horses and general anesthesia

Freddy Smelly

not sure if this is the right area to ask, as i know nothing about horses, but

a friend had a horse that required stitches on his front leg, the vet put the horse under general anesthesia and stitched up the horse's wound. then the horse was left on it's own to recover... but while the horse was comming round it tried to stand up and it's back legs gave way and one of it's legs broke. it had to be put down in the end.

my question is what is the standard procedure vets should do when horses are coming round from general anesthesia... surely the horse should have been supervised or restrained until it was fully out of the G.A.?

the vet is trying to bill my friend for basically killing my friend's horse.... this to me sounds fishy.

golden8

Not going to comment on the case but there are two areas of concern any animal going under general anesthesia is a risk but has to be taken at times. Also any vet will tell you the coming out of the general anesthesia especially for large animals is dangerous as well, if they are in a padded recovery room there is a danger of animals falling down and breaking bones as well.

SillyMangoX

There is a very high mortality rate for horses that undergo general anaesthetic, they just dont do well with it. But in general you dont go near a horse recovering from anaesthetic, you stand well back and hope nothing like that happens, they are extremely dangerous when coming around. In most equine hospitals the horse is put in a padded room to minimise the risk, but these things do happen unfortunately. And as for restraining them, if this was done there would be an even higher incidence of horses dying in recovery. You can imagine if this horse had a head collar on and was tied to something and he tried to bolt when waking up because they often dont have a clue whats going on, thats his neck snapped. Or if theres anything around for restraining the horse, theres a risk of their legs or neck getting caught. General anaesthetic is just so so risky in horses, Im really sorry for what happened with your friends horse, breaking a leg in recovery is one of the biggest complications there is.

DBB

It is really dangerous to be in the same stable as a horse coming out of GA, and impossible to use restraint. The horse falls all over the place and is very disorientated for a while, so in general, they're either operated on in a padded stable, or if in their own home place, the stable can be well bedded up with straw bales padding the walls. But nobody should be in the box as the horse comes to.
The risk of injury when coming out of GA is pretty significant, and is probably deemed as a tragic, but not unacceptable risk you take. That is assuming that all reasonable precautions were taken.
So, just like if your dog or cat dies during an op, you still have to pay for it.
Horrible thing to happen. Really horrible. Your friend must be devastated.

Eta: snap Sillymango! I was writing at same time you were posting!

Freddy Smelly

ah ok thanks for your answers guys.

as i said i know nothing about horses myself.

he was a pet but i know my friend will want a new horse... so at least one lucky horse in a rescue home will get a new home soon.