With medical advances today, is there no way to fix a horse's broken leg quickly and avoid its being put down?

well for one thing...founder and acute laminitis are what often strike horses who HAVE HAD surgury.

that is how they meet their final demise and it is after spenfding thousands of dollars and days of pain.

secondly, lets say the horse "recovers" fully, most people do not want to ride a hrose with only 3 good legs. would you be willing to pay for such a horses upkeep for the rest of its life?

just some food for thought...

ps. i have taken several horses with chips and slap fractures.

the one i currently have had multiple chips removed from his knee last year. i will keep him forever...but i am sure he will have serious arthritic problems as he ages.

the surgury and recovery were tremendously expensive and time consuming. i am lucky that his racing owner paid for his surgury and 3 months recovery before i took him. he was blessed with a good trainer and wonderful owners.

A broken leg is a VERY poor prognosis for a horse. To break two legs, practically incurable. You'll recall Barbaro broke just one leg and despite the best vetrinary care in the country was later euthanized. Horses are very large animals and their bodies cannot handle bearing wait on less than all 4 legs. To fix a broken leg a horse needs to be completely off the leg while it heals- this involves placing them in a full body sling and suspending the in their stall. Being stationary that long is not good for a horse either- they need to move to aid their digestion, and they are naturally very active herd animals. To tie one up and isolate it for so long would be VERY cruel. On top of all of that, because horses weigh so much, it is hard to be sure that a newly mended leg will be able to bear weight at all- they can easily rebreak, or you can but the horse through several months of surgerys, slings etc and still not have a horse that can walk. A horse that can't walk has NO quality of life. Rarely a broken leg can be fixed, but it requires enormous effort and money, as well as a quiet, cooperative horse. It also has to be just the right type of break, many breaks simply don't heal well. So, with two broken legs there was really no hope she'd ever walk again. It was the kindest decision to put her down. -Neb

The problem is not that the bones won't knit and heal the problem with fixing a broken leg is with the OTHER legs. A horse is simply not designed to stand on three legs while the other one heals. Laminitis is a real danger and can be even more painful for the horse than the original injury. There is also the stress of being stalled and unable to move. A horse is designed to move around all day, when made to stand in one place the blood flow to the limbs isn't always adequate which is where Laminitis comes in. This is just one of the reasons horses don't do well with broken legs.

The man in the article is an asshat who calls himself a trainer. He threatens to shoot his own horses if they ban jump racing because his horses could never be trained for anything else and he can't afford to feed them for their lives. How long do you think he is going to feed those horses when they are no longer winning or able to jump? If he is such a good trainer then why can't his horses be trained to be manageable and calm? Why wouldn't his horses be suitable for a second carreer? Like i said he's an asshat.

The same story with more info in australian paper:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,254...

Wow, the losers in this article sound like they love horses. *note sarcasm* I'm tempted to send a head or two around? Who does he think he is. He is like they don't realize how well we care for our horses and then he threatens to shoot them all....moron! The THIRD jumper to die?

That being said, a general injury to the leg occasionally can be set for a while depending on the severity. It also unfortunately depends on what the owner can do. Just look at Barbaro vrs. another typical injury. Very few owners would have done that but because Barbaro could make a lot of money as a stud after winning the Derby, he was attempted to be helped up until he really couldn't do it anymore. Some horses with minor breaks can live but not be ridden again.

One of the main problems facing veterinarians when they try to fix a (badly) broken bone in a horse is that there simply isn't anything strong enough to hold the bone together. The horse's weight will break the screws and plates holding the bone together. No advances will come from the human medicine side, because they don't encounter this problem.

Broken legs can be repaired. It's not repairing the bone that's the problem. It's keeping the horse off the broken limb and the limb immobilized to facilitate the healing process without the horse deloping lamanitis or other issue in the other three legs. The cost of the surgery and equipment needed for the recovery is why most people who do not have several hundred thousand dollars rolling around in the bank opt to have the horse put down.

I didn't read the article but with a human you can lay down, sit in a chair or whatever to get the pressure of the broken leg, this doesn't cost you money. With a horse the amount of effort it would take to keep the pressure off the leg and the horses wiliness to live would be more difficult. There are times when putting the horse down is more humane. You can make a crutch for a horse, pain wise it would be more difficult to manage.

I had a TB put down yesterday, we tried everything humanly possible to save her, i put up the money to do whatever we could for her...The pain was heartbreaking and i had to make the unselfish choice...she will be missed but she no longer suffers this im grateful for.

The big difference between a horse that has a broken leg and most other animals, is that horse can no lay down for a great period of time since its weight can crush is internal organs...

Most owners can no afford to hang their horse in a sling for months and allow the leg to heal...

Also, most horses that have a broken leg are no longer sound or comfortable after the break...

Its much simiplar to put them down.

it's possible, but 9 times out of 10 the animal will be in long term pain, or crippled for life.

that's after 9-10 months, at least, of box rest.

a humn athlete knows to stay rested, you can't explain that to a horse, so the only way to stop a horse completely destryoying the leg is to keep it confined while it's healing.

this then leads to severe mental issues. horses are not ment to be confined for long periods, they are herd animals, and they are nomadic, they need to be out and with company.

and box rest is very traumatic for both the horse and the owner, and even if they recover physically, alot of horses never get over it mentally.

in general it's unfair to the horse to actually keep it alive after a bad break.

and after a break a horse will never race again. never jump, probably never be ridden, or indeed be sound or pain free. so it'd be an insurance write off.

there are stories off course, and they are usually hailed as miricles, of horses who do go back into full work after a bad leg injury. but in all my years working in dressage and jumping and racing, i have never seen it. i've only ever even heard of it happening once.

so while it's easy to see this in a perfect world senario, and the horse must always come first.

in the end, for most owners, if comes down to a swift and painless death, or a year or more of excrutiating pain and then a lifetime of pain, then any owner who cares about thier horse is going to choose to have it destroyed.

that said, its never an easy choice

It takes months and months for a leg to heal.

There is no 'miracle grow' that makes a bone heal any faster. To heal it must be properly rested, and horses often just can't cope with the ammount of box rest being kept completely stock still to fix a broken leg.

Those who do some how manage to endure months of box rest then often get so razzed up when they're finally given time to be in the field that they injure themselves all over again.

Horses are just too heavy for a quick healing process or a process that involves some movement, because so much weight is distributed onto each leg.

Personally, I think it's cruel to let a horse suffer because some one is selfish enough not to know when too much is too much - it's not fair on the horse.