DannyBoy22
Member
Hi all,
I took my beautiful old boy DannyBoy, turned 22 this month, to the vets yesterday and it's been decided that following a nasty fall a few weeks ago he needs to be retired permanently.
Tests showed that he has got arthritis in all 4 legs and his back which will have been developing for sometime but has been hidden by him and his eagerness to continue until the fall has made it rear it's ugly head. The vet has said considering how bad it is and how much pain and discomfort he is in she would expect him to be a lot lamer and not really wanting to move.
He has also developed scurvy which she has put down to him being generally run down and lacking vitamin E, the vet is slightly concerned that he hasn't put on any weight staying at 475kg (he's a big built 15.1HH Sectioned D Welsh Cob) despite the new summer grazing and is pretty convinced from cuttings out of his ear that he has come from a travellers community at some point which would obviously mean a lot of trotting etc on roads which won't have helped his legs and also thinks he might be slightly older than we think despite him having very good teeth even for 22. I can only trace his history back as far as 10 -12 years ago.
For now she has said if he is happy plodding in the field with his sister and maybe occasionally having 15-20min no more walks in hand (to help his mental state not physical because he can't be cured) then we will try him on bute (1 and half daily) for a month with vegetable oil and a supplement containing vitamin E and others which includes a muscle anti-oxident in his feed to see if we can give him a bit of a boost and make him comfortable, if not then she said we will need to think about having him PTS or if we can make him comfortable pump him full of bute for the rest of his life.
His liver and kidneys have been tested and they are fine.
He was put on bute, at the same dose, for 2 weeks after the fall and to be honest we didn't see a difference.
What would you do? Is it fair to put him through all this as he has worked so hard all his life? Won't the bute kill him anyway? I'm such a mess I can't think straight. He couldn't do a simple flexion test and go into walk yesterday!
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I took my beautiful old boy DannyBoy, turned 22 this month, to the vets yesterday and it's been decided that following a nasty fall a few weeks ago he needs to be retired permanently.
Tests showed that he has got arthritis in all 4 legs and his back which will have been developing for sometime but has been hidden by him and his eagerness to continue until the fall has made it rear it's ugly head. The vet has said considering how bad it is and how much pain and discomfort he is in she would expect him to be a lot lamer and not really wanting to move.
He has also developed scurvy which she has put down to him being generally run down and lacking vitamin E, the vet is slightly concerned that he hasn't put on any weight staying at 475kg (he's a big built 15.1HH Sectioned D Welsh Cob) despite the new summer grazing and is pretty convinced from cuttings out of his ear that he has come from a travellers community at some point which would obviously mean a lot of trotting etc on roads which won't have helped his legs and also thinks he might be slightly older than we think despite him having very good teeth even for 22. I can only trace his history back as far as 10 -12 years ago.
For now she has said if he is happy plodding in the field with his sister and maybe occasionally having 15-20min no more walks in hand (to help his mental state not physical because he can't be cured) then we will try him on bute (1 and half daily) for a month with vegetable oil and a supplement containing vitamin E and others which includes a muscle anti-oxident in his feed to see if we can give him a bit of a boost and make him comfortable, if not then she said we will need to think about having him PTS or if we can make him comfortable pump him full of bute for the rest of his life.
His liver and kidneys have been tested and they are fine.
He was put on bute, at the same dose, for 2 weeks after the fall and to be honest we didn't see a difference.
What would you do? Is it fair to put him through all this as he has worked so hard all his life? Won't the bute kill him anyway? I'm such a mess I can't think straight. He couldn't do a simple flexion test and go into walk yesterday!
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
