Ridecamp: Re: [RC] navicular horse

Right on, Lisa! I am totally with you on this. I have over 50 animals of
various species on my farm and I have a gun and it pains me to have to put
one down. But to ever watch an animal suffer? No way. I can and have pulled
the trigger when called for, or had the vet out when called for. I have a
special Pet Cemetary on my place for those that have served me well.
We are the stewards of our animal friends and they trust us to do the right
thing.  If only we could get the right to die for our human counterparts,
and I mean not just pull the plug, but take the shot. My children are
instructed to somehow, someway, get me off this planet when I can no longer
function as a contributing person. Otherwise I told them I will haunt them
for the rest of their lives and it ain't gonna be a pretty sight :~))
amber


> Angie--
>
> I have to say in all honesty that if it were my horse and I was attached
to
> it to the degree she supposedly is, I would put it down.  Why?  It is
> suffering, and it's problems are only going to get worse over time.
Nerving
> the animal just so it can stay around for MY pleasure seems cruel.  It's
> certainly not going to stop the degeneration of the navicular bones.  What
> happens when the degeneration gets so bad the animal goes down and can't
get
> up?   If she's not going to make the effort to give the horse the therapy
it
> needs, then the kindest thing would be to put the poor animal out of its
> misery.  It's a quality of life issue, and it sounds to me as if she's
more
> interested in having a pretty pasture decoration than truly doing what's
> best for the horse.
>
> Lisa (who can't stand to see animals suffer just so their humans can look
at
> them)
>
> Just my
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rides 2 Far" <rides2far@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Monday, July 15, 2002 8:55 AM
> Subject: [RC] navicular horse
>
>
> > Too many posts this morning from me...but I need the expertise of the
> > list.
> >
> > Got called in as the "neighborhood professional" yesterday to look at a
> > really lame horse.  This is about a 1300 lb. 15.2 Walking Horse...16
> > years old, THICK crest, bad case of navicular (diagnosed by radioactive
> > scans at UT) on beautiful lush pasture.  The horse is in pain. He's
> > standing stretched way out with his forefeet well ahead of his nose.
> > (Hindfeet out too as if "parked" *not* a founder stance.) Then he drags
> > them back towards him banking up sawdust so he can stand on it with his
> > heels up, toes down. (smart trick).  After 30 seconds or so he'll
stretch
> > them forward again.
> >
> >   I look at the horse and say, "he's in pain, he doesn't have anything
> > he's looking forward to...grandkids etc. I'd put him to sleep".  This
> > lady has only had him 5 years and hasn't been around him all that much
so
> > I really don't think he merits extreme sentimental steps...except he has
> > a habit of licking her hand which is apparently good enough to get her
to
> > drop major bucks.  I think she can afford pretty much whatever will help
> > him and is willing to spend it.  For instance, when she said she knew he
> > could benefit from hand walking 15 min. every day but that she wasn't
> > around I made a joke about buying him a mechanical hot walker and
putting
> > sawdust under it and her eyes lit up. :-P So since she's determined to
do
> > something for him...all I could think of at this point was nerving him.
> >
> > I just *happened* to be trying to thin my 10 year collection of
Endurance
> > News yesterday and read an article on nerving.  The vet was taking a
> > stance that AERC needed to mention that in addition to no drugs we
> > shouldn't be racing nerved horses but didn't want more rules. >g< (some
> > things never change)
> >
> >  He said one risk was that the horse would get an abcess and not know
it,
> > letting it get out of control.  The lady who owns this horse seems to
> > read a lot and knew that, and seemed to consider that reason enough to
> > rule out nerving.  I see a horse who is *constantly* shifting his weight
> > and in pain and if the person is determined to force him to live out his
> > life this way would benefit from the procedure.  I'd probably prefer
good
> > ammunition for convincing her to put the poor thing out of his misery
but
> > since she's not willing...
> >
> > Soo...any experiences out there with this (I'm ASSUMING say...for a
horse
> > you had with sentimental value, not a competition horse)
> >
> > Angie
> >
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