When to Geld???

[Indian*R*A*I*N*Dance]

Were planing to geld my mini. Right now hes 29'' and 6 months old. the vet is coming in 2 weeks but i just wanted to know before when is a good time to geld him. My riding instruction said its alot of work after. What should i expect?

 

[ThreeCFarm]

We usually geld our colts while they are still nursing their dams, at just a few months old. As to it being a lot of work, it shouldn't be unless there are complications. We just turn them back out and let them be babies--they self-exercise themselves which keeps the swelling and pain down. Of course, I am NOT a vet!

 

[Jill]

I've had them gelded from 6 months old up to 5 years old. The younger, the easier the recovery

: The 6mos old through young yearling ones I've had gelded, appeared to be feeling 100% a few hours afterwards :bgrin

 

[Warpony]

My colt was older but that was because I didn't trust the vet I had when I first got him. My vet now will do them whenever she can find both of them, anywhere from 2 months on (she doesn't like sedating the little ones younger than that.

I'm not sure what your riding instructor meant by "a lot of work" though. Recovery only took about a week, and all I had to do was make sure he got his antibiotics and work him every day (which I did anyway). Some vets recommends cold hosing afterwards, mine said to cold hose if he had a lot of drainage or swelling, but otherwise with the antibiotics he should be fine. At most even if I had been cold hosing daily it would have been an extra 10 or 15 minutes a day for a week or so. Really not much work at all. And mine is certainly much happier now than he was before.