suspensory nightmare

iduck

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5 June 2013
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I have a wonderful old welsh pony who I am extremely attached to. he fractured his splint and for some reason, although he has been improving all the time, he is still lame 9 months on. The break is healed but he did damage to his suspensory ligament too. he has chronic swelling in his left fore.
My problem is, it has been such a long time that i am starting to lose faith in this and wonder whether it would be better just to put him down. He is 21. The thing is, he has so much energy. He tries to canter off whenever he is in an open field, loves chasing me around the paddock, and is so keen to go out hacking.
There is no heat in the leg, and you can poke and prod it to your hearts content- he doesn't feel a thing. But i don't understand- surely if he is lame, it must be hurting him? Note also he is very overweight (despite only getting restricted grazing) which does not help at all.

I really don't know what to do now. we are going to the vet on Tuesday to get another opinion. the vet seems optimistic. The reason I think to put him down is because I know that standing in a field all day is not enough for him; he lives on his own and used to have a fairly significant workload- he loves to be active. I don't know where to go from here. So, if it were you, what would you do?
 
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Get the second opinion.

But really go by what your pony tells you.
If he's happy in life let then great, if he's sad then putting to sleep may be kinder.

Why does he live alone?
Can't he be a companion, grandading youngster or something?
 
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