Can't afford vet bills

[needadviceplease25]

Hello

Hoping for advice off experienced horse owners. I'm desperate.

My family member owned a 14 year old cobb. He has CPL & extensive damage to his teeth & gums from the cpl.

Unfortunately she passed away very unexpectedly a few months ago, before anything could be sorted for the horse.
There wasn't much money left for the horse after the funeral was paid for.
We've discovered a outstanding vet bill and once that's paid there's only half a grand left.

The vet has said he has broken teeth, wobbly teeth basically top & bottom front & side teeth all need removing leaving only the backs. We're looking at 2-4 grand once this is all done, way way way out of the budget obviously. This doesn't include any vet bills for vaccaines or his Cpl.

Me and my husband cannot afford this. It's simply out of our budget. My husbands brother (whose passport the name is in) said we can get it all on a payment plan but we still can't afford it + livery costs/food/hay/creams etc!

Does anyone know exactly what we're looking at budget wise for the bills? One tooth is completely broken, foods getting in the teeth, extensive gum disease. He needs sedating everytime someone looks at his teeth.

Am I wrong in saying this is insane and we need to say enough is enough to husbands brother that we cannot afford this? One more vet bill and the money left will most likely be completely wiped out.
The brother won't consider putting to sleep, and says they will loan him out but we're still going to be left in massive debt with vet bills!
He also has Cpl so no doubt he's going to be need to be seen by the vet a lot in his lifetime. I honestly feel like crying. None of us ride, none of us want a horse it seems mad.

I think the issue here is kicking the can down the road. Yes you could loan him now if the condition is not advanced. And yes if it is just at this juncture minimal maintenance of clipping feathers and keeping clean then someone might take that on. But, it will undoubtedly get worse, and at that juncture when you are calling out vets due to lameness or chronic infections etc (especially the depths of a wet muddy winter) and having very large vets bills landing on the doormat you might regret not making the decision sooner. It is really hard OP because undoubtedly the yard owner has an emotional attachment to the horse and would not like to see it PTS, but the reality is some people simply can't afford it and loaning him out is not necessarily the perfect answer. It might just keep things at bay for a bit.

It feels advanced having near enough all his teeth out, he also has mites that no matter what won't go away.

The horse doesn't have a great future unless someone is extremely dedicated to his welfare and willing to pay a lot of money for his care and upkeep.

Unfortunately there are many other horses out there that don't have health problems that are going to be preferred over and above this horse.

Personally I would not want that horse being continually passed around different people which is the most likely outcome and I would have the horse euthanised.

OP this is sad but as a horse owner Myself its far far preferable to have a horse with multiple or complex issues put to sleep rather than allow them to suffer or be passed around.

Also please consider- euthanasia for equines costs a LOT. Circa 1k in total, £ 500 for the vet fees ( the euthanasia drugs are very expensive) and around £500 for ‘disposal’. You say you only have around that left so you need to decide quickly what to do.

£1000 to PTS?! God. There isnt even that to cover!

Will get DH onto it, he really needs to have a honest talk with his brother and explain otherwise the brother is going to end up with a eye watering bill.

The insurance might cover disposal

I’m still confused as to why it’s your (or your DH’s) responsibility to pay for everything but the horse is under the control of the brother?
If he’s not paying then he doesn’t get to choose, the best thing all round is to pts, you don’t need a vet and even bigger bills to do it. A knacker man can do it, very humanely and sensitively ( more so than some vets!) I had to have my boy pts, I used the local knacker man, he was very caring and sensitive, all done peacefully for £230, carcass taken away too. If you’re in Lancashire area I can give you his number.

If he has no front teeth & can't eat grass properly he'll cost a lot to feed- doubt anyone would take him on as a loan with feed cost and expected vet bills.
Honestly having him PTS sounds the kindest thing, I don't know about CPL but sounds miserable & uncomfortable. Why pay huge vets bills when he's just going to go through more pain.
As above I've had two horses shot at the end, it's very quick and they have absolutely no clue. I paid £280 a month ago.

The poor horse must be utterly miserable crawling with mites (so itchy!) and broken teeth (so painful, and needing to eat all the time because he's a herbivore!)

This emotional mire you've all got bogged into is cruelty beyond measure to this poor animal. 😱

I don’t know anything much about CPL but I thought it mostly affected legs/circulation rather than teeth? Is it possible the horse is older than 15, to have lost so many teeth?

Without hesitation as an experienced horse owner, if i had become landed with a horse with such complex needs and expensive future, i'd be making the arrangements for PTS.

£1000 sounds a lot in one go, but this horse will cost far more than that in livery, hay, bedding, vets, farrier and hard feed in 6 months, never mind anything else that may come up in that time.
Hunts are often the cheapest way to let a horse go, they come out to you, dispatch and take away so very quickly, but it's not by injection. We had an old hunt horse on our yard done by the local hunt last summer and they were fantastic