I have an April 01 QH stallion. As a yearling, he was fully dropped. At that point, he was also sold. His new home didn't take care of him properly, and by the time we got him (only a few months ago) he was in pretty bad shape. He is rebounding quite well (better than we expected actually) but we are still looking at the possibility of abdominal surgery in order to geld him. I know for sure that his left teste was recently down fully. The right I cannot say for certain as I'm not sure if I'm remembering things correctly (it's been a while since we've seen the right). We had the vet out just to check him over, see what kind of progress we were making (this is a new vet as we are in a new town) and I did mention to this doc that our boy was not gelded yet. He felt up underneath, and said well there's definitely a problem if he's 3 y/o and hasn't dropped yet. Now this vet is highly recommended, but is definitely not a repro vet. But of course, for the vet, we had to suck the left teste up. =) What I'm curious to know, though, is if this horse was fully dropped (as his breeder, last owner, and vet attest to) as a yearling, will it be necessary to geld abdominally? I understand it's entirely possible to "suck up" but just how far up? We have never dealt with a stud before, and didn't intend to keep him intact due to number one our being inexperienced with stallions and his having been stunted in his previous situation. Several people have said that they considered him to be slow to mature, before and on top of the poor care, so that is also a factor to consider. We were planning on gelding in the next month or so, but were told by our old vet to wait until spring because he may drop just yet with the warmer weather. Are we waiting out the winter for no reason? I've also been told by a few people that he does not seem aggressive as is typical of a cryptorchid. I'm assuming that's a general misunderstanding, but he really shows no signs of sexual maturity. No stallion like behavior whatsoever, even with mares in heat standing next to his fence. I am trying to find a repro specialist within a reasonable distance to check this boy out, but so far nobody can think of one, let alone recommend one. He is, right now, probably a good 300-350 pounds underweight still. But his eyes are bright, and aside from the weight, he passed his physical with flying colors. We're hoping that with him getting the weight on and getting in shape (no muscle as you can imagine) that things will start to turn around and hopefully by spring we might actually have something to work with. Are we just being naive? Or is there a reasonable amount of chance that his testicles will fully decend? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
Sandy Posted From: 4.227.133.116
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 12:21 pm:
If you're certain that the testicles were completely dropped as a yearling, there should be no reason why your stallion should have to be gelded by going into the abdomen. The inguinal ring would have already closed preventing the testicles from going into the abdomen at that age. Now it is possible that the testes could be stuck in the inguinal canal, but that is a much less invasive surgery. I don't think you need a repro specialist to handle this problem. A good, experienced horse vet should be able to deal with this as gelding is a common procedure that they deal with a lot.
As long as your boy doesn't act like he's in any discomfort or act out to the point where you think he is a danger to himself or anyone else, I would wait until spring and see what happens. Once he is in good body condition and the warm weather hits, it could make a difference.
Jessie Posted From: 67.0.51.109
Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2004 - 11:30 am:
I rescued my 2002 stud last July only to find out after 4 months of trying to get him that he had an undescended testicle. I was heartbroken--I wasn't told and he was so skinny and had so much rain rot and a bent leg that I didn't even think to look. The vet came out ASAP to make his recommendations to get him back into proper shape and told me that there was no way the testicle would come down, but to worry about his weight, coat, and trying to fix his bent leg first. Well, I'm happy to report that with high-quality feed and care he fully recovered and his testicle dropped on it's own in just a few weeks. The vet was amazed. Good feed and care can sometimes do so much more than anyone expects.
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