Can you geld a 3 month old colt?

[TelH]

Vet came this morning cos one of the ponies was a bit colicy, that pony is ok now but while the vet was here I was asking him about Harold, my colt who was born Aug 3rd. I want him gelded asap and when I first spoke to a vet about it he said wait til after Christmas/New Year, he will come out then and if Harold is mature enough he will geld him.

The last week or 10 days I have noticed that Harold has been having a go at jumping on my 3yo mini Shettie filly (he is a couple inches smaller than her atm). He is not getting excited if you know what I mean and he isn't really bothering her often. I didn't think a colt at that age could be fertile, so I checked with the vet this morning (it was a different one to who I'd first spoke to about gelding him), the vet said no he won't be fertile but he can geld him now if I want I have never heard of gelding one so young. Obviously he isn't weaned yet, he is stabled with his mum at night and in the day he is out with Mum, the 3yo and his yearling sister.

So basically is the vet right? Could I get it done now? I do not want any accidents

 

[SKY]

it is usuall 6mths is the earliest, but i dont know i think 3 mths is too young, also they say not to geld in the frost, so if you wait till after xmas, i would say you would have to wait till mid end march until frost is gone. its a tricky one, can you put filly in different field or fence field in half with electri tape, as all foals will jump on other fillys for playful. but i would check with a few vets, 3mths sounds too young, but cant remember reason but was alway told not to geld in frost.

 

[chrissie1]

We geld all of ours at a youbg age, makes them more civilised. The earliest we ever did, which was a friends mare we had in to foal, was 6 WEEKS.

He was a total ***** from day one, he was miserable to us, well downright nasty in fact, but was also clambering over his mother bigtime. One day she cam ein with two deep cuts down her flanks, and after our initial thoughts on someone getting into field (next to house and done in daytime so we dismissed that) we realised that it was his sharp hooves that had literally slashed her open clambering off her. He resisted all attempts at kindness and when the other foals went to ask him to play he'd lay his ears, turn his back and belt them. Nice.
His full sister the previous year was a sweetie and we've used his sire on our mares several times and all foals a delight. So he was castrated, since they were there, and that changed his personality a lot.

 

[cblover]

My vet told me that he prefers colts to be 4 month or over before he'd be willing to geld them. I've just had my colt foal done at 4.5 month. Went like a dream, mam was there to comfort him when he woke up and gentle daily turnout has helped to reduce swelling. I was nervous about the whole thing but my vet was great! Good luck!

 

[TelH]

I could split the field in half and have the yearling and 3yo on one side and Harold and his Mum on the other. I had them all together as there are no other foals for him to play with so I thought having the yearling and 3yo would be the next best thing. He plays with his yearling sister but I have never seen him try to jump on her...maybe it's cos the 3yo is the only one he can really reach...

I was always told in the past 5/6 months is the minimum age depending on the horse and do it either autumn or spring time wherever possible to avoid so many flies.

There are only those 2 vets at the practise I use but I guess I could always ring another one and get another opinion

 

[Kallibear]

If his balls have dropped (they may well not have yet) then he can be gelded. Wether its a good idea or not seems to be a matter of opinion.

We had our colt gelded at 5months old - 3 weeks later and he's totally healed and never looked back.