Old horses - are people getting unrealistic?

[marmalade76]

Wow, what an emotional, volatile thread!

I've actually found it very interesting. I agree that two 20yr olds can be very different. My friend had a 17yr old TB on DIY that had had colic surgery, and various other ailments, he was really old for his age. I upset her once by saying I thought she should think of PTS in the next couple of years.

I have a couple of similar stories, although with not such happy endings....

Story 1, A few years ago my Dad and stepmother had their vet (who is also their neighbour and friend) look at my SM's old TB mare. She was 23 and had a sarcoid on her shoulder that was agrivated by rugs and as a thin coated aged TB she couldn't manage without rugs in the winter. The vet suggested they think about having her PTS. I don't know whether or not they said anything to the vet, but they were both rather offended by this. We were with the horse when my Dad told me about it and he said to me 'doesn't she look good for her age?' and I thought to myself no, she doesn't, she looks like an old horse and I have seen quite a few around her age and older who don't look like old horses, they're the ones who look good for they're age. I didn't say what I thought, as my SM is one of the most touchy, easily offended people I know! Anyway, not long afterwards the mare had a fall on the yard and hurt her leg and a few days after that she died of colic. If they'd done as the vet suggested, they'd have saved her a lot of suffering.

Story 2, I went to visit an old friend the spring before we had all that snow. Her 32 year old pony was skin and bone and on having a look I found no teeth. It took me ages to convince her that he needed to be fed bucket loads of hay-replacing stuff 'casue he could no longer eat grass or hay. She was convinced that if she fed him like this he would get laminitis! Eventually, I won her round and then I suggested that she consider having him PTS in the autumn. Absolutely not was the reply. The following January, in all the snow, he got colic. She still tried to save him then (though not with surgery) but he ended up dying of a heat attack. Again, a lot of suffering could have been avoided if he'd been PTS at the right time

 

[windand rain]

Because I love my horses more than life itself I would never inflict abdominal surgery on them. I have seen a small number recover well but the agony of the first month or so of that recovery was heartbreaking. Along side of that it is a fifty fifty chance they will not live for more than a year they will be stuck on box rest for weeks and may have repeat bouts of agonising pain during that recovery. Anyone who has ever had abdominal surgery will know that being "comfortable" is a vain hope for many weeks and sometimes months.
Everyone has the right to chose but I wouldnt inflict that level of surgery on any age of animal coupled to that is you have almost always to travel to a suitable horspital which is exacerbating the initial pain beyond comprehension for many animals

 

[Cortez]

All pets tend to live longer than their natural spans nowadays; cats, dogs, horses too. Horses live, on average, to around 20+. Some horses are "old" at 12, some keep going longer, and good for them and their doting owners. Having cared for several post colic op horses (not mine), I would never put a horse of mine, at any age, through what those horses went through (2 survived after considerable and prolonged pain and distress, one broke a leg trying to get up).

 

[Pearlsasinger]

OK, since people actually want to discuss the point and TFC has ignored my request to remove it because of the upset I unthinkingly caused Serena, what concerns me is that for every 35 year old that people can post about, I suspect that there may be a dozen 25 year olds creaking with painful arthritis that would probably be happier with a quiet and dignified release. And my fear is that less experienced people reading forums like this may press their vets to keep horses that I would classify as very old - over 25 say, alive when they would be better off put to sleep, because they think that 35 is perfectly achievable for the average horse. Some people would even feel that they failed the horse in not getting it to that age when other people did.

TBH, it is my experience that vets tend to be the ones who want to keep animals going past the point of realism. Sometimes the owner has to be quite firm about pts in the animal's best interests.

Last week my 20 yr old Draft mare had colic, on the 2nd visit the vet said 'Worst case scenario, we could take her to horsepital and operate but we haven't got to that yet'. I think she must have read my expression correctly because a while later, while we were tubing the mare, the vet said, 'with a horse of this age and size, the prognosis for a successful op would be poor'. When she rang the horsepital vet for another opinion later in the day, she was advised to continue to manage medically and see how it went. Fortunately not long after the 3rd visit, the mare started to eat again and hasn't looked back. Our horses are not insured because we can afford any treatment that we choose for them but I would NOT have taken her to horsepital, she is a very sensible horse but her heart-rate went up when I put her companions out and it would be a real struggle to manage prolonged box-rest for her (although she does like a 'duvet day'). I can think of very few horses who would be happy in a prolonged box-rest situation nd for me their quality of life is paramount. Sis and I have discussed a variety of scenarios and made our decisions for all our horses in the cold light of day. It is very easy to be pushed into something against your better judgement in an emergency situation.

As for horses aging in general, we had an almost 40 yr old Clydie (according to the vet) who must have been born in the 60s. She had to be pts about 2 months after she was last ridden because of a weak heart.