sedation story

[mandycrosby77]

Some one who lives near me has 2 newforest ponies,bought straight from the forest, So basically wild and need alot of attention and an experienced person to bring on.
Story is one pony arrived wearing a head collar,which was left on,(not ever a good idea). time goes by pony grows,headcollar starts to dig in,and then starts to get embedded in ponys head, the owner cannot catch the pony! vet called and cannot get near either, few days later a pen is errected and pony rounded in to it,vet arrives again to sedate with injection(oral sedation did not work in food) pony jumps out of pen and pony is running in owners own fenced fields,safe but next to a road.
Now get this, Vet advises to call police and get pony shot! WHY WHY WHY would you suggest to shoot a reasonably healthy pony through no fault of its own was left to get in this state!
I am so shocked that this has happened any body any thoughts! or any vets know if a sedation dart could have been used instead of a bullit!

 

[bensababy]

if anything the vet should be shot for suggesting such a thing. why did the owner not spend quality time with these ponies to gain trust - i own a New Forest and he was completely wild when i got him - i put him straight in a stable and just sat there for days so he could get used to me, as soon as he was handled and tame enough i let him out in field.

what was the outcome of this?

 

[Bossanova]

Sounds very odd and sounds like that isnt the full story....
There are numerous other things they could have done to corner the pony. The vet would not have advised putting it down unless there was a very good reason.

 

[mandycrosby77]

i would like to think that too, but how can you justify shooting a pony just because you cant catch it!

 

[mandycrosby77]

im afraid to say the out come was a healthy young pony was shot dead! no nice way of saying it,im so horrified,at the owner the vet all involved.

 

[AmyMay]

[ QUOTE ]
WHY WHY WHY would you suggest to shoot a reasonably healthy pony through no fault of its own was left to get in this state!

[/ QUOTE ]
Possibly because it had a headcollar growing in to its head - and no one had a cat's chance in hell of catching the poor bugger!

 

[Hettie]

[ QUOTE ]
Possibly because it had a headcollar growing in to its head - and no one had a cat's chance in hell of catching the poor bugger!

[/ QUOTE ]

Still sounds a bit extreme... Unless it was dangerous...? I bought a wild NF... and yes was stupid enough to let it straight out into 2 acre field (doh!!!). Thank god it loves food (bribery has worked a treat).

I don't understand why taking this headcollar off wasn't attempted before it caused this amount of damage?

 

[AmyMay]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't understand why taking this headcollar off wasn't attempted before it caused this amount of damage?

[/ QUOTE ]
Presumably because they thought they had more chance of catching it with it left on.

To be honest, as awful as it sounds, it was probably the kindest thing to do. I know I sound heartless - and those of you who know me will know that I'm not.

But it may well have taken another month if not two to get anywhere near that youngster again - by which time the headcollar would have been even more imbedded and more damage done. Months of work and treatment would then have been needed to be carried out in order for the flesh to heal.

Very sad though.

 

[matthew]

Is there no way of darting horses?

 

[mandycrosby77]

seems a very un sympathetic view!
It did not have a leg hanging off after all!
some peoples ideas amaze me!

 

[Blizzard]

We dont know just how imbedded the headcollar was, it could have already been quite bad, and trying to treat a wild horse wouldnt exactly be easy, such as cleaning the wounds etc after all the operating had been done.

Sadly more effort should have been made to tame the horse enough to be caught etc before it got to this stage.

 

[AmyMay]

[ QUOTE ]
seems a very un sympathetic view!

[/ QUOTE ]

Incredably - I agree.

But having seen the results of long term headcoller embedment (is that a word???) a sensible one.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
im afraid to say the out come was a healthy young pony was shot dead! no nice way of saying it,im so horrified,at the owner the vet all involved.

[/ QUOTE ]

How was it healthy when it had a headcollar embedded into it's skin/flesh etc?

 

[bensababy]

How was it healthy when it had a headcollar embedded into it's skin/flesh etc?

[/ QUOTE ]

hardly a life or death injury is it?so yes it was healthy certainly treatable - given time put in by the owner this should never have happened... no one to blame but theorselves.

 

[Nadia]

[ QUOTE ]
Is there no way of darting horses?

[/ QUOTE ]


Horses can be darted, ive known it happen - but only once. There was a pony at an old yard i used to livery at, he was pretty much wild and actually quite danerous. They darted him in the end because they couldn't catch him, turned out he was a very sick boy and was PTS in the end. But our vets were able to dart him first.

 

[Tempi]

how did you hear this story? do you know ALL the facts? no vet would advise putting down a pony without good reason.

 

[the watcher]

for Horsewatch I have been called out to capture horses, some of which are abandoned by people travelling through the area and are completely uncatchable.

We have had one darted so that we could get a headcollar and ropes on it, they have to give an antidote to wake them up and boy was it a handful when it woke up

Only a 13hh skinny neglected pony but took some hanging on to. we managed to get the Blue Cross to take it on, but it will never be suitable for rehoming(we weren't even sure she would survive initially, had obviously been pushing out foals and the back end was quite messed up)

There are potentially some really nasty complications with a headcollar completely grown in, expensive surgery potentially to remove it, danger of it being deformed or infected after and no real prospect of a useful life. It would probably only ever be a companion if it could be tamed, possibly not even that so this might have been the kindest thing.

 

[ladylisa]

I also bought a very scared wild pony, turned him out into 6 acres as i didnt have a stable, he managed to get his headcollar off himself and wouldnt let me anywhere near him, in the end i put electric fencing up to make him a little paddock, he followed a bucket of feed in there, spent hours with him each day, then made a little 6 by 6 pen and would feed him in there every day, the first time i closed the gate behind him he jumped out through the wood at the back, so i made it stronger.
Got him in it again but didnt try to do anything with him i just gave him treats, so that a week later i could get a headcollar on him, i did i little more with him each day and eventually he came round.
This is the sort of thing the woman should have done with this pony as to shut it in a pen and try to treat it straight away would have scared it out of its wits IMO.

 

[Happytohack]

Have replied to your previous post

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
How was it healthy when it had a headcollar embedded into it's skin/flesh etc?

[/ QUOTE ]

hardly a life or death injury is it?so yes it was healthy certainly treatable - given time put in by the owner this should never have happened... no one to blame but theorselves.

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviously. Goes without saying that this was a preventable incident....but if the pony was to all intents and purposes wild and removing the embedded item, then treating the wounds was going to cause the pony further distress then I can see the argument for putting it to sleep.
Had an infection set in at the wound site then this could have been potentially life threatening....

 

[GTs]

Killing it was the only thing to do - sometimes I am amazed how dumb some people are. So you sedate it, get the headcollar off, then what do you do? How are you going to clean it twice a day? Give it meds? The horse is lucky as with an owner like that I would rather be dead too!

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
Killing it was the only thing to do - sometimes I am amazed how dumb some people are. So you sedate it, get the headcollar off, then what do you do? How are you going to clean it twice a day? Give it meds? The horse is lucky as with an owner like that I would rather be dead too!

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh this is just too much!!! First I agree with Spiral then we start agreeing!

People'll think I've gone soft!!

 

[juliebrewer]

The only reason a vet would suggest PTS would be if the animal was suffering. It must of been bad case. Poor pony!!

 

[juliebrewer]

[ QUOTE ]
Killing it was the only thing to do - sometimes I am amazed how dumb some people are. So you sedate it, get the headcollar off, then what do you do? How are you going to clean it twice a day? Give it meds? The horse is lucky as with an owner like that I would rather be dead too!

[/ QUOTE ]

You could keep it in a stable and sadate it each day, ACP or sediline, surprising how wild animals do let you tend to them. Must of been a bad case..

 

[MagicMelon]

Agree with Jubbily. Of course you could try treating it. Horses have been rescued with horrendous injuries from embedded headcollars etc. but often there is a happy ending.

To shoot a otherwise healthy horse on the grounds that it was bad to catch is just awful. Nobody can comprehend that.

 

[GTs]

There is a difference between wild and hard to catch!