strange wounds/attack on horse caused by animal/bird?

[thorwaldharry]

Hi,
My friends horse was found wednesday evening with bites scratches all along the left side of his body, some look like small bites others are scratches all shallow onkly skin deep. There are a couple of bites on the right side side but nothing on his legs, neck or rump. He has had 30 staples and was found sweatted up scared 2 fields away. There was another horse in the field untouvched but also dripping with sweat. This doesnt look like a human attack as they could not have stayed so close to him to do so much damage (he is a 17 hand showjumper) and there is no barb wire anywhere or dam,aged fencing. We are thinking it wasnt a dog or a "beast of bodmin" as the neck, legs etc wernt touched, could it have been a bird or prey??? Does anyone recognise the marks?? the small bites are about the size of a 2 pence piece

Many many thanks

 

[siani1989]

o my lord, cant see how the bird would have got that far under his stomach, they look very nasty poor horsey hope he gets better soon

 

[thorwaldharry]

we think he may be have been lying down when it started??

 

[siani1989]

o right ok, what did the vet say x

 

[thorwaldharry]

vet said that it looked like an animal. hope someone here may recognise the small bites...

 

[annunziata]

OMg that is terrible sorry no idea hope horsey gets better soon

 

[Rana]

That's awful! I don't think a bird of prey would take on a horse. Apparently Golden Eagles will occasionally take on a stag, but it's when food is scarce. Plus they're only found in mountainous areas (not sure where you are, but if you have grazing it's probably not too mountainous lol).

Can't think what else it would be though

Poor horsey, hope he feels better soon.

 

[the watcher]

If you have eliminated barbed wire (and it certainly looks like the horse rolled on wire) then it only leaves dogs, big cats and badgers - although my experience is that badgers normally only go for very sick or dead horses that are already down.
BTW big cats don't go for legs, although dogs do.

 

[thorwaldharry]

its very odd..... we only thought of the bird as there are no injurys low down perhapps buzzard protecting their young????.. very very odd ( were in southampton- fair oak)

 

[ladyt25]

Could be a large bird protecting young but seems rather odd. Looks almost like glass in some ways but then I am sure you would have found evidence of that? I would double check the field again but, if you say both horses were sweated up it does sound like some kind of 'attack' but a dog or cat type animal wouls surely leave teeth marks and you'd be able to see where the jaws were.

 

[thorwaldharry]

nothing in field at all, thats why we thgouj bird as there are no real jaw marks only come like the last picture.

 

[the watcher]

Don't think so much of jaw marks, think of claw marks dragging down, then those wounds make more sense.

 

[thorwaldharry]

 

[Baileyhoss]

could you email the pictures to an animal place where they know more about bites/attacks etc, like a zoo or bird of prey sanctury or something?

The marks seem to be in groupings of 3, but there are no specific 'claw' slashes.

 

[the watcher]

Looking again I can see the 'groupings if 3' too, in a very straight line - almost like a pitchfork/rake/farm implement.

 

[Leg_end]

How awful

Poor you and horsey

Hope neither of you suffer to much in the long term

 

[Thistle]

remember a big cat would rip open the abdomen first when starting a meal

 

[Stacie_and_Jed]

Maybe ive seen tomany documentaries but if you look at the first pic you have a big area of wounds in the middle and then two areas on either side!

Claws on either side and the teeth in the middle???

Poor thing must have been scared sh!tless what ever it was that attacked it!

 

[Chestnuttymare]

don't think it was a bird of prey, a guy who hasa really aggressive eagle told me it would attack me but wouldn't go for a horse.
i can't think what would have caused these injuries. what does vet think?
what area is it, are there any big cats where you are.
poor biy must have been so terrified.

 

[Rana]

Hmm....Interesting thought about a buzzard protecting it's young, but to be honest, I think most of the young have fledged already, and I've never seen one act as aggressively as that (remember, buzzards get chased off by crows!).

The Hawk Conservancy Trust near Andover are really really helpful (google will come up with their web address) and might be able to tell you if a bird of prey could have caused those wounds.

A big cat would have gone for the back/neck first, to bring the prey down, before ripping the abdomen. I suppose it's possible a large cat (but not lion sized) has tried to bring him down, but I think anything big enough to cause those wounds would have succeeded.

Not sure how dogs or wolves would attack - don't they normally go for the jugular?

I would be checking and rechecking your field, and the fields he escaped into. He may have escaped from his nice, safe field, found some barbed wire to roll on (as suggested above), and he and his friend were then upset at being separated and got all excited and sweated up.

Sorry for the long post, been mulling this over all morning!

 

[wizzi901]

I would really check your fields, I think you will find a logical explanation for this, I dont feel it would be a bird of prey at all they just dont attack horses in this way. It could have been a dog even, but not a bird.

I feel strongly (having experienced a barbed wire incident yesterday!) that this is some man made object this horse as scraped past or rolled on. Sounds more like horse was panicing as he was out of his field and caused the damage somehow.

Hope he recovers poor boy x

 

[xnaughtybutnicex]

TBH it looks like a person attacked your horse more than a bird!(i know that isn't likely) i agree maybe a smaller, big cat(if that makes sense) could have done it, but depends on the area you live in and the types of cat that live there. I don't think a dog would have done it either as it looks more like scratches(claws) than bite marks(if a dog had bitten you would most likely have a full teeth set mark somewhere, given the amount of injuries she has and you would most likely be finding a very injured dog not too far away as i'm quite sure your horse would have been kicking out)

Sorry about the essay and lack of help.

 

[xnaughtybutnicex]

You sure it couldn't be sharp stones, nails, wire ect.??

 

[Fransurrey]

You said he was found two fields away. The fact that these all seem to be in one area suggests to me that something DID frighten them both, but he got these injuries in getting away. What is in between the place he's kept and where he was found? Thorns? Barbed wire? I know you said that your fencing isn't damaged and he has no wire, but those wounds look like barb wounds to me, like he's fallen onto a fence or hawthorn hedge. I've never in my life heard of a badger attacking a horse and those wound don't look deep enough to involve canine teeth and the pattern is wrong.

Hope he's ok. It looks very, very sore!

 

[bexandspooky]

Looks to me like a dog attack - lots of little puncture wounds including two side by side that look like top and bottom canines meeting together.

Some dogs attack the side of an animal (rather then a collie type who would naturally nip heels)

Try e-mailing london zoo - or one of the other zoos, they normally have specialists in these kinda things

 

[thorwaldharry]

all post and railo fencing, clean wounds no thorns bark or anything in then

 

[Baileyhoss]

If you get to the bottom of this, please let us know.

F x

 

[Donkeymad]

That looks awful. I can say with pretty much certainty, it is not bird, as my old mare was recently seen being 'attacked' by large birds. The marks were nothing like these, and far fewer of them. Hope you can find out what it was/what happened.

 

[henryhorn]

The only similar thing I've seen was a badger attack on a mare lying down who was blind in one eye, he attacked her blind side. , but your horse would hardly lie down long enough for a badger to attack it would it?
I'd go with some large mammal such as a lynx that someone has set free.
I know one thing, I wouldn't put my animals back in that area until I had checked for tracks and sat up a few nights with a powerful torch.
Our badger attacked lambs too and mysteriously "disappeared" soon after to be found apparently run over on the road. Not sure how he got the got the gunshot wounds but you can't really blame the farmer..