Please - Brutually honest opinions wanted

[H-J]

I would say PTS a very hard descision one I had to make a few weeks ago but you would rather him go whilst happy and not when it has deterrioated and he is in pain. That is my opinion, that is hwta I did and now I only have happy memories of my horse and he never in a alot of pain and went happy XX

 

[Weezy]

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Just put yourself in his situation, would you want to go being relatively pain free, i suspect not

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Sorry but I certainly would!!

 

[Claireg9]

i know where your coming from, but if im happy and not in alot of pain i wanna stick around!
i know its different for horses but so many people would be PTS when they become paralised, yet so many live a long healthy happy life!
Thats all i mean, but i agree, i would kinda like to go in my sleep, but not if things aren't going to get worse, if things do start to deteriorate with Sid you can evaluate before his in to much pain! by waiting doesnt mean he has to be in crippling pain before you make the decision.
Does that make sense?

 

[aran]

aran is still not completely sound with his bone spavin - if he doesnt come sound he will be a pet in the field as he's happy playing. if he becomes at all miserable or in pain then i would PTS - not before. he is my responsibility and i will look after him until such time as he needs me to make the decision for his welfare. for me if he was playing and happy and had lived out before there would be no decision to make!
good luck with whatever you decide

 

[Claireg9]

Thats exactly what i was trying to say!
Well said x

 

[aran]

it sounds like you were in the position that I'm in at the moment. i'm glad your horse is able to do some light work and is happy
i havent competed now for 18months and it hurts however aran is soo happy and that makes me happy knowing that i'm doing the right thing!

 

[Claireg9]

yep, fortunately it was my sisters ride, although she is not really interested anymore so i look after her and really she kinda is mine now, but i have another one that hopefully one day i can compete on when shes going well enough.
But i know what the no competing thing is like i havent done it for 9 years really and i used to compete twice a week every week with out fail, my pony got v old and i was way to big for her, i should of sold her because she had scope to burn but she was my one in a million and i decided she was happy with me i was happy with her and rather have her for mucking about on than not have her at all! She unfortunately died nearly two years ago, so i have my new one now and things are not going to plan yet but im hopefull we'll be competing soon!
Sorry to hear about Aran and its lovely there are owners out there like me, you wouldnt give up on your child if it didnt suit your plans anymore and my horses are my babies so i wont give up on them either!

 

[Bri]

Ditto - I've read it over and over and it just confuses me. So many different opinions.

The vet has said he see's little point in retiring a 5 year old as we're coming into winter so we should just have him PTS. No way of knowing whether he'll come right as have no idea what is wrong. Say's it's unlikely though.

Improvement wise it's hard to tell - he's hardly lame the majority of the time but has the odd day where he's really stiff in the morning. Was aggressive when he came home from hospital but that's stopped. He's quite subdued in the stable but out in the field he literally plays all day.

I absolutely don't want to wait until he's in a lot of pain. Person at my yard did it, and it broke my heart to see her horse shuffling around. I could never watch Sid like that. At the moment he's out 12 hours a day with all his buddies and seems as happy as he was before it all started - however I can't really know or tell and I don't want to risk keeping him alive if he's in a lot of pain that he just isn't communicating to us.

 

[0]

i would keep him - absolutely no question (for now) because there are numerous arguments in my mind to do this and only one argument to have him pts now
So,
the argument to pts now is that he will go with no pain BUT you know him, it's not like you would keep him and wait untill he was really bad before acting - thus making it cruel. You say he will be fussed everyday so you will spot pretty dam quickly if he is not coping and then immediately have him pts thus you gave him that one last chance but he won't suffer. As for going when not in pain - if someone said now to me 'you are not in pain but may be in the future do you want me to put you to sleep to avoid it or do you want to wait and see because if the pain doesn't come then you will be able to live long and happy' well i would choose the latter.
if you keep him going you know that if he goes downhill then he won't come back up and so you have him pts straight away so he doesn't suffer but you KNOW that he would've gone down hill IMHO if you do it now you will ALWAYS wonder whether he could've lived out happily or not.
I don't think that the references to old horses are the same really because with old age it is a downward spiral - there comes a point when if you get past one thing there's another and you know that they're 'happy time' will become less and less and therefore it is kinder - this is also important with regards to all the mentions of winter - to an old horse yes, it's a hard time to get them through but it should be no problem to a young horse which doesn't have any of the problems that make winter hard for old horses coping with the cold..........to illustrate - i knew (very well) a dressage horse (by Donnerhall) which at 5 was diagnosed with a hind leg problem - he was v v v lame and in pain - he went to newmarket and had tests and scans and etc and then came home for a decision to be made - in this meantime as with yours he just went out and was not ridden and he was very happy (still a little lame though) it was therefore decided to keep him as long as he was happy - after a year of being like this he was totallt sound so he was ridden again but this lamed him so he was branded LOU and went back out where he came sound again. He is as happy as Larry and although being a top class dressage horse who had never really been turned out - because he is young (like yours) and doesn't have anything else wrong with him (he is not ill and neithers yours - all they have to cope with is one thing and if they can do that they are fine unlike an old horse that will get something else to overcome as soon as it's coped with one thing) he has adapted and grows a big wooly coat in winter and lives the life of rilley!! he has been LOU about 2yrs now - he was an inch from being pts. (owner has own land and other horses but you say that isn't a problem for you either).
Your horse may not work out this way - he may deteriorate but at least you know (and then would act quickly to avoid suffering) - to this day the horse above would go lame if brought back into work but if not he is perfectly happy.

for those that say she has made the decision, come to terms with it and should therefore carry on to avoid heartbrake again - well i'm sorry but that is cr*p - the heartache is yet to come either way.......
today i dropped my horse off at her new loan home - i had made the decision, was delighted with the people that are having her and am 100% confident that ihave made the right decision - i have been in floods of tears ALL day so far -i dropped her off and couldn't speak from crying - the loanee thinks i'm crazy etc etc. Now this is such a non-event compared to what were discussing - such an easy thing to do comparitivly - infact a possitively happy decision But it just shows that because you have made the decision it does not make it any easier - it is always the DOING it that is hard and that is yet to come whether now or in 20 yrs - it's hardly easy to put him to sleep now rather than wait just because she had kind of made the decision that that is right. He's her horse - she loves him - no way is easy she hasn't asked what's easy - she asked what everyone thinks is right for the horse.
If you decide to keep him it's not like right now you have decided and so that is it - if he does deteriorate you can change your mind any time you like - if the horse above deteriorated he would go - but he's had a good few brill yers that he wouldn't have done if hehad been pts straight away.

Whatever you decide hugs to you and your horse

 

[the watcher]

such a tough one, i wouldn't know what to suggest. I think for me it would come down to economics, i couldn't justify keeping a horse that isn't working or likely to improve to the extent that it can work again. OK your livery might be free for now, but he could go on for another 10 years as a field ornament, with vets/farrier/rugs and all the usual associated costs. Have you planned for that or considered the possibility? And the longer he goes on, the harder it would be for you to justify doing anything other than keeping him going.

 

[mollymad]

I dont think that horse owners generally take the decision to put a horse to sleep lightly. It is a hard decision to make. In fact it is one of the worst. But it quite often boils down to: Do you do whats best for yourself? Or the Horse?

Its a difficult question and one that can only be answered by the individual concerned. To pass judgement without all the facts of the individual case is wrong.

Like Claireg9, I know of three horses at the same yard that were put to sleep, one of which was mine.

My horse was bought in an attempt to rescue him from travellers. Yet he was found to have a broken leg. In fact his hock joint was in 3 pieces, this was found after x-rays and postmortem. It was upon vets advice that he was put to sleep. The other two horses at that yard were put to sleep to prevent them from being in pain. both were on 2 bute a day, and both were still chronically lame. Again veterinary advice was to stop unnecessary suffering.

So to those out there that consider themselves to be 'the do-gooders' of this world and attempt to take the moral high ground with others,,, THINK BEFORE YOU SLANDER!

I do not think that any of the people you are refering to Claireg9 will appreciate the comments you have made, especially as one of them would seem to own the yard where you keep your horses.!