I recently adopted a coming two year old colt, but I was unaware at the time that he only has one testicle. I would like to geld him but I’m wondering if I should wait and see if it corrects itself or if I should get it done now. Also has anyone else had this problem? I’m wondering where I should go to get the procedure done and what I’m looking at price wise (Between paying for college and spending $3,000 on a surgery trying to save my mare I don’t have much money to spend on his surgery at the moment.) He was a kill pen rescue so returning him is not an option I would consider. Other then his testicle issue he is a healthy colt with perfect confirmation, and he has a winning personality on top of everything.
(posterity)
With the vet bills you already have encountered, and your college expenses, it would seem that your bills are an issue. Why would you bring the expense of another horse into your life?
You could sell him (with disclosure of the medical issue).
Or, if money is not a problem, consult your vet, who may be able to direct you to a veterinary surgical center in your area.
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I am super interested in this topic. My 1 1/2 year old hasn’t dropped one testicle. I would love to get him gelded now but am waiting until spring to see if he drops. If not I’ll have to go ahead and just get it done probably at Morven Park. He’s starting to show a little bit of an attitude so he’s moving to a barn with a trainer who has raised and trained stallions to help prevent any future behavior issues.
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At two, it is “probably” not going to drop. I would spend the $$$ to geld him and get it done or find someone to buy him that can afford it.
I usually give my colts 12-18 months, but then behaviors start to kick in and the weather is getting to be just right this time of year.
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What is the name of the drug that vets can give to a colt to get some colts, not all do but a lot do, to drop the other testicle before gelding? I knew one person years ago who got said drug administered by vet and it worked.
HCG might be worth a try if the retained testis is near the inguinal ring.
Might be worth an ultrasound to look for it.
There are anecdotal reports of the use of acupuncture in these cases.
We had a woman at our barn with a cryptorchid and neither one of them was pleasant to be around. I not sure if she made that evident to the BO when she moved in. She had taken him for surgery but the testicle was up very high and the procedure would have been expensive. The vet told her something along the lines of risk of problems with the retained testicle vs. problems with some sort of tumor down the road was about the same. So she took her money and her horse home, and then tried to pretend he was a gelding. She didn’t want him turned out alone. She tried putting him out with the geldings one day, and they ran him out of there in less than an hour. Go figure. You own a stallion. Fortunately she moved on.
You need to figure out where the testicle is in order to figure out what the cost of the surgery will be. Definitely work hard on the training so he doesn’t start developing behaviors you won’t be able to fix even after you do geld him.
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Do it sooner rather than later. You and he will be happier. My local University vet school does them. I had to pay $1K down prior to surgery. However, afterward they gave me the “teaching rate” of $500. I suspect every vet student on that surgical rotation got the opportunity to “find the missing testicle” before they finished his surgery.
I’m sure $ have gone up; this was 10 years ago…
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I looked into the surgery for a mini a couple of years ago years ago. IIRC it ran about $1800. Not 100% positive on that though.
My miniature mule, Gunther, had one testicle mostly down and one undescended. I bought him with the understanding that he was about four years old and gelded. I think he was more like two years old. He was feral, so looking into the mouth at purchase time didn’t happen.
He wasn’t an unruly stallion, but I have a wee mare. Surgery at Cornell University was quoted at $1500 for full cryptorchid surgery, which included up to a four day stay.
The surgery ended up being a bit less as they were able to get to the testicles easily. He didn’t have to stay 4 days, so that helped on the price.
He recovered very, very well and is a very happy gelding today. My mare is very pleased as well.
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At 2 yrs old I doubt the missing testicle will descend.
If the missing testicle is not causing health issues at this time, and if you have the experience and facilities to accommodate and train a 2 yr old stallion you can bide your time and save up for his gelding surgery. You can research with the help of your vet the modalities used to encourage the missing testicle to appear.
If the missing testicle is in the inguinal canal it is simple to find it and do a complete gelding at one time. If the missing testicle is in the abdomen, that is a more complicated and thus more expensive surgery.
Your vet can do a simple ultra sound examination and should be able to determine if the missing testicle is in the inguinal canal.
If your vet is not equiped with ultrasound than you may need to haul to a vet/vet school that is.
Good Luck!!
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Good advice here already. Just because you can only see one, doesn’t necessarily mean that the other one isn’t close enough to get with a regular gelding. OR, it can be stuck to the spine, and it will be expensive. First step is to find out where that missing testicle is, if it is accessible with a regular gelding operation. This may have already been done by his previous owners, and that is why he was at the location you accepted his ownership from. Or, they may not have gone that far in investigation into the issue. Dumping young horses at auction for the purpose for going for meat with this issue is classic in my area. Estimate of surgery if it is not accessible with a regular gelding runs around $2000 recently in our area. If the surgery is more than the value of the horse, breeders dump the horse.
Other option to surgery at a clinic is a flank entry gelding, done standing at the farm. I had one done that way years ago, it was a “freebee” operation for me, since my vet was looking for a guinea pig to do a flank entry gelding for the first time, so it worked out well for me. However, the vet never did find the missing testicle on this horse. He fished around in there, found the “string” that the missing testicle was supposed to attached to, and it was missing. He said it was as if the horse had already been partially gelded. (He had not been, he came from a remote farm out in the boonies- I bought him cheap knowing he was a rig). The vet gave up, called the horse a “monorchid” (he only had one testicle) and removed the one extremely large testicle which was decended and evident with a regular gelding operation. Sewed up the flank entry. Horse recovered fine. We called him a gelding after that. I sold the horse a few months later (with full disclosure about the gelding issue of course) as he was not suitable for the job I had for him, so I can’t say how he turned out in the long run. But that may be a cheaper option for you if you wish to pursue it.
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You just found out why he was in the kill pen. I see one testicled colts at the local sales all the time. It’s expensive. Can you send him back to the rescue? They rescued him, they should do the surgery to make him adoptable.
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I know I wrote my post a little vague so let me give you more background. About 3 months ago my mare that I have had for ten years passed away very suddenly. When I began looking for a new horse I set myself a budget of $3,000 that I could spend comfortably on a new horse. Any way I found this horse being advertised in a kill pen and I really liked him so I made the 5 hour drive and picked him up. When I was there I checked him over and made sure that he had clean legs, was sound, and overall healthy, but when I asked the guy if he could hold him while I reached for his balls he told me “he definitely has both but he will kick when you touch them.” With that being said and the fact that it was getting late I just assumed that he had been telling the truth, so I didn’t feel them myself. Between paying for him and the cost of the vet bills to get him up to date on everything, I have spent about $700 on him thus far. That means that I have about $2,300 left over to spend on him but I wanted to hear about other peoples experiences so that I know where I should consider going and to make sure that I wasn’t getting myself into a $6,000 surgery that I would definitely not be able to afford. Personally I took my mare to Ohio state for her surgery because the people that I talked to were friendlier and the cost of the surgery was half the price of Cornell. This is the kind of information that I was looking for. There are other places that I can go other than theses two, so I want to make sure that I have checked all of my other options before I decide. Also, I do not mind traveling if it means that I will get the best possible care at the best price for him so I would like to hear everyones else’s opinions.
I did not buy him from a rescue, I got him straight from the kill pen, otherwise I definitely would.
Luckily mine hasn’t started acting like a stud yet, and we don’t have any mares on the property to worry about, I wish you the best of luck with your boy!
http://www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org/voucher-program/
They will often help some with the cost of castration. It isn’t a huge amount (I believe they will pay $200 towards a cryptorchid surgery), but it helps!
I’ve had one in the past (got him at 6 yo) and he was very sweet and kind. Not necessarily why he was in the rescue pen.
Thank you so much!
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