Castrating a soon to be 4 year old

[goodhors]

Ours are all done standing at the Vet Clinic. All the older colts, older stallions. One Dr situation, they don’t have a table to lay them on. Vet is very experienced, we have not had any problems wit hroses gelder standing. Horse stays a day or two under supervision at the Clinic, they keep horse exercised to keep incision open, draining, then we bring him home. We gently exercise him at least twice daily for 20 minutes to keep things draining, carefully wash off any dry blood or serum on his legs too. Don’t want to knock off any edge scabbing of the incision, but don’t want drying drainage taking off the hair either. We have had no swelling or infection problems.

It will take longer for older, bigger horse to heal than yearlings for example. That is OK, they make a bigger incision on older stallion to get things out, so it takes longer to close. One of ours was almost 4 weeks closing, still seeing a drip of blood now and then . When I asked the Vet about it, he said horse had record sized testicles, biggest Vet had ever seen, including draft horses he had gelded!! Of course such a big incision will take longer to close, very normal. Just keep horse gently exercised and gently clean away any drainage , everything will be fine. Vet was right, horse healed up fine.

[Aphrodite]

But have anyone noticed a drastic change in horse’s personality? I mean I want the stallion behavior to drop, but I’d like to keep his sweet cheeky, curious personality.

[CanteringCarrot]

I am going to be blunt here. I don’t mean to be rude but…

No one really has. No one probably will. Ultimately, his personality is not in his testicles. Just get him gelded.

Keeping a “sweet cheeky and curious personality” is not a proper excuse not to geld. He’s not going to undergo a drastic personality change. If he does, let us know because IME, that would be a quite a rarity. The longer you wait, the longer the stallion behavior will linger.

Within the last years,I worked with a stallion that was gelded at 15 due to melanoma tumors on his testicles. He was the same exact horse afterward, just had no testicles. That horse never really had any stallion tendencies, and he was still the fantastic and intelligent horse we all knew post surgery.

Same with my personal horse gelded at 4, He’s still personable and quirky as all get out, removing his testicles didn’t get rid of that!

So relax, it’ll be ok.

[Aphrodite]

Thanks @CanteringCarrot I needed that! I am over thinking and I feel like I am overreacting about the whole decision. I’ll go through with it, as at the end of the day I want to be able to enjoy him fully, and I will def enjoy him more gelded.

[CanteringCarrot]

Here is an older thread to browse through: https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/discussion-forums/sport-horse-breeding/309594-gelding-a-mature-stallion

It is surgery, so naturally there can be complications, but do your best to minimize risk; have it done at a clinic.

I think in that thread one or two posters had complications with the gelding but they were not done at the clinic, and at the end of the day there are risks with ANY surgery and it can be such an individual thing. Your horse is still relatively young, and if otherwise healthy, I’ll bet he’ll do alright.

[511]

I was not in that thread but add another horse to the complications.
I gelded late and it is more traumatic for the horse. If I were you I would send the horse to a clinic for the operation and have him stitched closed (he may need a drain this was years ago) and a lot of antibiotics. I did not expect any difference between gelding a yearling and a 6 year old - there is. My horse ran a fever, I called the vet out again, he was on medication and still ‘so’ miserable I will take every precaution the next time I need to geld later in life.

[Guilherme]

The basic temperament of an animal is not changed by gelding. What you do when you remove the huevos is you remove the source of hormones that drive behaviors. It’s like taking away the dialog from a “talkie” and making it a “silent movie.”

An aggressive stallion has every potential to be an aggressive gelding. The opposite is also true.

As to age, we’ve done it at 6 months all the way up to 12 years. When we retired from the breeding business we found a new home for our 20 year old stallion and he was cut. The new owner had nothing but praise the change in behavior but had it done at a local equine hospital as old stallions are more at risk for bleeding than younger ones. If bleeding starts there then they are immediately capable to dealing with it. On the farm where you have to call and wait for the vet there is a demonstrable increase in risk of loss.

Four is not at all “aged.” Absent any other risk factors I’d not think there is any significant increase in injury or death from and “on the farm” procedure. But, it’s your money and if spending it for a “hospital” setting procedure makes you feel better then do it!

Best of luck as you go forward.

G.

[arabiansrock]

Your horse will likely have a BETTER personalilty after gelding. He will actually be able to focus on you and what he is doing without being distracted by his second “brain”. HOrse at our barn was recently gelded at 8. He is turning into a really nice gelding, is developing personality, is loving being loved on now, and his owner is much happier. he wasn’t a bad stallion at all, but he is definitely turning into a very nice gelding.

[Aphrodite]

So I most likely will geld beginning of next week, hopefully all will go well and he will be a better version of himself and we can have better adventures together <3