The elephant in the picture is an unfortunate “lucky one”, because it accidentally stepped on a landmine and blew off its front right leg. Fortunately, it was because people installed a prosthesis to make it Live normally again.
Elephant with prosthetic front right leg
There are many animals in nature like this elephant, who lost a leg accidentally, but not every animal can survive, such as horses.
So why does an elephant who loses a leg survive and a horse who has a broken leg must die?
“lame” elephant
The elephant we mentioned above, named Mosha, was forced to live a “disabled” life because he accidentally stepped on a landmine when he was 7 months old.
Mosha installs its new prosthesis in Thailand
Later, the famous plastic surgeon Therdchai Jivacate discovered the injured Mosha and observed that Mosha had a scoliosis in her spine due to the long-term support of her body on three legs. Without a proper prosthesis for her, Mosha would not be able to walk any longer, suffer more severe damage, and eventually die slowly.
So, it didn’t take long for him to combine the actual situation to help Mosha create a functional prosthesis, so that it could live a normal “elephant” life again.
It is worth mentioning that as Mosha’s weight continues to increase, people are also helping her to continuously improve her prosthetic limbs to ensure that the pressure-bearing capacity of the prosthetic limbs can become stronger, so that Mosha can live a normal life when she grows up. Mosha’s prosthesis is also the world’s first special prosthesis.
After Mosha’s deeds were published in the newspaper, many people came to
Today, Mosha, a teenager, is still healthy and her prosthetic limbs are in excellent condition. This seems to prove that people can help “crippled animals” to have a normal life again. In this case, can a horse with a broken leg live a normal life with the help of humans? Why is there a conclusion that a horse cannot survive if its leg is broken?
fragile horse legs
As an animal that was domesticated by humans a long time ago, the horse has always had a very close relationship with humans. It can not only lead warriors to the battlefield, but also help people carry goods. However, a horse that is considered to be perfect by humans has extremely fragile legs.
As early as the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, there was a horse named Jet Set whose ligaments were ruptured due to excessive force on the hind legs during the athlete’s competition, and the right lower limb could not be repaired. The veterinarian recommended euthanasia. Hot discussion. After all, it is suggested to end the life just by breaking a hind leg, which does not seem to be in line with the characteristics of human beings who love life.
Jet Set euthanized after match
But you know what? Even if a horse loses only one leg, the rest of its life will be painful and short.
First of all, in terms of appearance, the horse’s legs are very thin and the bones are relatively light, with “slender and beautiful legs” that many people envy. However, behind this beauty actually hides fragility, because the horse’s whole body weight will be pressed on the four fragile horse legs, and what is even more terrifying is that this horse leg is only its “toe bone”.
In short, horses actually use their third knuckles to walk all the time, which is equivalent to walking on tiptoes, and the weight and pressure of the whole body are concentrated on one point.
Skeletons of horses and humans
However, thanks to a long period of evolution, horses have learned to spread the weight evenly across their four legs, and also use the muscles of the shoulders to reduce the burden on the legs.
Because of this, once a horse loses a leg, the center of gravity of the entire body will be unbalanced, and it cannot continue to stand at this time.
So can’t horses lie down and rest?
Of course not.
As a herbivore, the food that horses eat basically needs to be metabolized by exercise, and the horse’s innate sense of self-protection tells them that in order to avoid the enemy in time and quickly, they must not lie down and sleep, so even if the leg is injured, the horse will Nor will it lie down and rest. But this will undoubtedly exacerbate the hurt.
The grass that horses eat is fibrous and needs to be metabolized by exercise
At this time, some people may say, if people treat horses with broken legs in time and install prosthetics on them, will they be able to live normally?
From research and experiments, it is very difficult to repair a broken bone because of the numerous and fragile bones in a horse’s leg. There are two problems with prosthetics for horses. The first is the blood-pumping function of the horse’s leg.
It turns out that the hard tissue on the horse’s hoof pumps the blood at the end of the horse’s hoof back to the rest of its body. This blood circulation method is called “hoof machine circulation”.
This means that if people inject anesthesia into the injured horse’s leg during the treatment, it will seriously affect the blood circulation of the horse’s body and cause damage to other organs in the body.
Structure of horse legs and blood circulation
The second problem is that the cost of making a prosthesis for a horse is very high. Although this prosthesis does not use as many materials as an elephant prosthesis, the materials are very expensive. In this case, rescuing a horse that has lost a leg is particularly difficult.
High cost of prosthetics for horses
If it is a horse raised at home or a racing horse, after encountering a broken leg, people may “rescue” it, but this kind of rescue is often aimed at minor injuries, and it cannot be moved a second time, after all The lesion spreads very fast after the horse’s leg is broken, and continued movement or movement will cause secondary damage to it.
And if wild horses are unfortunately fractured in the natural environment, then they can only be paralyzed in place and wait to die, and there is no chance of survival.
The characteristics of the broken leg of the horse are extremely obvious and visible to the naked eye.
This is probably the price that must be paid after making different evolutionary choices. After all, from the evolutionary history of horses, it evolved a hoof-shaped structure in order to allow itself to run faster. In this case, the slender lower part of the horse’s leg that everyone sees is actually not the real horse’s leg, but its “foot”.
Schematic diagram of the hoof structure of a horse
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the risk of fracture or death, horses have also suffered some “injuries” originating from humans in the process of coexisting with humans day and night.
Sources of damage to horse legs
The ancestors of horses appeared in North America as early as 57 million years ago, and they left many fossils. There are different opinions as to when exactly people domesticated the creature.
Most accounts hold that the domestication of horses originated independently in multiple regions. For example, the Iberian Peninsula, European grasslands, northern Kazakhstan and other places are considered to be one of the origins of domestic horse domestication.
The origin samples of domesticated horses are basically located in the north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea
After people tame horses, they often use them as means of transportation and transportation. Whether it is the former or the latter, it is a kind of “injury” for the horse.
Because we mentioned in the previous article, the fragility of the horse’s legs is in sharp contrast with the weight of its body, and it is not easy to bear on itself, and the weight of the person must be added. In this case, it is not necessary to say how the horse feels. And metaphor.
In addition to “carrying forward”, the hard roads in the city are also a kind of torture for horses. You know, even though its horseshoes are very hard, the wear and tear is still very serious during the accumulated walking process.
Therefore, in order to protect the horseshoes, people will nail heavy horseshoes to them.
Where to install the horseshoe
Although this is equivalent to hitting nails where the nails protrude, it will not make the horse feel pain, but the existence of horseshoes will still make the horse feel “uncomfortable”. After all, wild horses never wear iron shoes, so this It is a burden to it.
But no amount of pain can compare to the loss of a leg that hits the horse. Even many horses seem to know that losing a leg means death, so when they collapse on the ground, they will only struggle in the early stage, and then they will bow their heads and “resign”.
Horse with a broken leg struggles hopelessly