# Castrated the Boys



## Carly Rae (Jan 14, 2017)

We finally got the boys Castrated!

I have been wanting to get my Kevin gelded for way over a year now, I finally got the money to cover the costs myself, our friends keep their 2 rescue horses on our property, they got them gelded too. Having 3 horses done reduces the costs a bit for travel, although I accidentally paid the vet $100 too much.

This all happened on the 11th of Jan




I attached some photos of their drugged faces, all are healing nicely





Kevin getting done:











Banjo's Turn :






Then Ted :


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 14, 2017)

Whew. Glad that is over. Looks like your vets do it pretty much like ours.


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## Cayuse (Jan 14, 2017)

Well seeing those pics got me thinking. I have horses my entire life (and I'm not young,lol) and I have never seen one gelded. I've never had a young horse! Did you watch?

I hope that they recovery is uneventful.


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## Carly Rae (Jan 14, 2017)

Yeah, its like a weight lifted off my shoulders getting it over and done with.

Oh really? I had my Shetland, Dusty gelded in 2008, he was the first one we got done. I refused to watch it haha.

Although I was very happy with this vet. The one in 2008 was no where near as gentle with Dusty. The vet just gave Dusty his shots and let him fall to the ground.

Whereas the vet we had the other day held the horses head with his hand on their shoulder and guided him down so they didn't slam their heads on the ground. We will definitely stay with that vet from now on. He was very gentle with them.

Yes I did watch, I am terrible with blood and gore. But it was actually not bad at all, like barley any blood. Quite facinating actually ☺


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## Carly Rae (Jan 14, 2017)

Here's one of the vet helping Ted on his way down.


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 15, 2017)

I've stayed also. It was done at the vet's place and it was surprising to me how many onlookers the procedure attracted. I've had 4 horses done. It's the afterward that I find the hardest. Two friends of mine took horses and they would not go down. The vet had to order a special "cocktail" for them. One of mine, as I recall, had to have something to wake him up. It is very scary to me seeing them anesthetized. The last 2 I scheduled by the moon sign. Not sure if this makes a difference, but I thought I'd try it.


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## paintponylvr (Jan 24, 2017)

It was neat to see someone else who has taken photos of the "job" being done. Congrats on getting the boys gelded, Carly!

We've taken dozens of photos over the years of surgeries on some of our ponies and horses (and wish I'd taken some of other procedures). I have a ton of photos from the castration that was done in the spring of 2015 - I hauled 5 shetland ponies/minis up to the vet school and lots of vet students got to remove "TINY" testes (total of 10 testicles)!!! It was really weird to have a different person remove each one, LOL.

Have the pics of a colt being done in 2016 in March, but haven't posted any of those anywhere.

Then have some pics of the two boys getting sleepy in Sept 2016, but since one is a cryptorchid (mature 6 yr old stallion) and the other a double crypt (at this time), they didn't get done. We are waiting for a while on the double crypt to see if he'll mature some and drop enough to castrate w/o exploratory surgery (last, lowest quote was $2,000 and the highest was close to $10,000 as they'd open his abdomen like they do for colic surgery and might have to do as much searching around for testes.)

In March, we will be taking the double crypt up to State again along with another colt that I've sold. We'll see where we are with them. Crossing my fingers that we are able to do something...

North Carolina State University did ask that we not post any surgical pictures publicly on open albums(such as Google Photos) due to the nasty comments and headaches that that seems to produce... So sad that that happens! I was so surprised to hear that the Vet school gets all kinds of "flak" for the routine surgeries they do on pets and livestock.


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## Carly Rae (Jan 25, 2017)

Marsha, what do you mean by "scheduled by the moon sign" ??





Thanks Paula !! I found it very interesting to watch, the Vet also had a Vet student along with him, although he didn't take part in the actual procedure. He mainly prepped and observed. The vet would talk through what he was doing to the vet student, so I listened in a bit. Although I have forgotten most because he went into big words that I cant remember haha.



I was more watching what he was doing, I also got a video of part of the procedure





Wow, that's a lot of money for the surgery! I have never heard of that before though, but I hope you are able to do something as well !





That's a shame they get criticism,



 Is that because its students doing the procedures or other reasons??


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 25, 2017)

The Moon Sign is the astrological table. Things "Done By The Moon", such as planting crops. In the USA, The Old Farmer's Almanac is the source I use, but I'm sure any internet search would turn up other sources. (I wonder how the dates would vary in another hemisphere?) I think the reasoning behind it is that the moon controls the tides, so therefore other things, such as plant sap and animal fluids, are affected. It is a very old belief and some people are real die-hards about it.

Paula, I understand how the universities can get flak. When I had my dog's tail docked I mentioned it on this forum and thought some readers were going to have a conniption fit. My goodness, he didn't even notice it. Being neutered was 100 times more traumatic for him. But I didn't hear any of them objecting to that...

Hope your crypto horse drops successfully. That surgery is very expensive. I haven't had to do that, as the one I was worried about finally showed his the size of a corn kernel. That was all the vet needed to remove them. He was two.


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 27, 2017)

Went with my sister to get her big horse colt done. The vet used a different technique--can't remember the technical name. But he hooked a device like a pair of vice grips to a cordless drill and twirled the testicles into a cord. He says this causes less bleeding. New to us. We'll see if works any better than the old way. Cost was $183, which included Coggins and removal of two wolf teeth.


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## Carly Rae (Jan 27, 2017)

You learn something new everyday !





That sounds interesting though with the moon sign, I had never heard of it before. Although I know how the moon controls the tides, but I didnt know it had an affect on animals and plants.

That is different, how would your vets normally castrate your horses over there?

Ours just sliced the skin and pulled the testicle out, clamped it with vice grip type things, then they got some type of string, I'm guessing some sort of dissolvable stitches, then he tied that really tight level where he cut then skin then cut the testicle off. Thats excluding all the drugs they got in the process. I assume its the same process for you maybe??


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 27, 2017)

Carly Rae said:


> You learn something new everyday !
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's the procedure we were used to. The drill/vice grip thing today was new. We'll see if it is better than the old way.


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## Marsha Cassada (Jan 28, 2017)

She said he is doing fine today, no swelling, moving easily. Maybe the new technique is better. Maybe is was the moon?


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