The standing castration
With a standing castration the horse doesn't go under narcosis and the testicles only get removed under a local anaesthetics. One cannot work sterile with this methode and you don't need a lot of imagination to see that one cannot work very accurate. Because of this there sometimes occurs inflammation and bleedings with permanent complaints as a result of adhesions. The inguinal canal stays open after the surgery and it's possible, specially with older horses, that in the first days after the surgery the abdominal contents come out through the inguinal canal.
For all these reasons we do not perform standing castrations.
The lying castration
With this the horse goes under a general anaesthetic, wherefore one can work sterile and accurate. The spermatic cord gets bruised with a castration pliers and gets then tied up (read: stitched up) with soluble suture.
The wound in the scrotum stays open so that excessive exudate can easily flow off. The best thing to do is to give the new geldings, the first period after the castration, lots of movement so that the exudate can flow off faster. Therefore is the best time to do this surgery springtime, because afterwards the horses can go quickly into the meadow without there being to much insects.
In our opinion this method is relative cheap and safe way of castrating stallions up to approximately 2.5 years old. Older horses have a bigger space in the inguinal canal and so the risk of a scrotal hernia ( the emerging of the abdominal contents throuhg the scrotum) gets to big.
Castration over the groin
This is also a lying castration. However with this method the stallion gets castrated under optimal circumstances in an appropriate operating room on an operating table under a general anaesthetic. This is the preferred method for horses older than 2.5 years old.
Two relative small incisions are made over both inguinal canals through which the testicles get removed.The spermatic cord gets stitched with soluble suture and the inguinal canals and the skin wound gets closed in multiple layers, also with soluble suture. The skin gets stitched subcutaneous so that no wires can stick out an cause in it's turn an inflammation source.
The risk for complications is minimal with this way of castration. The technique has a very short recovery period of approximately 2 weeks, after which the wounds are so well healed that the horse can be completely brought back to action for potential labour. During the recovery period of 2 weeks, the horse must stay in the stable and can only walk with you holding it or at a treadmill, because chances are real that the stitches will detache because of enthusiastic bulcking.
Castrating ridlings
A ridling is a horse with 1 or 2 undescended testicles.
To castrate a ridling fully, a sterile method of working must be garanteed, because not rarely one have to work deep in the abdomen. The usual method of working is comparable with the castration over the groin, with the difference that at the testicle that lies in the abdomen, the inguinal canal needs to be widen first on that side. Because of this the recovery takes longer (laparoscopic). They make small incisions in the flank and with the help of a camera in the stomach, they remove the testicle out of the abdomen from the standing animal.
With unilateral ridlings the blood vessels of the descended testicle get tied up in the abdomen. The testicle stays in the scrotum to shrink afterwards. This shrinking is sometimes a little bit painful and in 10% of the cases it doesn't shrink completely. The remains of the testicle can still produce hormones, resulting in a stallion behaviour that remains. At a later moment, a second operation is necessary.
We think this 10% is too high and advice to only castrate bilateral ridlings through laparoscopy. Advantages of a laparoscopical castration are that their are no anaesthetics necessary and the recovery is relatively shorter (2-4 weeks).
» Scientific info » Castration
