Alternative Medical Care for your Horse Care for Horses with Arthritis

Not only Dogs and Cats are being abandoned by their owners but many other kinds of animals are being abandoned. There owners simply move out and do not take their horse along. My daughter recently adopted a horse who had been just left in a field. He is very personable. I can't even imagine leaving my pet behind, but with the cost of hay and vet care one can see why this is happening. Vets will not put suffering animals down except for huge fees and you better have pet insurance when walking through the door with a sick animal. People do not know what to do with their elderly sick animals when they die. This again is a very real problem as laws are strict about where you can bury an animal then with a large animal like a horse someone with a backhoe has to be hired, or you have to haul them to the dump and that is so disrespectful of the animal who has been your friend and given there all for you for years. This is not the only problem, you can't bury your animals on your land anymore. There are no more rendering plants or butchering animals as the animal rights people saw to that. And in their fever to be sure that animals were humanely butchered they have caused even worse problems. Animals are still being eaten, they just are shipped out of the country. Now if you are willing to adopt a horse then you have to be sure you have the patience and money to cover these problems.

If you are looking to keep your horse happy and healthy, you might be looking into several different types of horse care. There are plenty of alternative medical care faculties besides for the normal, run of the mill vet. You might be considering several of these other therapies for your horse, for whatever reason. If you are interested in these, it is usually best to ask your vet what they feel about them, and then be sure to do some research. Usually the alternative medical care is given in cases where the horse’s life is not at stake because this is a situation in which the alternative care is helping your horse to have a better life, and not necessarily trying to save its life. There are some situations in which you might want to explore alternative care if your horse has been in an accident and your vet has said the best thing to do is to put the horse down. However, the most popular alternative care is care that you wouldn’t normally associate with horse care.

Like humans, horses have muscles that work very hard. In recent times, a movement has begun where people have gotten trained in animal massage and acupuncture. The idea is that these things can help human muscles in a variety of ways, so it might be a good idea to try them out on animals as well. You might find that with both of these your horse is generally more happy, because they are often helping your horse with things that your horse might not even know are wrong, and things that you might not be able to tell bug your horse or cause it discomfort. With these therapies, it is important that you contact someone who has been trained in them, and someone who can do this very well, and who has done it for many other animals. This is a relatively new area, so you want to make sure that you are getting the best of the best, and that you aren’t running into problems by having someone who is not professional at what they do.

In other situations, ones that are more serious, a decision to explore alternative therapies is something that should be made between you and your family and your vet. There are alternative therapies that might help your animal if your vet has said there is no hope because of injury or sickness, but you always have to keep your animal’s best interest at heart and make sure that they aren’t going to suffer needlessly.Arthritis and the Older Horse - Remedies There are a variety of home remedies or treatments you can use for your senior horse companion if he is having a lot of pain and inflammation with his arthritis. And several of them can be done at the same time. The thing to remember is that your horse is an individual and may not take too kindly to some treatments, and be just fine with others. Treat them accordingly and go with the flow. If his joints are really swollen and painful and the Vet has suggested he be confined for a 24 hour or longer period, either use a box stall with lots of cushy hay or a small turn out pen with lots of soft grass underfoot. If your horse is herd sour and pitches a fit when out of sight of its buddy, put the buddy someplace close. The last thing you want is your sore horse to be fretting and pacing more trying to find his friend.

You can try using a flexible ice pack or even a bag of frozen peas tucked in a towel on the swollen joint for 5 minutes. Remove for 15 minutes, repeat 3 times in a row. If you can wrap the joint, then try a standing bandage to help reduce swelling and inflammation. You can also try Neo-Ice Equine bandages or an ice gel that provides deep penetrating action to help reduce edema and inflammation.

Since he'll just get as stiff as all get out if left standing in a stall, take him out twice a day and hand walk him. Remove his bandage first then walk for about 15 minutes to get limber. When you take him back to his stall or pen, rewrap the bandage. Every day gradually increase his exercise. You will need to do this about four times a day as he progresses and then also reduce the length of time he is to be confined to about half the original period of time. You'll be doing controlled exercises like hand-walking, ponying at a walk or slow trot or riding at a walk or slow trot. These all depend on what condition your senior is in, so use your discretion. If the swelling comes back, you need to slow down. If there is no swelling an hour after the exercise session(s) you should be able to turn your senior back out into this regular pasture and then slowly get back into an easy exercise program. If however there is swelling, you will need to call your Veterinarian to re-evaluate the situation.