Had the vet out this morning to castrate Connor. When he gave him his tetanus jabs a couple of months ago I asked him to check whether he had "dropped" and he had a feel around and found two small ones. Connor is still very gentle and docile but a day after booking his op last week he started mounting Cullen in a different way to just play so I wondered whether puberty was kicking in and was glad I'd booked him in!
So the vet confidently sedates him this morning, gives him his antibiotic injection and a good clean before realising that he can only feel one testicle. Has a good root around on the off-side and then finds it and injects the local anaesthetic into both. He decides to do the tricky side first, makes a small incision and then realises that it isn't in fact a testicle but a lymph node. He did search for a good 20-30 mins before giving up and abandoning the procedure. He was very apologetic and I don't blame him at all, even though I now have to treat Connor in the same regime as if he HAD had the op, ie, in isolation, on bute and antibiotics and to keep an eye out for an infection in 7 to 10 days. Vet has said he will only bill me for the drugs used and we will try again next spring.
Connor is the 4th colt I have had and at 17 months he is by far the eldest I have had castrated -or not in his case - the others had all dropped a lot sooner! I REALLY hope this doesnt turn into a retained testicle palaver involving lots of £££s. The vet thinks he can feel the other but it was still too high to grab with his forceps.
Ho hum....
So the vet confidently sedates him this morning, gives him his antibiotic injection and a good clean before realising that he can only feel one testicle. Has a good root around on the off-side and then finds it and injects the local anaesthetic into both. He decides to do the tricky side first, makes a small incision and then realises that it isn't in fact a testicle but a lymph node. He did search for a good 20-30 mins before giving up and abandoning the procedure. He was very apologetic and I don't blame him at all, even though I now have to treat Connor in the same regime as if he HAD had the op, ie, in isolation, on bute and antibiotics and to keep an eye out for an infection in 7 to 10 days. Vet has said he will only bill me for the drugs used and we will try again next spring.
Connor is the 4th colt I have had and at 17 months he is by far the eldest I have had castrated -or not in his case - the others had all dropped a lot sooner! I REALLY hope this doesnt turn into a retained testicle palaver involving lots of £££s. The vet thinks he can feel the other but it was still too high to grab with his forceps.
Ho hum....
