Equine Castration Preparatory Considerations Prior to scheduling your colt for gelding, or castration surgery, there are a few items of preparation that are important for you to take care of to make sure that everything goes well for your horse. 1. Can you handle your horse? Is your colt halter broke and desensitized enough to allow you to handle him (run your hands all over his body, allows you to apply fly spray to his legs and under belly, etc.). This is important so you can determine #2. 2. Does your colt have 2 descended testicles in his scrotum? In order to castrate your colt, he has to have both testicles present (descended out of the abdomen) in the scrotum. If he only has one testicle present in the scrotum, he has a condition called cryptorchidism (meaning one testicle retained either in the abdomen or partially descended and trapped in the inguinal region). Cryptorchid horses require a special surgery to complete the castration. We can refer you to a board-certified surgical practice to have this surgery performed if your horse is a cryptorchid, but we will not be able to perform the castration for your horse. Please verify that your horse has both testicles in the scrotum prior to scheduling the surgery. This will prevent you being charged an unnecessary call fee when Dr. Holt arrives to perform the surgery only to find that your colt is a cryptorchid. 3. Have a rectal thermometer and have your horse trained to let you use it. It is a good idea to practice taking your colt’s temperature rectally for several days prior to the surgery to both get him accustomed to having this done, but also to get an idea of his normal body temperature. Following your horse’s surgery, you will need to check his temperature daily to make sure that he isn’t running a fever as a result of infection of the surgical wound. 4. Plan time to exercise your horse twice a day for a week to 10 days following the surgery! Does your colt know how to lunge? You are going to need to exercise your horse at both walk and trot twice a day for 7-10 days following the surgery to promote drainage from the surgical wound. This is very important to help prevent infection of the surgical site. The horses that develop infection of the surgical wound following castration are often the horses that the owners neglect to exercise him for at least 15 minutes twice a day after surgery. 5. We can’t perform the castration surgery until at least 2 weeks (3-4weeks is better) after he has received his first dose of tetanus vaccine. At the time of the castration surgery, we will administer the second (booster) dose of tetanus vaccine to ensure that your horse does not develop tetanus following the surgery. 6. Fast (do not feed, but must have access to water) the horse for 12 hours prior to the planned surgery appointment. 7. On the day of the castration appointment, have your dog(s) put away, and no lawn mowers or other loud distractions going on. In order for the sedation and anesthesia needed for the surgery to work effectively, your colt needs to be as relaxed and stress free as possible. A yapping dog running around his legs isn't going to help our cause! 8. If you have any questions, please enter those below.