Am I mean? Wwyd

From the little information given, I agree that it should be PTS, I can't believe it's been like that for 3 weeks :( :(

As a side thought, I don't like things like this asking for money to fund veterinary treatment (unless it's a charity!). They bred their mare so therefore should have had backup funds in place for when things go wrong. They shouldn't be relying on, and having to wait on donation in order to treat the foal.
 
If the OP would genuinely save it and it would go on to have a normal life I'd just pay for the op straight away.
If I couldn't pay for the op or couldnt get insurance then I wouldn't have bred it in the first place.

If the op might not work or wouldn't give a good quality of life then yes, I'd sadly PTS.

This kind of thing makes me angry. If people are going to breed they should be able to deal with whatever problems may arise.
 
Agree - and no your are not mean - and tragic that so many people seem to be contributing - yes the foal is cute, but then they all are - £1K operation now - and it could still end up at a sale at 3 years and make £30.....Better that they put their money into proper genetic research, and stop this madness!
 
Vets should have to report this kind of thing. Owners not ensuring they can afford treatment for their animals should be illegal.

It is illegal not to provide medical care when needed, so why not act a bit sooner and stop people doing things like this.

Poor baby.
 
Vets should report? Hmmmm, can't see that being a sticky situation. Vets make money from procedures. Not all those procedures work or will give a horse a quality of life. Who decides ethically?

Not sure what the correct answer is here. Have never heard of this problem before. Depends on prognosis and future quality of life.

Terri
 
Horrendous. If that animal is in pain they need to do the right thing as soon as possible. If the operation is viable and they caan pay then go ahead immediately. If not pts. Idiots.
 
Just another side of the coin.....how do we know that they willingly red their mare? They could have bought her unknowingly already in foal (it does happen!) and in that case, of course they won't have prepared backup funds for something going wrong with said foal.

That being said, in this case I agree the owners should have done something immediately, either op (depending on prognosis etc) or pts, the poor thing shouldn't have been like that for 3 weeks whilst they try and arrange donations to cover the costs.
 
PTS immediately, how unbelievably cruel to leave the poor thing like that for a few days, let alone three weeks. :(
 
That's awful, I also would pts

Edited to say, if they have to raise money for this operation, what if it goes wrong and needs further operations, will they leave it in more pain until they raise money for those?
 
Just another side of the coin.....how do we know that they willingly red their mare? They could have bought her unknowingly already in foal (it does happen!) and in that case, of course they won't have prepared backup funds for something going wrong with said foal.

That being said, in this case I agree the owners should have done something immediately, either op (depending on prognosis etc) or pts, the poor thing shouldn't have been like that for 3 weeks whilst they try and arrange donations to cover the costs.

No they own the stallion (this is his only foal apparently). I kind of know but one, the people involved so avoiding saying any more!
 
Vets should report? Hmmmm, can't see that being a sticky situation. Vets make money from procedures. Not all those procedures work or will give a horse a quality of life. Who decides ethically?

Not sure what the correct answer is here. Have never heard of this problem before. Depends on prognosis and future quality of life.

Terri

Just that, when an owner says to a vet, "how long can we keep this animal alive until we can raise the funds for treatment" it would be nice to think that a vet could put in action a method of that person having to answer to why they have animals that they cannot afford to treat.

Withholding treatment is illegal and enforceable by law, so why can't people start to be warned when they first begin to do that...as opposed to when it becomes a case for the welfare authorities after a period of suffering for the animal.

Yes, I know, probably impossible. I would however, quite like someone acting in a professional capacity to go and chat to the owners of this foal to ask them why they find it acceptable to prolong a life of such poor quality. Rose tinted glasses perhaps, it just pees me off.

I don't have buckets of cash sitting around, but if any of my animals need treatment, they get it straight away...I always know that I can access the funds needed as I have set my finances up that way.

Without knowing all the details on this foal and this situation, it is difficult to be specific, but in general, why have animals you can't afford to treat and why not have something in place that means you have to answer to that should you deny an animal timely treatment.

Even the argument that this could have been an unexpected foal doesn't sit well with me. What if the mare was ill or injured...there would still be vet fees. Would we then be seeing fundraising efforts to pay for their mare to have surgery?
 
I get you now GG. I was thinking in terms of every procedure for anything. Not this case. And yes in this instance I agree. But I'd hate for a vet to flaunt the rules say for colic surgery.

I would have already put said foal down. I've had 1500-2000 bills before and had no qualms about paying. Both horses went on to do their intended jobs. One a multiple race winner. Had prognosis been poor and most likely not pasture sound I would not have spent the money.

Terri
 
Poor thing should be PTS. Appeals like this, for a private owner, make me uncomfortable. The only exception would be had they found a pony in an extreme case of neglect and got lumped with it (as happened with that member on here). If people appeal for money to fund an operation for their own animal, where will it stop? If you can't afford to treat your animal when something goes wrong, you can't afford to have it in the first place. Totally irresponsible. Poor little thing.

I want a custom made brown leather saddle. Would people donate please, as I can't afford it myself?
 
:( Put the poor thing out of its misery- stupid, idiotic people!
What are they trying to achieve? surely anyone can see the animal is better off being PTS- the stress and torment it will go through. I do think that many of the fund raising cases are just satisfying the owner's need for attention ... not always, but sometimes...
 
Last edited:
Even if this had been a BOGOF, they should still have funds (or a contingency plan) to be able to afford veterinary treatment for any animal they own (for example, the mare!). Any horse can suddenly require life-saving treatment which is costly and if the owner can't afford treatment then they need to at least be able to afford the cost of euthanasia to prevent further suffering.
 
One difference between this foal and an adult horse is that you cannot get vet fee insurance until 30 days old so have to fully fund any treatment. I wouldnt be able to pay out that sort of money for any of my animals therefore they are all insured. Not an option witb a foal. However why havent they had the surgery abd set up a payment plan with the vets?
 
GG, in the case of the mare becoming unexpectedly injured one would expect that they would have insurance however, if the foal was unexpected it won't be insured as breeding wouldn't be on the policy if it wasn't an intentional thing.....a lot of insurance companies don't insure a foal under 30days old regardless anyway. That being said, that is no excuse to withhold treatment for the animal, they either do the op or PTS, they don't wait weeks and hope someone else will fund the treatment with donations!
 
Mynutmeg my point exactly. I've been in this sort of situation myself with a BOGOF who became very ill shortly after birth.....we are still paying the vets bill as there's no way on earth we'd have withheld treatment! We didn't plan on a foal and thus couldn't afford it (all my other animals are insured as I don't have bags of cash either but, foals are uninsurable under 30days old) but we made a payment plan and that was that. In this case however I'd have PTS immediately.
 
Me too. Should be PTS can I can't believe her owners are allowing her to suffer. If you aint got the funds, PTS and surelythat won't be an easy fix, why let her carry on? :(
 
GG, in the case of the mare becoming unexpectedly injured one would expect that they would have insurance however, if the foal was unexpected it won't be insured as breeding wouldn't be on the policy if it wasn't an intentional thing.....a lot of insurance companies don't insure a foal under 30days old regardless anyway. That being said, that is no excuse to withhold treatment for the animal, they either do the op or PTS, they don't wait weeks and hope someone else will fund the treatment with donations!

Mynutmeg my point exactly. I've been in this sort of situation myself with a BOGOF who became very ill shortly after birth.....we are still paying the vets bill as there's no way on earth we'd have withheld treatment! We didn't plan on a foal and thus couldn't afford it (all my other animals are insured as I don't have bags of cash either but, foals are uninsurable under 30days old) but we made a payment plan and that was that. In this case however I'd have PTS immediately.

You took responsibility, you didn't try to get others to pay for something that was yours. I get your point in response to my post. But we all know that vets will make arrangements with you regarding paying bills. The fact that these people are needing donations leads me to believe that they don't think they can pay it off themselves, as you are doing now. So...if you are in a financial situation that means you have no spare cash and no way of getting it if things go wrong, why would you have animals. Even if insured, there will be excesses and what would they do when insurance ran out? Just smacks of irresponsibility whichever way I look at it.
 
Selfish people! Apart from the hindlegs, the foal doesn't look quite right anyway.

Poor pony, should have been treated as soon after birth as possible or put down. :(
 
Top