The last thing for a horse

SkyPup · Apr 7, 2010

Soundguy said:
does that muscle relaxer also have a calming effect?

soundguy

100% instant gentle knockdown, but only lasts about a minute or so due to the cholinesterases breaking it down, so you must instantly follow up with something lethal while they are paralyzed. I use a .22 Magnum FMJ.

Richard · Apr 9, 2010

SARG said:
I had personally put down one of my animals 35 years ago. I have never done it again ..... nor will I.

Long lasting heartache that will never go away. May be beneficial and painless for the critter but the personal trauma lasted me a lifetime.

I agree as well.

We had two dogs that were dumped on our (dead end) road. Put a Hav-a-heart type trap out (county provided) and were able to catch one of the dogs. The other, smarter (and more aggressive) dog simply would not go into that cage. We even tried to put some valium in some food to simply make him sleepy so we could collar him and hand him to the county. Didn't work.

Was outside in the woods one day walking home in the dark and I heard some deep gutteral growl behind me. It was this dog.

With nieces/nephews running around, I decided we could not trust this dog. I knew he happened to enjoy following the truck.

I got the .22, jumped in the truck and drove out to one of the back fields. Got out of the truck and he was 40/50 feet away just staring at me as though he was wondering why we stopped.

Put the sights to my eye and he stood there facing me.

Must have been a lucky shot as he dropped harder than you could drop a watermellon. Simply crumpled in place. Went up to check on him and he was gone.

Drove truck home, jumped onto backhoe and drove back, dug hole and buried him.

This was a stray that was tearing up things and groweling at us and I STILL to this day, 4-5 years later.... have it fresh in my mind and feel bad about it. I feel it had to be done but that doesn't diminish the vision of him looking right at me as I pulled the trigger.

To do that to one of the family dogs....(or any other family animal), wow... I think I'd suffer nightmares.

hitekcountry · Apr 10, 2010

This thread got me thinking about this subject in a way I had never given any thought to before. I don't have a problem putting down an animal that was raised to be butchered for its meat. I was brought up that way, and although I never cared for that part of the process, once it was done it was done and I never gave it a second thought. But when it comes to putting down an animal that falls into the category of pet, it's very different. I can and have done it, but it's like SARG said it's a "long lasting heartache that will never go away".

tw30 · Apr 10, 2010

why not just buy a stem cell injection for it ? they inject stems cells into the area and it rebuilds the bone etc. they do this on old races horse who are beat down and their even beat the younger race horses

czechsonofagun · Apr 10, 2010

hitekcountry said:
This thread got me thinking about this subject in a way I had never given any thought to before. I don't have a problem putting down an animal that was raised to be butchered for its meat. I was brought up that way, and although I never cared for that part of the process, once it was done it was done and I never gave it a second thought. But when it comes to putting down an animal that falls into the category of pet, it's very different. I can and have done it, but it's like SARG said it's a "long lasting heartache that will never go away".

Not just pets, seems like every kill I remember, even the deer but I hunt for 3 years only now - makes it easier.
When we just moved to the country from suburbs, my oldest came in and said "there is some weird animal out there" I checked it out and it was a groundhog with half of the body flatenned. It was pulling itself using front legs and dragging the rest. Rookies we were we called the animal control - and they asked us if we have a shovel. Back than I did not have even 22 and I really had to use the shovel to take it out. I did the right thing, but it still sticks to me.

Soundguy · Apr 10, 2010

I saw a possum like that one day at work.. half flat.. dragging itself..pitiful thing..

soundguy

QRTRHRS · May 17, 2010

We had to put a horse down last Friday. I happened to off of work fortunately. When my wife and I got up, we noticed our 33 year old Arabian mare laying flat out. She had not been going out to pasture much lately so to see her down was not unexpected. The bute, the shots, etc. did not help and by noon she was more down than up. I had called the vet early on but he could not get to us. It was near seven pm until the vet came. He agreed that she probably had an impaction. We all agreed that any kind of mineral oil treatment, etc. was just not going to work all things considered so we put her down.

FTL Athena was my wife's pride and joy. At age eleven, she was in the top national five in English Pleasure. My wife had purchased her at around age five or so. To suggest a quick end would have been futile.

Pretty much the only animals I have shot for sport for the last several years have been ground hogs. I don't think about anything but not blinking for them. For anything else, I say a prayer and ask for forgiveness for what I need to do. I would not dump an unwanted or dangerous animal for someone else to deal with either.