What is the best option to put down my old horse?

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xztessiezxkizzy

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May 30, 2007
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I have a 25 year old grey arab who has done everything i have asked of him and he is such a lovely and brilliant horse who i don't want to let go. He has melanomas on him sheath but don't really bother him he also has bad artharitis, but recently he has lose a huge amount of weight and he has been on lush grass for 2 months and is being feed morning and night with chaff, mix,sugarbeet and other supplements aswell as being rugged up at night.

I have decided that it is probs best to let him go but i don't know which way it best to put him down :(

whats best way the injection or to have him shot by the vet?
please advice.
 
It's always a horrible decision but you will be doing the right thing for your old friend.

I think the choice is yours but personally I always go for the vet and the bullet. It is the most shocking for us but quick for them and they don't know a thing, just one minute you are stuffing in the carrots and the next they drop like a stone.
I can still feel tears come though remembering....
Go easy on yourself afterwards.
 
I've looked into (I work on if your prepared you don't need it philosophy) several of the "funeral services", they sound (if one can afford it) very good, etc but have never read of anyone using them outside of their own site recommendations.

There was an article in Your Horse recently on pros and cons and it left me still undecided. The only experiences I have had was my beloved dog, by injection seemed very peaceful, and my friend having her horse shot but she had no choice due to finances, another school horse by injection in his stable because of where he was and other horses were around and he was already down.

What ever you decide will be right for YOU, we can only do our best at this difficult time and making the decision is the hardest one you have had to make. All the best
 
it's a very personal thing, and ultimately i am not sure it makes a lot of difference.

the main thing to consider is the aftermath - how would you be disposing of the body? hunt kennels need them to be shot, they can't have been PTS by injection. if you're not going down that route, then the consideration is the aftermath - obviously injection is cleaner and simpler. (sorry to bring it up, but shooting can of course be very messy, and it's upsetting ot have to deal with that later.)

i've only ever seen them done by injection, and it has been calm and easy - they've been sedated first so they go down gently and go to sleep, then they are already asleep when they stop breathing.

ever so sorry that you have ot make the decision.
 
it depends on cost and how the horse is

if he is ok with injections, then the injection is very quick and very peaceful, they just drop - however if they are bad with needles then this could be very stressful and shooting would be faster/less stressful.

you can have your horse eating a feed so that they are distracted. if you are going to have them shot, then don't use the vet, get a slaughterman or hunt kennels as they are used to doing it - our vets don't shoot so when Mouse donkey needed to be pts and they couldn't get a vein, we almost had to have her shot and you could see the vets really did not want to do it as they hadn't used that method for a while.

disposal of body - you can't bury now in england so if they are injected they have to be cremated £100-300 or so depending on whether or not you have an individual cremation or not. If they are shot they can be cremated or fed to the hounds - it's really up to you.

it's not a nice topic but if the horse has not picked up over summer, then winter will not be good for him, so you are right to consider putting him down before you are in the middle of a wet winter and it is an emergency. the horse charity i am involved with does a cull in september, the slaughterman comes out and shoots the ones that had a difficult previous winter and havne't picked up in the summer, it is always sad but as the vet says, better today than in the mud, with a distressed horse who is down in the field and we have to drag the body all that way as we can't get a vehicle in as it is too soft.

if you can be there, as they hear your voice right to the end.
 
I can't advise from experience, as thankfully I'm not there yet. I have given it a fair bit of thought though in preparation for when the times comes. I have heard that shooting is instant when it goes well, but that sometimes the horse moves at the crucial moment, resulting in not getting a clean shot . Terrible thought. However, I saw a horse shot in a recent TV programme called 'Lay of the Land' and it was amazingly peaceful and reasuring.

I'm sorry you find yourself in this situation, but remember you are giving your horse something so precious - a good death, so many people chicken out of that and just find a way of moving them on to make it easier on themselves.
 
Sadly I have seen many horses PTS over the years.

I would always choose the knacker man over the Vet. The knacker does the job day in and day out so he is experienced. No messing about and no tension. The horse never hears the 'bang' as the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound. The knacker man will take the body away right away so there is no waiting.

A Vet may not have shot many horses in their career and you still have to arrange for disposal.

If you go for shooting, make sure that they use a pistol with a free bullet, not a bolt gun.

I would not want my horses last memory to be an injection!

Whatever you do, it is better for the horse if you are not there at the time. They pick up on your emotions. I have an arrangement with a friend, we swap! If she has one that needs shooting I go along and she for me.

It is nice to have a trusted friend there to tell you that all went well.
 
Personally I would go for the gun but with a knackerman

I dont know if I would want to be there, it would depend on the horse. If I bred it myself I would have to be there, I would have seen it into the world and I would have to see it out. Thankfully I do not have to make that decision yet.
 
a friends mare was PTS earlier in the year by injection and i would choose this option too. she was sedated first and went very peacefully. younger, fitter horses can fight it but i think those that are older and weaker tend to go without much of a fuss.

i wouldn't want my horses last memory to be a bullet... but i do understand that its a much quicker option.

my friend had arranged for a cremation service, they came just after the mare had been pts and she had said her last goodbyes, loaded her onto a flatbed trailer in a pretty dignified manner (the vet held her head as she was winched up the ramp). the mares ashes are still with her until she feels she can let go and will either bury them or scatter them in the field with the herd.
 
Sorry to read that you're facing such a tough decision. As others have said, far better that he doesn't have to face the misery of another winter.

I personally would have mine shot; I'd worry that the needle would sting and the initial anaesthetic make her feel odd. Far rather that she knows nothing more than a bucket of her favourite foods and a gentle rub on the forehead.
 
i have thought about this (as we must at some point) and i think a bullet by the knacker man would be less traumatic, its over in a split second.

Ive never seen a horse PTS but my cat who we'd had since before i was born was put down last year by injection at the end of september (at the grand old age of 18) and me and my mum just couldnt stay - we were in floods of tears and we didnt want him to see us upset (he always tried to cuddle up to make you feel better) so we gave him a hug and left, the vet was lovely and promised to stay with him. It was heartbreaking but he was very ill and in constant pain. It was the kindest thing to do, he was arthritic and suffered in cold weather - we gave him one last summer and then said goodbye.
 
i experienced this on friday with a friends horse :( not the same circumstances but the horse was injected and he went down peacefully. I didn't watch but i know the person that stood with the horse said it was peaceful. the horse was in a lot of pain and i highly doubt that he felt the needle :(
In Scotland you CAN bury pets so the horse was allowed to be buried. i think it would have been very messy with a gun.

I think it really is personal preference and depends on what people are around and the circumstances.

my first pony was pts when i was very young and my mum informed me it was peaceful.
 
I'm very fortunate this decision was taken out of my hands two weeks ago when I found Shamrock, my 38 year old cob dead in his stable..he'd suffered what appeared to be a heart attack.:(

When I do have to make a choice with my other two though, I will definately opt for the injection as I've witnessed my friend's horse being PTS by this method and it was very dignified and peaceful.
 
oh poor you.......the hardest decision to make. You must do what you feel most comfortable with, and we can only offer our personal experiences.

I've sadly been through this too many times, both for myself and for my clients. The injection is indeed less messy, tho some more highly strung horses can fight it which can be upsetting. Others have dropped as quick as with the bullet. Not all shootings are messy - but you cant tell beforehand. After witnessing both, my preferred method for the HORSE is the bullet, but not by a vet - knackermen are much more practised. My preferred method for MYSELF is the injection as it is less violent.

In both cases, if options are available, i choose to sedate - but i think again that is more for my peace of mind rather than for the horse. I'm likely to have one of my old girls PTS before the winter, and i will be having her shot.

Whichever route you take will not be easy, but god bless you for making that very hard decision in the interest of your horse
 
Your horses symptoms are identical to mine. He was a n older boy, with no sarcoids or the like, just one summer he never put the weight on, and in August , inspite of being on lush grass and having his teeth done he just kept dropping.

That horse had been with me from childhood, and I owed him a great deal, he NEVER made a fool of me in public and won many a ribbon.

I decided to have him PTS with injection I wish now I had had him shot as he put up a fight and it took a long time for his heart to stop and he did a lot of thrashing.

I have a superb slaughternam who can drop them instantly without any prolonged messing about. It's messy, but very, very quick.
 
I had a really truamatic experience just days before Christmas last year. My dad's old pony Tinker had laminitis again, the only options for us was to keep him stabled 24/7 as electric fences he went over/under or straight through depending who or what was on the other side! As Tink was a pet, we didn't think this would give him a fair quality of life, so decided to have him shot, at home.
The knacker man came, poor old Tink hobbled down to the gate and I stood there stroking him and telling him how much we were going to miss him. The knacker man put the gun to his head, pulled the trigger and .. Nothing! I have never witnessed a horse shot before, so didn't have a clue what was going on. Anyway, with my heart in my mouth, and Tink looking a bit bewildered, he tried again....and again with no bullet coming out of the gun!
He then proceeded to fire the gun across the field, that worked, but would not work on the fourth attempt with poor Tink.
At this point, I am, as you can probably imagine, a quivering wreck and I told the knacker man, very impolitely to go forth and multiply.
I then phoned my farrier, who gave me the number of a local vet, who had retired, but was still doing some private work. I rang him and he was there within a couple of hours to put Tinker to sleep via injection. It was quick, gentle and he was soooo caring, being very gentle with the pony at every step of the way.
He only charged enough to cover the cost of the anaesthetic etc, so cost £35.
The knackerman came back to pick up the body a very short while later, he was to be incinerated, at no charge. I should think not after the debacle that had happened with him earlier!
So, on the basis of that experience, I would never have another pony shot.

(Sorry for the long post)
 
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