This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (BRIAN C JACOBSEN) Pat,
To me, laying a colt down completely, the way your veterinarians do it now, is the most humane. "Banding", as you described seeing in France is not a satisfactory method in my opinion. Truthfully, I think it is only painful to the horse for a little while (several hours maybe) until the scrotal and testicular tissue has "died". Anotherwards, it would feel something like us putting a tight rubber band around a finger; It hurts at first but before long it goes to sleep. But it is not uncommon to for part of the epididymus or part of the testicle even to be missed because they are held so close to the horse's body. Another complication would be maggot infestation as the tissue was drying up and falling off. Strictly on the basis of how humane the procedure is, it would be hard to judge between banding and standing castration. We do the standing castration sometimes, and there is no question the horse feels it more than if he were anesthetized and lying on the ground. However, if the sedative mixture we use affects the horse the way we hope (they all respond a little differently), sometimes they never even budge. For those not familiar with a standing castration, here is some history. Years ago, before sedatives were available, the only way to geld a horse was to lay him down on the ground and stretch him out with ropes tied to his legs. This obviously was traumatic and extremely painful to the horse. Ether then started being used to some extent, and the horse was "knocked out" and didn't feel anything. Eventually, the more modern sedatives and anesthetics were discovered, and they fine tuned the process even more, making it a much safer procedure. Some people though, most notably race horse owners and trainers, believed that if a horse was ever anesthetized, it "took something out of him" and he was never as good again. So standing castrations started being performed on some horses. Another reason some owners prefer the standing procedure is that, rarely, a horse will be hurt while laying down (falling down in many cases) from the anesthetics, or while getting back up during when recovery. In the standing castration, the horse is sedated heavily enough to make him sleepy and even a bit wobbly. The twitch is applied to his nose to keep him still and help keep him from kicking. Usually, lidocaine (like novacaine at the dentist's) is injected to try to desensitize the nerves in the castration area. So the standing procedure may be a little safer for the horse, but he almost always feels it more. Interestingly, even when we "knock one out" completely and lay them on the ground for the castration procedure, most of them still feel it a little. During certain parts of the procedure they will try to pull the testicle you are working on back up to their body, or even flex a leg a little. That's because this level of anesthesia is not quite the full anesthesia like if they were actually in a surgery room and breathing the inhalant anesthetics. However, for all practical purposes they feel it very little and don't seem to remember it. So to me, and I think it would be hard to argue, this last method, or laying them down with anesthetics, is the most humane. As you mentioned, Pat, everyone has a different opinion on at what age and what time of year to geld a horse. Technically it can be done any time after birth, though we wouldn't usually consider doing it to such a fragile creature as a newborn foal. It is a bit of a misunderstand among people in general that the testicles descend into the sac sometime after the colt is born. Close to 99% of the time they are there when he's born, having descended in the last several weeks prior to his birth. So if we don't want to do it so young, then when? Well, it's good to wait until they've had a tetanus vaccination and booster which can be started as early as 3 months old. After that, as long as both testicles are palpable, they can be done at any time. I have gelded one of ours at 5 months old and everything was fine. Traditionally, it is done at sometime around a year of age. This is as good a time as any, because some are fertile as young as 14 months. Many will want to breed before that age, some of it play and some serious, but 14 months is the earliest I know of one actually being able to impregnate a mare. If a person wants the horse in question to develop some stallion characteristics like a thicker neck etc, they will really have to wait until the colt is 2-3 years old. Conversely, it is thought that if they are gelded before 2-3 years old, they may mature a little taller. Time of year to do it really doesn't seem to matter. You'll hear some people say do it in cooler weather when flies aren't as bad, and that's fine, but we do it at all times of the year and don't seem to have any trouble. Horses are able to keep the flies off pretty well down there. Some people swear you need to do it by the signs. The reasoning here is the following: The signs are determined by the phases of the moon, and if the moon is strong enough to control the tides, then it's strong enough to have some effect on the amount of bleeding and swelling after a castration. The signs are recorded in the Farmer's Almanac and the time to geld is when they are in the feet. I have to say that we have gelded horses with the signs and against the signs, and have not noticed any significant difference in the amount of bleeding or swelling. The best answer is probably this: If you or your veterinarian feels strongly about going with the signs, then do it, or else if something goes wrong you will be forever kicking yourself or you will never hear the end of it from your veterinarian : ). Pat, the twitching incident you relate is very interesting (the fear reaction two years later to what the horse thought was another twitch). Horses definitely have excellent memories. Robert M. Miller, DVM, the strong proponent of imprinting, maintains that horses never forget a thing. Let me emphasize to everyone, though, the twitch was not an evil thing in this story; It is simply what the horse associated the painful procedure with. He remembered that after the twitch was put on his nose, the guy in coveralls did something to him that hurt pretty bad. Although I realize that using a twitch is a controversial subject with some, it is a necessary instrument to do the things we need to do as veterinarians. Brian Jacobsen, DVM Norwegian Fjordhest Ranch Salisbury, North Carolina ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
