losing oldies

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clairefeekerry1

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just wondered how peoples oldies eventually went? my old pony mare is now coming up 29, never been sick/lame/laminitic etc, has a full set of teeth that dentist said belong to an early teen. keeps her weight well, almost too well!eats hay/hard food, retired but still canters etc round field tho bit stiff! i know they hardly ever just peacefully just pass away one day but cant see anything that would happen to the contray... touch wood!
just wondered how yours went?
 
Well the good news is that 29 is young these days! There is an old boy of about 37 still trundling around here! and another old polo pony made it to 47! Some do just go in their own time if you are lucky - my friends went overnight in his stable, another one here just went in his field during the day - kind of how we would all like them to go. Both were being themselves with no sign of ill health.
 
My 45yo 11.2hh passed away peacefully in the field (April time) 5 years ago.
My 22yo 15.3hh fell down and couldn't get up so was pts by an injection from the vet (it took 2 injections).
I have had another that was pts (shot) due to cancer
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at the age of 19.
My 37yo 13.2hh is still going strong, is stiffer now but I dread the day he goes, I have known him all my life and he has been in the family for 27 years so I can't imagine life without him.

I seem to be a retirement home, I have never owned a horse/pony over the age of 15, even during all my PC years.
 
I lost my 26 yr old pony a couple of years ago. She had never been sick apart from a tooth abcess and flu one year.
She presented with what the vet thought was spasmodic colic which got increasingly worse over 48 hours and was pts. It turned out to be an aggressive liver tumour which was impacting on the gut.

It was a real shock as I really didnt expect her to be the first of my oldies to go!


RIP Tich xxxx
 
Well, I've not had a horse older than 19 yet, and that one was rather sprightly still so I sold him on, but... on my yard:

late 20s pony mare - developed severe breathing issue similar to COPD but came on quite sudden. Went to hunt shortly after.

another same age - colic, but also had laminitis and god knows what else

early 20s - another colic

mid 20s - cancer

Shame that sometimes you just don't know what lies ahead - anything can happen at any age. But it sounds like your mare is doing very well so hope she has many more years whizzing round the field.
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I hope my other two oldies go overnight too.

I have a couple of friends whose horses did just drop dead. The best was a friends whose horse had her breakfast then went out for a run round with her friends. She got down to roll and died. She was 28. That has to be the best way to go. A shock for my friend but even she said she couldnt have asked for a better ending.

I must admit I was a bit miffed with my vet as had he done the full examination with my pony we could have prevented any further suffering earlier. But I went with his advice.
 
well this is what i mean, one of my friends pony was 24 and gradually her legs went. one day she couldnt get up from the field.. and her and the vet tried for ages, even smacking her with ropes to try get her up. this would be my worst nightmare-although i would have said enough from the start but still
 
The only one I've lost so far, the others have been sold on, was my Shetland who was only 10 and pts due to a brain tumour. Like Milliepops said anything can happen at any age, I've known people that have lost horses of all ages. Oldest was a pony on my first yard that was pts at the grand old age of 37, he was having problems walking and getting up.

My old boy is at least 29, probably older I bought him as a 12 year old tho he may have been a couple years older. He's 15.2hh, never been a good doer and is now a bit arthritic and gets irritated skin on his back legs, but apart from that is still fit and healthy. He enjoys nothing more than going out in the field for a roll and run around. I hope he's still got quite a few years left in him, bless him. But when you own an older horse it is something that seems to be at the back of your mind.
 
I guess the vet felt 24 wasnt that old. I think that is how my vet felt.My pony showed no signs of cancer. She was well covered and had a lovely shiny coat. She was a picture of health.

It is easy in hindsight to realise what should have been done.
 
I lost my 32 year old new forest on boxing day, we were the same age and I had had her since I was 6, she was the most fantastic kind pony who lived with my mum on the land at the back of her house for all this time. She had cushings and had a couple of abcesses, the last one was on her chest which was clearing up nicely but the lameness on her near fore that resulted just put too much strain on the rest of her legs. On christmas day she started to shake all over at the strain of standing so on boxing day we had her put to sleep. She was still munching polo's and whickering to us til the end. Just typing this has tears running down my face. I'm just pleased that the pony that taught me so much had a happy retirement and a dignified end. My mum has really been down and has said she somtimes wished she had sold her when I out grew her, but remember "better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all".

I'll never part with my current boy til the end, although heart breaking its part of owning animals

RIP Cally xxx
 
We lost an old donkey and pony within a couple of week of each other. That left us with an old horse (their buddy basically) although we had younger horses too. The donkey ca,e with the horse we took on from the Blue Cross. The horse was 22 at the time. Donkey was a retired beach donkey so god knows how old he was, he'd been bought from a sales as the horse was not happy on his own.

We have no idea how old the donkey was when we had to have him PTS we estimate in his 40s given the history we knew and we had him 14 years! The old pony we bought as a 12 yo for £200. However our insructor told us he was nearer 20 +! (ok we were naive at the time!). We had him 13/14 years. After they went The old horse sort of gave up really. We had almost come to a decision with him anyway as he struggled to get up when he lay (or fell who knows) but he was such a strong, dominant horse he fought his age really. We got him a companion when his old mates went but the day after we got the old ex racehorse companion (who had been due to be PTS) I found our old horse dead in the field - he was 36.

We don't really know how he died. We had separated him from his existing friends so he could get on with his new companion without the other horses attacking the new horse. We think he fretted and had run up and down the field to try get to his mates. He had either then fallen and maybe broken his neck or had a heart attack and fallen. i don't know. There was nothing to indicate a struggle and there were no injuries, he had fallen into the fence though. i think that's how he'd have wanted to go though - dramatic!
 
Dougal was pts about 7yrs ago,showed signs of colic but was a tumor,he was shot.he was about late 20ies.
Dinky was over 30,he was found on ground,pts by injection.
Poppy still here,35+,she had a small stroke a bout ,2 years ago and i thought that was it for her,but she is fine and i think this may be her last winter,but then again i say that every year.
 
Max was PTS - he was somewhere in his mid 20's at least.

He had arthiritis and navicular so was really struggling with his legs - and had started to go down in the field and not be able to get back up again.
 
First horse owned from yearling put down by hunt early twenties after several random collapses (he had heart murmur after strangles in his teens)
Highland pony put down by hunt, Cushings and small fits in early twenties
Sons retired Games/tetrathlon pony put down by vet in his thirties, Cushings massive weight and muscle loss looked like starvation case but eating really well, drinking way too much etc
 
28 and a half, with Cushing's induced laminitis, otherwise never a day off. We'd fought for three years and done OK but the laminitis came back again last October and we said goodbye to her on 3rd Jan.
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My other pony was also mid to late twenties and I let him go in the most similar circumstances it's creepy - 12 years ago now.

They are buried at home.
 
I lost my 25 yo+ cob last year - he was pts as he had cancer and was no longer able to kep any weight on. He had enjoyed a really good life and knowing that he was not going to suffer made the parting easier - a lot easier than when my 7 yo was pts.
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Lable (11 hands, my first pony) lived to 37. He was a bubbly chap right up until the last week, when suddenly he just lost that sparkle. I remember standing next to him by our trailer, having just cut short our lesson because he was very listless, and Mum said sadly, 'I dont think he'll be with us too much longer.' That night, he started to scour, and then he went off his food, so enough was enough.
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Pippa (32, 12 hands Welshie) was similar, although she was not physically ill - she just seemed to lose her will to live. She was very tottery on her feet, and fell over one day in the doorway of her stable. She got up, but seemed to be pleading with us to end it - life just wasnt fun for her any more. We gave her a bath, pulled her mane and then took her off to the kennels - she really thought she was off hunting! A wonderful end, I think - some may have left it longer and waited for her to really start getting poor, but it was the right decision. The sight of her trotting off, ears pricked, with the kennelsman's arm affectionately around her neck will never leave me
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Bonzo (15.3, Cleveland Bay) was a bit different. With him, it was more a case of what 'could' happen than what was actually happening. We had to move house, which meant losing our yard and putting our horse (Bonzo belonged to another family member, officially) into livery. He was 27, very arthritic and attached to Ellie, but we couldnt have moved him to the same yard we had fixed up for her as there was no room. With everything considered, we gave them one last glorious summer together in luscious paddocks, and then the hunt came to PTS
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Mickey (14.3, ID x TB) was not an oldie, but he's the only horse we've had to die naturally. He had a heart attack in his stable...he was only 9
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My first aged about 18 to laminitis.

My second aged 22 having been retired 6 months previously due to sacroiliac problems and increasing stiffness, slipped in her field one day and couldn't get up. About 8 of us, including the vet, did eventually get her to her feet but she was so shocked she gave up eating and I had her pts about 4 days later. A desperately difficult feeder, and near impossible to keep weight on all her time with me, she was nearly always handfed four times daily anyway. In hindsight I should have had the deed done while she was down, but felt she deserved another chance.

The latest was three years ago, aged 20 to cushings related laminitis.
 
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