I already wrote about whether or not you should geld your colt on
Should You Geld Your Colt? If you decide to take my advice and do it you might want to know a little bit about when and what to expect. If you want to know how it is done - talk to your vet.
Here are some things to consider:
- Gelding a colt early will usually add another inch of growth as testosterone seems to inhibit growth.
- The longer you wait to geld your colt the more masculine he will be - testosterone builds those thick necks, big jowls, and masculine muscles.
- The longer a colt remains intact the more stallion like behavior he will retain after he is gelded.
- The soonest you can geld your colt is after he is weaned and preferably after he has had his shots - which would usually be around 5 months.
- Colts are usually gelded standing - gravity helps insure that everything that needs to be cut is down and easily accessible.
- Older stallions require a surgical setting and are more likely to have complications.
- It will take several weeks for the hormone levels to go down so don't expect any major behavior changes right away.
- Most of the time stitches are not required, in fact most vets prefer not to put in any stitches so that the area can drain and there is less chance for infection.
When you plan on having the colt gelded you will need to bed a stall with straw as shavings or other bedding can get in the incision area. He will require cold hosing on the area for a few days and should be kept quiet so as not to pull anything. They usually don't act like they are even aware that anything has changed and do not seem to have any discomfort.
Your vet will give you instructions on after surgery care - most of the time it is minor and the gelding continues on like nothing happened. If he was less than a year old any studdly behavior that he was exhibiting will soon fade away, if he was older the behavior won't completely disappear, but he will become more manageable. I have observed that the later they are gelded the more sensitive they seem to be about their environment, training, other horses, and just the world in general. It is not bad behavior, just not the "whatever" attitude of most geldings that were cut earlier.
2 comments:
Good information for any one who is gelding a horse. I say if you're going to do it do it early.
This is timely, as our miniature donkey was gelded on Friday and I was thinking how glad I was not to have had to go through it with the horses, who were gelded long before we got them.
It's interesting to read how it works with horses.
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