Yesterday, Khaleel, my Arabian gelding, had his 27th birthday. (He’s the one in my avatar.) This afternoon, we had him euthanized. He had developed a degenerative condition in his hind suspensory tendons (think of them like your Achilles tendons). His condition was getting worse (and would never get better), and he was on three painkillers, without which he couldn’t stand up if he lay down. It was an agonizing decision to end his life, but the alternative was to risk that he would injure himself, and suffer a slow, painful death. The world was a better place for his having been in it, and we were blessed by this magnificent animal for almost 14 years. The world is worse off for his having left it. He was irreplaceable.
I am sorry dude.
Sorry to hear, have a drink for him tonight
I’m so terribly sorry to hear of your loss. Khaleel sounds like a wonderful friend and your memories of your 14 years together will always live on in your heart.
Two weeks ago I also had to euthanize my 15yo Korean Jindo dog. She had been my faithful companion for over 13 years and I consider losing her to be the hardest day of my life.
In my experience I found that a lot of talking (and crying) with my wife has helped me along in the grieving process. I’d also recommend the chat rooms at APLB.com or a pet loss support group. Finally, I’ve also found Wallace Sife’s “The Loss of a Pet: A Guide to Coping with the Grieving Process When a Pet Dies” to be a helpful guide.
Khaleel is surely grateful for all your love and care over the last 14 years – and also for your final act of compassion in granting him a peaceful and dignified passing.
Sorry for your loss S2000.
Condolences on your loss.
Thanks, guys.
If I could figure out how to post pictures here I’d post a couple.
^Ummm…your avatar?
Yes, and some others.
This part truly confuses me. For real. Hope you are in better spirits soon Magic.
Sorry for your loss S2000. Hope you are in better spirits today…
Sorry to hear that. I am sure he has had a nice life
sorry to hear about your loss.
are you planning on adopting another horse?
I am.
I want to get a young (say, 7 – 8 year old) grey Arabian gelding.
I want to ride in the Tevis Cup one of these years.
Sorry for your loss and all, but deleting my post? Just adding a bit of brevity.
“My horse turned 27” Yay!
“We killed it” Oh, um…damn.
That did indeed escalate quickly.
Sorry to hear about your loss. I thought the avatar was a small plastic figure…
If it’s any consolation I made a demo video on how to generate URLs for images on your PC.
Once you copied URL, you can post it here or just share the URLs as a list of links.
Maybe someone should invent horse crutches or something.
They’ve tried prosthetics on horses, but they never seem to do very well. Too much stress/strain, I suspect.
Sorry to be late to the party here, but yes, it sucks to lose someone you care about and have cared for, equine or human. I hope you bounce back quickly, and I’m sure that Khaleel was happy for the love you gave him.
It sounds like the decision you made - while tough - was the right one.
Last night my wife and I were relaxing a bit, watching Madam Secretary.
At the end of the episode, she’s reunited with her horse, Buttercup, who’s been away for the winter. It turned out that he had a tumor on his leg that had metastasized; she had to euthanize him.
I really, really didn’t need to see that.