If your horse has pain face every day, and you’ve done what vet care you can, it’s time for euthanasia.
My Wobbler looks great. Good weight - even gained a little recently - still running about the paddock, rolling, looking for his treats… And he spent the end of last week and the weekend biting my hands.
Biting at my hands was his “I’m too uncomfortable to carry you today” signal. But he was actually putting his teeth on my hands. I pulled away as I didn’t want to risk him being serious about biting. He’s had two unplanned sits when he lost his hind end footing in the last month, and… well… details aren’t really necessary here.
As our horse’s advocates we need to see them as they are, not as we remember. We should be thoughtful about what we see, test ideas, and practice putting it into words. Because our vets see the horse in a moment, often a vet presence induced, anxious moment. They don’t know that cold, or wet, or bugs, or mud, or whatever is something that makes our specific horse worse. They don’t know what our horse’s daily life is like. By our practicing this, should it come time to euthanize, we are ready to articulate what factors have brought us to this decision.
I had to tell the vet I’d first met six months previously that I was going to give my Wobbler the summer as long as he stayed comfortable, and euthanize in the fall before it got cold. I was able to explain his behaviour and response to cold weather, articulate the risks, where my acceptance of those risks ended and why. And the vet, who had commented on how good he looked at our spring vaccination appointment, told me that they felt I really knew my horse, and agreed it was the right decision.
Would that have happened if I didn’t have the words to express that thoughtful knowledge? Quite probably not, and yet this is the relationship we need to have with our vets. They need to be confident in our knowledge of our horses. This takes time. At our very first appointment I could tell they were listening to what I said, but not truly integrating it into their exam/diagnosis. After so many years of having that deeper trust level with my vets, it was very off putting and I almost wanted to try a different vet. But I did remember the need to build that relationship, and I am glad that I stayed with them.
