A Horses Right Of Passage - Becoming a Gelding

Today was Jacks big Day!
This morning we took him to the Vet to be gelded. I was worried about how we would get him on the trailer cause I'm such a dimwit and didn't work on loading at all this week. He has only ridden in a trailer once before when he was purchased and then he was a foal and road with his mom and dad. I have watched several natural horsemanship shows and I think that paid off today. One of the things I learned was to go slow , let them look - dont push- let them look-and back away, repeat it all over again until the horse loads which usually doesnt take long. But we were in a time crunch so we got King out and loaded him we had to repeat this a few times and Jack finally jumped on in. We went faster than I wanted, BUT luckily he is a quick learner and the experience stayed pleasant for him.

See....he followed his adopted dad and loaded up and made the trip with no problems!

We get to the Vets and he is given his sleepy medicine which began to work right away! But the little bugger needed an extra meds and finally went down

He went out cold! (can you see the blue speck in his eye?)

Jack then had his leg tied up around his chest for easy access and to insure that Jack didn't move his legs while he was being gelded

Awwww my sleeping beauty..notice the feed he was saving in his checks for later?

He is then prepped by Dr Mike (Our favorite Vet!) cleaned with a sanitizing solution

The area must be cleaned of all debris and sanitized to ensure no infection

His scrotum sack is then cut, the Vet pulled out his smaller testicle first

It is then clamped and cut and the testicle removed

As you can see his next nu nu is ready to be removed

This time, since it is much bigger the cord that flows from both testicles is clamped

and held into place while some stitches are put in place As you can see there is VERY little blood. We go by the signs which were below the knees and that ensures very little pain or bleeding. YES the old way and farmers almanac works..we use it for working cattle as well, weaning, etc.

Stitches are cinched up tight

And the last testicle is cut and removed just like the first

Dr Mike then places a few more stitches to close the opening in his scrotum after it too has been cleaned thoroughly.

Here is what it looks like when its completed

Leah and I wern't aware he was so pink! in his underside...he's just cute in every way.

My Boy King waited patiently...I'm sure he was thinking, Been there - done that-glad it's you Jack!

Took Jack what seemed like eternity to wake up...going under always scares me. I'm afraid they wont wake up, but he did with some prodding.

Here is a little bit of random information about Jack. Jack has a genetic strain of DNA thats called Homozygous. He is a Tobiano (click here for more information) which which is the most common spotting pattern, characterized by rounded markings with white legs and white across the back between the withers and the dock of the tail, usually arranged in a roughly vertical pattern and more white than dark. A Homozygous is a spotted pattern coming from a simple dominate gene. A Homozygous can NOT come from a non-homozygous horse but will be produced from any horse that has the gene whether it be homozygous + homozygous or non-homozygous + homozygous. Simply meaning a homozygous horse mare or stallion will always and only throw a homozygous foal. The spots are characterized by secondary spotting called "ink spots," "paw prints," "cat tracks". This means that the dark spots are covered in white hair. below is a picture of the secondary spotting. It is included with the normal spotting such as a "true" Paint being either black and white or brown and white. Click here for more information on the Homozygous gene.

So it was an interesting day, especially for little Jackabo, who isnt so little anymore. He is coming two and was getting quite feisty and getting harder to handle and enjoyed biting. Common for babies I know, but I want that stallion mentality gone as soon as possible. We put fly spray all around his rump and legs, careful not to put it directly on his incision, but to keep the flies away. They are so bad this year. Here are some videos of Jack with the meds taking effect, getting back up and loading back into the trailer. Now THAT scared the daylights out of me...you'll see at the end how close he got to falling off the edge of the ramp! Thankfully that didn't happen and lesson learned, from now on, loading a sedated horse we WILL back the trailer INTO the shed rather than a few feet from it. Another lessoned learned. Enjoy the funny videos!

Questions Answered!

I am so relieved today. I've gotten some answers to some much needed animal problems around here!

1st - Jack is about 6 months old

2nd - we are probably ahead of mare foaling, she should wax more, and bag get bigger, HOWEVER Vet did agree that she is showing signs of being more advanced, and that first time mares dont always have the waxing or big bag..it could be a sign that her milk wont come in.

So she is back out of the barn for now with a watchful eye on her in her lot.

3rd- Called Vet to come out and tend to King, his lameness is NO better and I was worried about permanent lameness. And his pain was painful for me to see!

A. He is MUCH younger than we thought - Vet guessed 10 - 15 years old, maybe 18 - 20 but he didnt really feel he was that old! WOW!!!!!

B - He is in perfect health (except for hoof which I'll go into in a minute) and perfect weight.

C. He has an abscess in his front right hoof. (and NO he isnt club footed like the dentist said, he probably turns that one foot in more but not a problem, should wear boots when exercised hard)

The vet dug and dug and dug in my boys hoof....finding his frog has just overgrown majorly, said thats not uncommon and will maybe just be an issue with him. After we (and yes I got to help him the whole way!) cleaned his hoof, shaved down to the white, we used that big thing that looks like something you'd pull a giants tooth with, to check pain with pressure. We went all around his hoof, and the pain all through out. We started with the right side of his hoof, found a black line indicating an abscess (that was my guess and I was right!) but couldnt get to the bottom of it...I checked the pain with that doomahicky again and found that the left side was more sore, got to digging there and the abscess showed itself and immediately began to drain! WOO HOO we found the problem! His hoof was packed with some tarry meds, wrapped with Vet wrap (trust me that Vet knows how to wrap, it aint coming off or going anywhere until I need to cut it off), given a tetanus shot, and a big dose of antibiotics. He was given some bute paste....he really needed it for the pain. I talked to him about that article that you read to me Kacy and he said that really the benefits outweighed the cons. If his abscess was worse then he wouldnt use it he said, he'd go to something else, or nothing even.

He will get a penicillin shot once a day of 25mg, and bute paste 2x a day for a week (both) until antibiotic and bute gone. Boot can be removed after a week, and after that, he should be good to go! It wasnt bad, but it was all through out his hoof...so that makes it bad in one way, however the abscess wasnt a huge hole, rather a long narrow hole like a worm does to an apple.

I learned also how to keep a horse from leaning on you (like he tends to do) when you work with his feet..You lean into and take a step forward, making them take a side step back and forces them off of you and their mind off of leaning, for a few minutes anyway! LOL King eventually saw the Vet wasnt going to tolerate his antics, and gave up on the leaning!

I'm so happy! I wish the foal would have been coming this weekend...but at least its nice to know what to look for (thanks guys a bunch) and to have the Vet look her over and tell me not to worry just yet!

And I'm SOOOO pleased to learn that I'll have many more years with my boy!!!!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

~*~RAE~*~