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Why are horses with broken legs "put down"2007-11-24 21:23:00

Is it that hard to nurse a horse with a broken leg or for a horse to mend a broken leg?

Answers:

they used to have to do this. In many parts of the country, they do still shoot horses for any reason that "puts it out of it's misery".

Now-a-days, a broken leg doesn't automatically mean the horse must be destroyed. Until a few years ago, the fact that a horses legs couldn't be put in a cast because of the size of the leg and the weight of the horse, a fractured leg was a death sentence.

There are now many skilled veterinarians who perform surgery on horses, and there is equipment and metal leg implants large enough for the horse.

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It is very difficult... Most of the time it's kinder to put the animal down.

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There's a high risk of infection, and the horse may not sit still long enough for the bone to heal. Infections are most likely when the animal suffers a compound fracture, in which the bones tear through the skin of the leg. In this case, dirt from the track will grind into and contaminate the wound. To make matters worse, there isn't much blood circulation in the lower part of a horse's leg. (There's very little muscle, either.) A nasty break below the knee could easily destroy these fragile vessels and deprive the animal of its full immune response at the site of the injury.

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the only ones put down are racing hourses cause then they can't race again and have no way to make enough money to look after them