From Stallion to Gelding
From Stallion To Gelding
On June 15, 2006, I had my horse Wind Dancer gelded or in other words castrated. Before and after the surgery I searched the Internet for information on when is the best time to castrate a colt, what to expect and the aftercare. I did find information but I still had questions, especially after the surgery. Hopefully the information below will help answer some of your questions and brief you on what to expect. The veterinarian said that it is best to wait until both testicles drop before having the surgery done. Although a male horse can be castrated at any time, it is an easier, less complicated surgery if both testicles are present to our eyes. My horse Wind Dancer is 14 months old. He dropped the first testicle at about 12 months of age. At first, the testicle was very small, about the size of a walnut, but it appeared to get larger everyday. After 4 or 5 weeks he still only had one testicle. I had a few horse people tell me that he should have dropped the other testicle by now, so he either only had one testicle or the other testicle was up there but not going to drop which meant a more costly aggressive surgery. I had another girl tell me that it was possible the other testicle was there but was lodged up behind the dropped testicle, sort of in single file. I could believe that because Wind Dancers legs are so fat that they rub together way up high and I could see why one testicle might get pinched back, so to speak. She said this sometimes happens with male dogs and the testicle can be encouraged to drop by using a little manual touching back there along the cord behind the dropped testicle. She said, sometimes it is necessary to do this when you raise show dogs. Not so easy with a horse, not to mention a yearling, skittish horse. Actually the next day I did get up the nerve to feel around under my horse to see if I could feel another one, hiding behind the first one. I thought I did at first, but then I wasn�t sure, but I could definitely feel a cord-like thing up above the testicle. I chose to just leave well enough alone before he got mad or I got hurt. Everyday I bent down to look and see if he ever dropped the other one. Always no, but I kept hoping anyway. I was getting really worried because he was getting more obnoxious everyday. I still kept hearing that it was most likely not going to drop, so prepare myself, but I refused to give up hope; actually, I couldn�t afford to give up hope, literally. Wind Dancer is a very large colt; he looks like he is already full grown at 14 months. I think that played a big part in the theory that he should have both testicles by now, but I knew mentally and emotionally he was still very immature. One morning about 5 or 6 weeks after the first testicle dropped, the second testicle dropped. I can actually tell you that it happen sometime between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. It was not there when he was eating breakfast, or during training afterwards, but it was definitely there when I went to feed him supper. The awful thing was it would come down and then go up, come down, then go up. I called the vet anyway and made Wind Dancer an appointment. Sure enough, when the vet came out, they were down, but when the surgery started, Wind Dancer sucked the other one up. The vet had to really feel around to get it. When the vet first came, he checked my horse and then started getting his equipment together. He came back and gave Wind Dancer a shot that made him feel real woozy and kind of sleepy within minutes. In just a few more minutes Wind Dancer started acting like he was losing his balance and I began to fear that he would fall and hurt himself. The vet assured me that he would soon try to lie down and he did. Then the vet gave him another shot and Wind Dancer appeared to go to sleep. The vet tied a lead rope around one back leg and pulled the leg up toward Wind Dancer�s head. My husband held the rope that kept Wind Dancers leg hiked up and out of the way, and he massaged Wind Dancer�s face at the same time. The vet then washed and disinfected the area where he would perform the surgery. After a minute or two the vet had one testicle and the cord out, but said that Wind Dancer had sucked the other testicle up inside. I began to get very worried, but after another minute or so he had it. He said it was much smaller than the first testicle. I think that was because it was new and did not drop at the same time as the first one. That�s my opinion, of course. After cleaning Wind Dancer up and a few more shots, the vet put all his tools back into his truck. Wind Dancer started waking up and gradually with wobbly legs, he stood up. The surgery was over. The vet did not close the incision site up, because the wound needs to heel from the inside out to prevent infection. Without stepping on any ones toes, I can tell you to expect to pay a couple hundred dollars for the surgery if both testicles are down and visible. The vet said that there would be swelling and dripping at the incision site. There was. He said the wound should heal up in 10-14 days. It appears to be doing so. He said to wash the dripping off of his hind legs but not to bother the incision site. He also said to make sure that he is up and walking 15-20 minutes, twice a day, to keep his circulation moving and to prevent his legs from swelling. The vet said that castrating Wind Dancer should make him a pleasant, enjoyable riding horse when the time comes, but it would probably not change his personality at all, regarding the way we interact with each other. He said that Wind Dancer would be more interested in the feed bucket than other horses for sure. I have read that castrating some horses immediately takes the pushy-boldness out of them, and I have witnessed that to be true, but obviously not with all horses, not right away. I have not noticed much change at all in his behavior and it has been 7 days. He is still frisky and pushy. I�ve been told that I have to wait for the testosterone levels to decrease, which will happen over time. After the first hour or two the incision site began to swell and I noticed a large bloody blob thing hanging out of the incision hole. I began to get really nervous. I called my husband to come out and look at it. He said, yuk, I don�t know what that is. It looked like a big bubble of bloody tissue hanging out of the hole, about as big as a tennis ball and it was dripping a bloody discharge. My first thought was that it looked like a big swollen testicle hanging out of the hole but I knew it couldn�t be, because I saw the two the vet took out. My husband told me to call the vet, but by now it was late and I was afraid he was asleep. I decided to wait until morning, but I did research it on the Internet and I read where other people thought it looked like that too. I also read that the dripping discharge was normal and that if you could count, like 1, 2, 3�before each drip, it was probably okay. I could count 1, 2 and then drip, 1, 2 and then drip. I decided it was okay. The next morning the blob was still there and still dripping, but the blob didn�t seem as big as the night before. I washed his hind legs with cool water and he didn�t fight me at all; he actually seemed to enjoy it. On the third day it was obvious that it was raw tissue hanging out of the hole, but it was not near as swollen as the day before. The tissue was still dripping a bloody discharge but dripping very slowly. As bad as it looks, it appears to be getting better. By day 4 the swelling in the blob of tissue seems to be almost gone, but the flesh still appears raw, but clean, and the dripping has just about stopped. Wind Dancer is beginning to trot around the paddock on his own and does not seem distracted by the wound at all. Today is day 7 and the wound appears to be trying to close. The raw flesh does not drip anymore but it looks wet and maybe sticky. The flesh is still hanging out of the incision hole, but it is not swollen, and it looks about the size of a piece of shredded hot dog. I am assuming that the part still hanging out will dry up and suck up, as the incision hole closes. My biggest problem from this entire ordeal has been that Wind Dancer does not want to eat much and he is drinking very little. The first day Wind Dancer did not eat anything and he would only drink water from the water hose. On the second day he ate 1 coffee can of sweet feed from my hand and drank a few times from the water hose. On the third day he ate about a total of three pounds of feed all day, which is nothing for him, but he did start drinking from the water bucket. On the fourth day he ate a little breakfast and a little supper and started drinking water on his own, without coaxing, and he started trying to eat hay. He appears to be going pp and poop ok. Day 5�he is getting his appetite back and looking for food. Day 7�he is back to eating a full bucket of feed in the morning and a full bucket of feed at night. He is grazing on grass and eating hay. The wound is still open, some flesh is still hanging out of the wound, but I think it is healing up and I think he is feeling better. Day 11�Just when it seems that all is going well and the cord hanging out is drying, getting smaller and closing up, it is now raw and open again. It is actually bleeding a little also. I think this happen when Wind Dancer decided to lay down and sun himself and then rolled over a few times. I think he pulled it back open a little when he started rolling over. He is eating good and moving around just fine. Day 15�This I would have never believed had I not seen it with my own eyes. I now know why this cord does not seem to be drying up completely. Today, while my friend and I were watching Wind Dancer eat grass, all of a sudden he lifted his hind leg, reached under, grabbed the cord with his teeth and pulled it out of the hole about 3 inches and bit about 2 inches off. I was screaming at him to stop it, but he would not, but after I got a hold of him and put him up for the night I could see just a tiny piece of cord left. Maybe this is what animals do to help their selves. Day 17�There is now hardly any cord left what so ever and the hole seems to be closing up again. Surely, there is nothing left for him to grab a hold of anymore. The remaining piece of cord seems too short for him to grab with his teeth. I will be so glad when this horrible ordeal is over. The good thing is he does not appear to be in pain anymore and his appetite is back 100%. Day 21�No real change to speak of. I am beginning to wish I had left him a stallion. This is almost more than I can stand�better, worse, better, worse� It has been almost a month and Wind Dancers incision is smaller but not closed. He appears very healthy, no side effects, but his wound is still not closed up tight. I can still see the cord. It is still protruding sometimes from the hole about 1-inch in length and about as big around as a flattened hot dog. It is shrinking and sometimes he sucks it up or something and then I think it is gone but then an hour or so later it�s back. Once again, I will be so glad when this is over. July 13, 2006�I called the vets office, explained the situation and made Wind Dancer an appointment. I cannot take it any more. I need to know if this is normal. July 17, 2006�1 month and 2 days. My veterinarian came back out today to find out why Wind Dancer has not healed up and there is still something hanging out of the incision hole. Quite to his surprise, it was just as I said it was. He said in all the years he has been doing this, he has never seen or heard of this situation. He went back to the truck and then came back and gave Wind Dancer a shot that relaxed him so he could get a better look at it. At first he thought it could be fat tissue, but he wasn�t sure. So he came back with a twitch for Wind Dancer�s nose and a rubber glove and he went up in there and felt around. It was definitely the cord. He was worried and thinking out loud. He said that there are a lot of blood vessels in the remaining cord and it could be very dangerous cutting more off as Wind Dancer could hemorrhage. He wrestled with the thought of a muzzle to keep him from pulling on it with his teeth and giving it time to heal and a few other ideas, but we all decided to take a chance and let the vet go up in there again and try to fix it. The vet made a solution of what looked like iodine water�got his tools and went to work, with Wind Dancer standing this time so everything would hang down. Best choice we ever made. The vet cut more of the cord off, clamped it, to stop the bleeding and then we waited. When the vet removed the clamp, a clot had formed and at the moment, Wind Dancer was out of danger. Soon all we could see was a clean, beautiful incision site with a small stringy clot hanging out of the hole. I worried about Wind Dancer all night, but he did very well, he even started eating. The next day the stringy clot was gone, there was very little swelling and the wound looked excellent. It has been 3 days now since the second surgery. Wind Dancer has not one time that I know of even looked back there�let alone bite at it. The little bit of swelling is gone and the incision appears to be closing up. I now expect this ordeal to be over once and for all in 7-10 days. Unless he tears it back open his self, I feel at this moment it is absolutely healing up. It looks great today. There is nothing hanging out and the skin seems to be closing. Thank you Doctor. I would absolutely suggest that anyone who experiences the incision site not closing up and healing within 2 weeks to call their veterinarian right away and absolutely without question, call your veterinarian if anything remains hanging out of the incision site. Do not worry about being a pest or bothering your vet, they need to know and they want to help. If you do not call, the vet assumes everything is fine. Your horses� life depends on the decision you make. Definitely make the call.
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