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Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

author:Science popularization Xiaosukejun
Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Wen | a small assistant to science popularization

There is a folk saying: "A hundred days of broken bones". Once the bones of the human body are unexpected, they must be restored through professional treatment and a lot of rest. But have you ever thought about such a question? Why are some disabled animals rarely seen in nature?

In fact, there are two reasons for this situation. The first is that the living environment in nature is too harsh, and when an animal is injured, it only dies.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Second, according to biologists, most animals are much more capable of healing than humans. It may be a major disease for humans, but for animals, it may be a minor disease that can be recovered in a few days. However, among animals, there are still some very special beings.

In 2006, a month-old Asian elephant accidentally broke its leg while crossing a minefield between Myanmar and Thailand. In desperation, the whole herd could only give up the baby elephant.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Thankfully, the baby elephant was spotted by locals and sent to an animal emergency center for treatment. Eventually, the local veterinarian customized a very special prosthetic limb for the baby elephant, and the baby elephant continued to survive, and it was the first elephant in the world to be equipped with a prosthetic limb.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Most people have the impression that a four-legged animal, like an elephant, can survive even if it loses one leg. The simplest example is the middle dog, and you will occasionally see some puppies with only three legs in your life. They have a hard time, but they live strong.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

What most people don't know, however, is that this doesn't apply to horses. At the Tokyo Olympics, a very sad thing happened when a Swiss horse named Jet Aircraft was injured in the front leg of the obstacle course. Originally, many people thought that the owner would do his best to heal this horse, but they did not expect that a few days later, the news came that the horse had been euthanized.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Animals of the same weight as elephants, losing a leg can continue to survive through prosthetic limbs, why can't horses? An adult racehorse weighs about a thousand pounds, and on average, each leg needs to carry two hundred and fifty pounds.

If one leg is accidentally injured, then three legs will naturally replace more weight, and almost one leg will bear three hundred pounds of weight, which is simply less than mentioned for this bearing force compared to elephants. But we must know that the hooves of a horse are fundamentally different from those of an elephant.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Usually, the horseshoe we see in life is preceded by a shape similar to a triangle. In fact, the internal bone also presents a triangular bone, which is called the hoof bone. The ends of a horse's hoof bone are very sharp, and for a horse, once one leg is injured, the pressure on the other three legs is aggravated, which will cause the sharper part of the hoof bone edge to constantly compress the hoof lobe under the hoof bone.

Elephants weighing several tons can be equipped with prosthetic limbs and race horses, so why does a leg injury mean death?

Anyone familiar with horses knows that when the hoof bone constantly compresses the hoof leaf, the consequence is that the horse suffers from hoofitis. This disease is equivalent to a strengthened version of plantar fasciitis in humans, which is extremely painful just by standing, and it is even more unbearable to walk around.

What is even more frightening is that once you get this disease, it can only be alleviated, and there is no way to treat it fundamentally. Although humans have designed a unique sports rehabilitation device to help horses, this device can cause horses to suffer from pressure ulcers. This leads to the ulceration and necrosis of some tissues, and eventually it will die in pain. So for most horses, once a hoof is injured, the death penalty is basically pronounced.

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