DECEMBER 2010 THE RIDER /23


WHAT’S UP DOC From the desks of Dr’s Armstrong & Frost.


HALTON EQUINE VETERINARY SERVICES


The question we get on a daily basis is WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO GELD MY COLT?


After many nights sitting up waiting for the mare to foal it has finally happened and you have a nice healthy colt. Once the eupho- ria of the new foal wears off you then start to wonder how you are going to handle having a colt on the property. The barn is full and there are not enough paddocks to manage a colt by himself and you just do not want the stress of rais- ing a stallion. That’s when the questions start – How old should he be before I geld him? Is this a serious surgery and what is the recovery time? What risks are involved?


Well when a normal male foal is born both testicles are evident and can be felt. If you are unable to palpate them then there is a pos- sibility that one or both will descend later but it could also mean that correction will require abdominal surgery to remove the testicle.


Often, although the testicles are there in the beginning, as the colt gets older you are concerned because you are unable to see them on visual examination. Usually a manual examination requires that you tranquilize the colt because the very process of trying to find them causes the colt to retract the testi- cles up to the abdominal wall and they are very difficult to find. If I’m asked to check a colt I will tranquilize it wait a few minutes and then quietly gently palpate the area for evidence that they are there.


As to the correct time to geld a colt – there is no correct time! It all depends on how difficult the colt is to handle and your particular stabling or pasture limitations. I have seen colts gelded at a few days or a few weeks because of a hernia or some other medical rea- son. I have seen weanlings gelded in the fall because the owner had no possible way of managing stal- lion over the winter or in the spring of the yearling year because the pasture limitations did not allow


for handling a yearling stallion. None of these horses suffered in their growth or development. Most colts do not become a problem to manage until the spring of their yearling year so most colts are gelded at this time.


Performance horses are often left until they are trained on the hope that they will be exceptional performers and then become breed- ing animals. Similarly, well breed horses are most frequently left until they have demonstrated their per- formance abilities in their disci- pline before a decision is made to geld them. Conversely, commer- cially bred horses are often gelded at one to two years because they will never be a breeding stallion and most owners do not have the facilities to keep them. Occasion- ally a good performing horse has been left intact because he is not difficult to manage but once retired has to be gelded because eco- nomics dictate that he can not be kept separated from the other retired horses.


All of these situations and many others enter into the decision on when to geld your male horse. The one thing that I will men- tion though is that if both testicles are not evident by six to eight months you should have the colt checked by your veterinarian to make certain that the testicles are descended properly. A colt with one or both testicles still up in the abdomen is called a ‘crypt orchid’ and there are certain problems that can be associated with this condi- tion. First of all a good percentage of crypt orchids are much more difficult to handle than and normal stud. Also, the testicle that is still in the abdomen can form a tumour. I have removed at least two of these. One from a yearly in which case the testicle was about 24 to 30 inches in diameter in the abdomen and the other from a two year old in which case the testi- cle was about 10 to 12 inches in diameter. These are difficult to remove and it does involve major surgery. If I identify a colt


as being a crypt orchid I usually recommend that the testicle be removed relatively soon. I have also been called to look at geldings that were exceptionally difficult to handle and after careful examina- tions determined that they were crypt orchids were in the normal testicle had been removed but the testicle in the abdomen was still there. This is very difficult to diagnose and requires major surgery to correct.


Definitely there is more involved in gelding a mature horse than there is gelding as weanling, yearling or two year old. With this in mind it is important to know that the cost involved increases, as the horse gets older. Also, a careful examination is necessary prior to the gelding (castration) to ensure as much as possible that there will be no complications as a result of the surgery. The castration has always been thought of as a simply surgery but it is important to understand that although the surgery may be relatively simply the repercussions of complications from the surgery can result in a very sick or dead horse. Therefore the pre-surgical examination is very important although you must understand that the best pre-surgi- cal examination will not rule out all unexpected complications. In the end, plan the surgery for when it is best for you and your particular situation or circum- stances, have your veterinarian examine the horse and make rec- ommendations as to how the proce- dure should be carried out and pro- ceed according to those recommen- dations.


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Do you have a question to Ask The Doc? Call (905) 659-4387 or email to: info@hevs.ca, visit www.hevs.ca or email The Rider at barry@therider.com


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