retained testicle and insurance???

It depends on what you want covered.

It clearly is not reasonable to expect an insurance company to cover the expense involved in castrating a rig (it by definition will have predated inception of the insurance), but there should be no reason to preclude obtaining cover for other purposes.
 
I have a 19 year old Arab gelding that had a retained one. At the age of 3 he went through a abdominal op and at the time the vet could not find it so he was gelded on the table. Second one did drop some months later but that is another story. NFU paid for it to be done.
 
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My horse had a retained testicle and to be honest I didn't even think about using the insurance, I just saw it as up to me to pay for as it was part of having him gelded and that was my choice.
 
A lot of companies will say they won't cover gelding or rig ops.

It would also depend if you already have insurance in place and whether you know your horse was a rig - i.e. was he sold as a gelding and no mention of a retained testicle. Insurance may cover the op (if rig isn't excluded under the policy) if you only became aware of the retained testicle after insurance incepted
 
ought my boy as a yearling Colt and the breeder(a friend) had seen both testicles down as a foal. My intension was to keep him as a stallion so when he got to three and the second one had not dropped we had to find out why.

When he was operated on the vet said that the one that had descended was larger than he would have expected. As at the time the second one could not be found he was gelded on the table. Some months later the second one dropped. The vet then came to my yard and removed the second one. he also said that the larger one had taken most of the testosterone hence once that had been removed the second one was able to grow.

As we had no idea that there was a problem and the insurance had been in place for two years they were happy to pay for the operation.

No way would I have had him gelded if he had had both testicles.
 
Insurance will not pay for retained testicles. If you know / can find out which vet performed the castration, that is your best port of call as they're at fault.
 
Stormynight said:
Insurance will not pay for retained testicles. If you know / can find out which vet performed the castration, that is your best port of call as they're at fault.
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Rubbish. It is NOT the vets fault. Some times the testicle is hidden. My vet would be very unhappy if I told him that it was his fault. Maybe you could blame your vet for things that did not go right but I don't.
 
any vet who has removed a single external testicle is at fault actually = they should leave it in place until the horse has the abdominal testicle removed also as otherwise unethical people can flog a stallion as a gelding as there is no external evidence of gelding.
 
SusieT said:
any vet who has removed a single external testicle is at fault actually = they should leave it in place until the horse has the abdominal testicle removed also as otherwise unethical people can flog a stallion as a gelding as there is no external evidence of gelding.
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No one has said the horse has been operated on previously so maybe you are jumping the gun here.
and by that assumption (above) there has never been and will never be a horse born with just the one testicle?

also it is thought it can be hereditary, the internal testicle with not be producing productive sperm but the external one can so you leave a stallion that can breed and produce more offspring that are likely to only have one testicle.

what would you suggest if a horse was given a full GA and the internal testicle could not be located-leave the other one and operate again a second time?

OP has the horse been operated on previously?
 
paulineh said:
Rubbish. It is NOT the vets fault. Some times the testicle is hidden. My vet would be very unhappy if I told him that it was his fault. Maybe you could blame your vet for things that did not go right but I don't.
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Not rubbish, thank you very much.

I've been through the scenario. Unfortunately I couldn't track the vet responsible, but if a castration is unsuccessful, it is the vet at fault. Rigs are a very messy area, and SusieT has a very good point.
 
twiggy2= yes as the horse will retain stallion like behaviour with one internal testicle. it is wrong to leave it looking like a gelding to be passed ona nd removing the external testicle will be useless
 
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