Rig/cryptorchid>>>Advice needed >>Please help

michellev123

michellev123

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The 21 month old colt I am loaning with view to buy still hasn't dropped his testicles.

I am really worried and wondered if anyone had had any experiance with such colts?

I am taking him home to public livery in august so need him gelded before then and really wanted to do it before the spring flys become a problem. . .

However the op is GA and major surgery, and I am so worried....can't bear to think of him going through that.

So would just like any peoples experiances, how the horse reacted, price, recovery time, he isn't acting "stallion like" but need him done 1) because of the yard not taking colts and 2) because i have herd horrible stories about them turning cancerous if left.

Any advice appreciated

A worried mum
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Thanks
 
Hi,

oK the testicles should really have dropped by 18months! Therefore being 5 months late, although some drop late, if neither have dropped now Id say its unlikely they will..........

Id chat to ur vet about what they think, but basically Id say just go for the GA (if you can afford it/owner can/insurance will) as its not too bad (depending on how deep the testicles are retained, some are just under the skin, some are up by the kidneys!) However, it is a referal op, and so is done by people who KNOW what they are doing and are more than able in the procedure. Liverpool vet school even have a clinic for it over the summer where people can send them apparently (along with their colic clinic)!!

Yes they can turn cancerous if left (it is tissue not meant to be at the higher temps of the internal body cavity, its meant to be out being kept nice and cool in the fresh air!)
obv it wont happen overnight, but I mean if you left him till he was 15yo etc then the risk would be very high!
Also, even tho he isnt currently showing stallion symptoms, he most likely will do as the hormones will probably be being released, they jsut need to reach the levels to cause the symptoms.

HOWEVER

some horses can just not have testicles (rare and far between but can occur) so its a male horse with no testicles to be founda anywhere between the kidneys, inguinal ring and the scrotum!!! However, they are ultrasounded/scanned etc to see if this is the case (if I understand correctly) before doing an exploratory laparotomy!

I would get him done now as well before he gets older and much bigger and his lungs are more at risk of being compresesd by his huge gut and body weight!!!
Foals are easier to support body wise in surgery I think, and also he is not so young that the GA is a huge risk (although these are really questions for your vet and the referal!)

Hope this helps a bit.....
smile.gif

if it is the coloured little 'un in ur signature ..... AWWWW!!!!
 
Thanks for the reply
Yea thats him causing heartache already, I am so worried. Are horses usually ok with GA's?

I have rung my vets from home and the local vets all who "will get back to me"
Doesn't help the worrying now tho.
 
In referal situations yes 9.9/10 they are fine as they ahve all the facilities to minimise the risks of GA

Horses biggest problem with GA is not the GA itself but hte pressure of their body weight and contents on the small area they are lay on! Hence why I would think doing it in a younger horse is better than an older fully developed horse!

No it is not gonna help the worrying but I dont think it will be helped until you know exactly whats going on!

If you can get a headcollar for him that has no metal on as well that helps reduce the risk of facial nerve damage as well (if he does go for GA) just as an additional tip
 
The only prob I forgot to mention is they can get colic/minimised gut motility post GA (so when they wake up) but as I say in a referall situation, this is well managed and they get all the care they could ever want in this situation.

The only other prob is muscle/nerve damage from lying on it for so long (obv the longer the surgery the bigger the risk, and the heavier the horse)
 
The normal descent of testicles in the horse is within the first few weeks of life: anything beyond this is delayed,although this is a common scenario. By 21 months, however, you have a rig, giving a horse a GA for this surgery is old hat invest around £1200 in laproscopic removal.
 
Michelle - just to try to put your mind at rest, 4 years ago my horse had to have GA for the removal of his eye. I was frantic about how he would cope with a GA. He was fine - danced out of the recovery room, totally uneventful recovery. He was 19 at the time!
 
My vets didnt want to operate on my horse, said it was too high risk, an expensive procedure which may not even have a good outcome anyway (as in be able to locate the tissue when they open him up...needle in hay stack) and wasnt worth putting him through it all.

However my situation is completely different to yours so don't let the above worry or put you off, my horse was a fully mature youngster/not castrated correctly/tissue related as opposed to a unilateral or bilateral rig.

I either have like it or lump it so to speak...manage best I can or like I did last year pay for a hormone injection.

The sooner you find out whats going on in there, the better,
laparoscopic surgery is more common than you think and is a straight forward procedure, I wouldnt even begin to worry about the surgery your thinking of yet or the horror stories.

I'd rather be in your shoes having a youngster with either one or both left in than be in the situtation with my horse, at least you know there are options, mostly straigh forward ones and you'll have a gelding at the end of it.
 
I know of at least one horse who had to be gelded under GA and I know of several horses that have undergone GA - mine included (as a yearling) one of the bigest risks with GAs is the recovery but it is becoming rarer for horses not to pull through. fortunately when my filly had hers she was light enough for the vets to help hold her upright as she recovered.

I would personally go ahead with it.
 
A friend had a rig gelded under GA a few years ago. He was 3 years old, 17 hands, a really big lad. The retained testicle was high in his abdomen. The vets said afterwards it was already showing changes though not yet cancerous.

Horse recovered beautifully from surgery, was a bit groggy for 48 hours then absolutely fine, he is now out competing BSJA.

Good luck with your lad, I hope you can get him sorted out soon.
 
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