Retained testicle

[Wally]

Poor Fjord has to have surgery to remove a retained testicle! Poor lamb.

Vet came and did the other two without bother, poor Fjord has to have a bigger op later on when the weather is a bit warmer (It's snowing here today) We don't have flies, so we can operate any time of year.

Anyone else evre had a pony operated on in such a manner before?? It will involve abdominal surgery.

[flintybaby]

Its snowing????

Poor Fjord. Good luck with the op when it comes.

[Wally]

Yes, it's snowing, has been on and off all day, My tiny hands are frozen!

Lucky vet though, nice warm shed with rubber mats to operate in!

[teabiscuit]

the nearest i can offer is finns hernia....
the vet stitched the muscles up and finn had 6 weeks in the field to get over it.

oooh Little Lad had colic surgery that had a complication so he had 2.5 months box rest while his cut through tummy muscles healed and got strong, but i believe that length of time was due to his complications - not 100% sure though so probably shouldn't post it :o

[flintybaby]

lol that seems weird - its sunny here!

[Wally]

Ahh now our vet said even though he'd be cutting into the abdominal muscles, he'd still want him out in a field asap after surgery.

[horse_lady43]

hi wally i had a colt with a retained testicle,i wanted to keep him entire so vet said leave him a while, 2yrs old nothing so off he went to vets had op he was fine just put him out in field during day and in stable at night no problems,so dont worry,

[Wally]

This guy is 3, so I don;t think there's any hope it will drop now. Whiole he was out we all had a jolly good poke about and found no sign that the testicle had ever been low enough to drop. Can't have a stallion firing on once cylinder!

Poor lamb, he's not the bravest person. It took him ages to come around from the anaesthetic!

Norman was up and fighting before we'd finished, Frances had to sit on him!

The vet was talling us a story of him castrating two totally wild hill ponies and having them coming around doing cart wheels,.....in full view of the main road coming out of town! Commuters staring at him wrestling mad ponies to the ground!

[Wally]

BTW we have no big animal operating places, so he'll have to be done at home and hope we don't have any complications!

[thoroughlybred1]

I had an 8 yr old rig operated on many moons ago as although he was not too bad with mares, and on the whole a very quiet temperament, he would attack the geldings which wasnt funny if someone was sat on one at the time!

All went fine, but his sheath was very swollen after (much more so than when gelded) and required suporting - we used a pair of tights - gusset underneath with the legs knotted over his back - looked stupid but did the job!

The vet kept the removed teste for me, as he knew i wouldnt believe that it had molar teeth in it! It was a massive which could be expected by 8 years, and it really did have 3 molar teeth in it!
apparently formed due to hormones - they'd heard of it happening before but had never seen one. He used to object to his near hind being picked out, and as far as i was concerned this explained it all - poor jumbo used to bite his ball evertime i picked that foot out!

Ps - You were right about my latest colt pulling 1 of his up and pretending it wasnt there - he was desperate to hang onto it as he even sucked it up under sedation

Good luck with the op and i hope all goes smoothly

[Wally]

I have heard about teeth and hair and the like in ovarian cysts, but never in retained testicles, fascinating!

I hope we have nothing like that to contend with.

How fast did he recover? Was it a very big incision?

[Libbyo]

Awww. Poor little fjord.

[Wally]

BTW he isn't a Fjord! he's a Shetland called Fjord! I didn't name him. He is alphabetical, He's Andy and Charlie's half and full brother.

[Skyhuntress]

Isn't he a cryptorchid then? If so, then Arion was one. I had him gelded at 2, when I was assured that if it hasn't dropped by then, chances are it wouldn't.

It was actually a fairly easy process for Arion. He went to the vet clinic, had the surgery and stayed two days to make sure there was no infection. After that, I was told to coldhose him a bit if he would stand for it, keep him moving and active and give him penicilin for the week. The incision healed up perfectly (I don't even think there's a scar, come to think of it) and he was back to being his PITA self in less then a week.

[thoroughlybred1]

I have heard about teeth and hair and the like in ovarian cysts, but never in retained testicles, fascinating!

I hope we have nothing like that to contend with.

How fast did he recover? Was it a very big incision?

It was about 15 yrs ago, so cant remember exactly, and i guess operating procedures have moved on somewhat since then! But i'm pretty sure the tights were needed for no longer than 5 - 7 days, he was out in a paddock for the whole recovery time. As soon as the anaesthetic had worn off he was pretty bright eyed - with the bute and antibiotics, apart from the massive amount of swelling he was his normal self within a day or 2. I cant remember the incision being overly large, but thats because we had a pretty good idea which side it was, so i guess with yours it will be as straight forward as you know for sure which one is missing! I can remember having the conversation with the vet about wether to go in central so both sides could be searched, or in the side.....to go in the side (as long as it was the correct one) was about £200 cheaper which is why we did it that way. With a 50/50 chance to start with, then the objections to holding his near hind up giving us odds in favour of that side our gamble paid off.

I'd be very interested to know how your vet goes about it, and seeing how much such procedures have progressed over time!

[Wally]

....our vet has never done the operation before!

We have no specialist horse vets, we have no specialist operating rooms.

He's going away to research the subject then we all have a go with the text book open :D :D

[becs]

we all have a go with the text book open don't worry - human surgeons do that too, lol.