euthanized by being shot. A lot of farmers do it and it is quicker than the injection, but messy. It can also lead to suffering if you don't hit the right spot.
Secondly, from my understanding, horses are euthanized due to leg injuries for two reasons. One reason is that it is no longer useful as a racehorse. Horses have fragile bones and once broken they can easily be rebroken, especially if stressed. The second reason is that due to the anatomy of a horse's leg it is difficult to get the bones to set and heal correctly. A horse has four legs and requires a different balance than a two-legged animal. When one leg is off, the horse will compensate with the opposite leg. In time, that leg will become damaged and the horse will compensate with the remaining two legs. Those legs will then become damaged and will lead to the horse being put down after living a life of pain and boredom.

Answer 4

They don't have to be shot. Racehorses get shot because they can never be raced again even if the leg is fixed so the owners think why should they pay vet bills, have the horse eating it's head off for months in a stable, then worthless afterwards when one bullet and an insurance claim ends the problem. A friend of mine has a pet horse which had it's leg broken and repaired. It can still be ridden no problem, it just cost a lot to fix and took ages.
It's all about money as it always is with race horses (and greyhounds too)

Answer 5

I think it has to do with a horse's physiology - they have relatively tiny, thin, spindly legs supporting the bulk of their mass, and the way they move and run, etc., makes it almost impossible for them to continue to be mobile with only three legs. So, it is very difficult to support the horse and keep the weight off the broken bone for the length of time it would take to heal, resulting in a poor recovery prognosis for most horses with broken limbs. Even if the leg were healed, it is very likely the animal will never be able to move without effort and/or pain again.

Also, if the limb IS treated, during the period where the other limbs are bearing the bulk of the weight, those "healthy" legs become subject to other painful, difficult-to-heal conditions like laminitis (swelling in parts of the hooves).

So, given the amount of stress it puts on the animal, the poor likelihood of complete recovery, and the additional problems treatment can bring on, many owners make the decision to put the horse down rather than subject it to a long, difficult treatment process with no certain happy ending. This was especially true in "the olden days," before modern medical science was able to treat broken limbs in horses at all, let alone offset for all the myriad complications....

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

Because you cannot tell a flight animal to take it easy and rest!

My friend's pony broke a leg, was put in plaster, immobilised in the stable, it healed, he was led out in hand for weeks to exercise it and finally he was turned out in the field. The whole process took months and cost a fortune.

He then lay down in the stable and broke it again as he got up... that's why most of them are put down. There's an old saying "no foot, no horse" and it applies to legs too.

Many horses are shot when they are put down for several reasons
1) It takes a large amount of drugs to knock out a horse
2) The carcass cannot be used for animal feed if it has drugs in it
3) It can take a while for the drug to kick in during which time on RARE occasions the animal can panic or have death throes.
4) Shooting is instantaneous, the gun is put against their temple, they are dead before they hit the ground. Occasionaly they haver death throes or bleed profusely... but they do not know it - they are dead. It's the owners that can't cope with the shooting - not the horses.

Answer 7

Because of the expense mostly. For the leg to heal, it has to be immobilized, another words suspended in the air. The horse will be in less pain if you shoot it when it happens. And most likely the horse will never walk again, and when they do they can't walk the same as they did.

We had one break her hip and now she can't walk in a straight line. She is healed but it sure is funny watching her walk. She is a retired race horse, paid a hell of a lot for her to have to put her down. She still has babies fine. One baby paid for the entire surgery and healing. She's too good a horse to not keep around.

But anyways, most people can't afford to save them so they have to put them down. Most people euthanize now instead of shooting by the way.

Answer 8

It has to do with the weight of the horse and the size of the horse's legs. Horses are too large to spend months on their side waiting for the leg to heal. Sometimes recently they have attempted to save some multi-million dollar horses using slings for their body, but have not been successful.

Rent the movie "They Shoot Horses Don't They".

Answer 9

One reason is cost - it would cost a disproportionate amount relative to the horse's value to have it treated by a vet for months; also it's v difficult to keep a horse off the leg it has broken, and if you do, this puts added pressure on the opposite leg. A few horses have been nursed back to health, but I don't thnik they have ever competed at the top flight again. Part of the therapy for a horse on the mend is a hydro pool, not a cheap piece of kit. So there we go, the reason isn't so much biological as financial, with a bit of practical thrown in.

Answer 10

I'm no expert but I think it really depends on the severity/location/etc of the break. Although horses do lay down they're not "made" to be laying for long periods of time, like needed to heal a broken leg because their own weight will crush their insides. There is though some special harnesses that can kind of hold them up from underneath but I'm sure that's probably for lesser breaks or if the healing process is almost done.

Sorry for rambling. LoL.