Trouble after castration

belle31

belle31

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My friend has a youngster who she had castrated two weeks ago, the vet decided to knock him out and do the proper operation and stitch him up, he had a course of antibotics but it didnt drain and swelled right up, burst the stitches and had fluid coming out, he had another course of antibiotics. He was seen again this Tuesday where he had a local anaethestic and an explority done and they left it open and he had another course of antibiotics, it looked like it was healing yesterday but today it is damp again and swollen. Anyone had the same happen to theirs as she is about past herself. He is fine in himself and is eating fine it just doesnt seem to be healing.
 
Is he turned out every day? Yes they do swell up after castration and need the excercise to take the swelling down and if he's eating ok means he's well in himself.But he does need turning out, because if he's stabled the swelling doesn't go down very fast.
 
Never had this experience, ours were all straight forward, thankfully.
As said they need exercise and wash it with warm salt water and/or spray iodine, its not common that they would get such trouble after thats for sure
 
Yes he was stitched, he had a proper operation, knocked out the lot, on the advice of the vet rather than the normal form of castration. He is turned out. The swelling I can understand but to me it doesnt look like it is healing. She has been bathing it daily. I feel sorry for my friend she is past herself with it. The vet said if it didnt come right they would have to operate again. This cant be doing him any good not to mention its going to end up costing a fortune.
 
Hi i have had four of my horses castrated and never had one stitched!!!! i dont know why they did this swelling is usual and normally to a huge size i just sprayed iodine on my boys and let them drip away fluids blood etc and took about a good week for swelling to subside no antibiotics needed my vet did my boys on the stable floor then promptley threw them at me!!!!!!! lol see the funny side now though ha ha hope he recovers soon
 
My colt was done just under 2 weeks ago he was done standing no stitching and is almost healed vet said to expect swelling BUT not to worry unless swelling was almost Small Melon sized...fortunatly this didnt happen..I was under the assumption that castration's=stitching was only ever carried out in a Horspital enviroment due to possible complications? was this the case??
 
my colt was knocked to the floor and chopped! he was up within 15 mins and wandering around! he id have a bit of swelling and dribbled goo for arond 2 weeks but was well in himself! i did clean his legs up every couple of days but left the site dribbling on vets advice! no he wasnt stitched! and didnt need or have any extra antibiotics (tho the vet gave him a long acting jab of antibiotics at time of op)
 
Its quite normal for colts to be gelded knocked out, its down to the vets personal preference how to do them (either standing or dropped). Ive had many colts gelded over the years & ive never interfered with the wound in any shape or form, no antibiotics (apart from the one injection they have at the time of gelding) to give them & no cleaning either, on the advice of the vets...& ive used several different vets over the years. Best thing to do is turn them out & leave them to it, obviously keep an eye on the wound but thats about it. Have to say in all the years ive owned horses ive only ever had one stitched & that was because he had a rampant testicle they had to go searching for.
 
I have had a few that have swelled up badly after gelding, some have taken 3 or 4 weeks to go down whichever way they were done and we've had the odd flare up a week or so later for it to disappear a few days after. I've had them done both ways - standing and left open like they do with cattle, and knocked down and stitched. The stitched method is becoming more popular and I think is the way they are teaching in vet schools now.

When they stitch them they basically perform a proper sterile op, exactly the same as with a cat or dog, and usually only make one incision on the outside and after taking the first nut out, they make a hole in the dividing piece of tissue and pop the other out through the same hole - less external wounds to get infected. And stitching helps to reduce the chance of a hernia and helps keep muck out, but it can be swollen for a bit longer as the body takes longer to re-absorb the fluids, as they are not draining out although most fluid is actually in the tissues.
With the open wounds and stitched we left well alone as the iodine or hibiscrub can be irritant, and some animals are allergic to it, and make things worse. Never insert anything into the open wound as this can cause infection to track up into the wound and end up in the abdomen.
If your friends boy is normal in himself and doing everything normally I would wait another week to see if it starts to go down a bit, obviously keep a very close eye and if he looks at all dull or isn't himself get the vet straight out.
 
Had my 18month old colt gelded about a month ago, routine op standing up. He started bleeding quite heavily a few hours later so vet came back and packed with wet cotton wool, still dripped and vet had to come back to put in a bit more cotton wool which he removed 24hrs later, given penicillin at each visit. 4 weeks on and two courses of antibiotics later he is still seeping, my vet thinks i am worrying about nothing and it will heal in its own time but I honestly dont feel happy about it. he is fine and well in himself, no swelling and eating and acting like normal, anyone had any experience of the healing process taking so long after castration I am getting desperate and have another colt to geld but keep putting it off as I dont want the same problems.
 
now no stiches in will swell and it should to heal, and weep ect. will be fine in a week to 10 days. keep checking and just keep a eye on it but shoudl be fine now.
 
I had 2 of mine done last week. It was done at the vets surgery. My 2 year old was done standing and he has 2 open cuts on the outside of the sack, the 4 year old was knocked down and they said he had to be stitiched due to his age. This meant the actual cord that runs to the testicals is stitched closed rather than crushed (which is what they did with the 2 year old) the sack on the 4 year old has 2 open cuts in the middle. They have finished their antibiotics and have slight weeping still. 4 year old has no swelling yet but the 2 year old is quite swollen, think this is mainly because he doesn't move about in the field much. Have been told to not wash as this can introduce infection.

Not sure what they had done with your friends horse but does seem weird that they would stitch everything up as the fluid needs to come out somehow. Feel for your friend must be so worrying every morning I am praying that everything is ok with my boys!
 
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