Newly Gelded Colt Bleeding

[LockeMeadows]

Uh, I just had the vet out (1:30am). Both of my colts were gelded today (now yesterday). The one is great with very little swelling. The other has lost about a pint of blood in the past 12 hours it was a steady drip, drip, drip. The vet just left. She packed it up and clamped it off hoping to help it clot off. There is A LOT of swelling and he is pretty painful. They are coming back out in 12 hours to remove the packing and check the site. Please send jingles...this is my baby!

[BSFKimbees]

Many JINGLES for your little guy!

I had a colt last year who bled pretty badly as well, had to spend the night at the clinic. It did stop however and he is a happy and healthy 2 year old now! :yes:

Good luck, let us know...

[Evalee Hunter]

Definitely sending good thoughts & strength to your boy. We had one bleed to death early in 2003.

[AKB]

If things are not going well today, you can always ask for a second opinion from a surgeon. You can take the little guy to Leesburg (Morven Park) or have a surgeon (e.g., Equine Emergency Vets) come out to your farm if you are in No VA. Most geldings are uneventful, but some have complications and do better if you involve a specialist.

[Laurierace]

As long as its just a drip it should be ok. I had one blow a crimp years ago and his was a stream the size of my index finger for at least an hour. It wasn't pretty but he recovered completely. Jingling the drip stops soon.

[spaghetti legs]

aarghhh poor baby!

I had a pup neutered yesterday, and he had forgotten about the surgery by the time we'd gotten home from the clinic! If only it didn't knock the horses around so much :(

[DMK]

Many JINGLES for your little guy!

I had a colt last year who bled pretty badly as well, had to spend the night at the clinic. It did stop however and he is a happy and healthy 2 year old now! :yes:

Good luck, let us know...

I'll take your night in the clinic and raise you 7 days, although the bleeding was resolved in 3 days and he was safely out of transfusion territory in 4 days - the remaining 3 days were to keep him on IV antibiotics and closely monitor blood work for recovery and infection.

He's just fine now with no adverse effects other than making my pocket book considerably lighter and scaring me and the vet who did the gelding (just to clarify, the procedure wasn't botched in any way, it's just an unpleasant fact that in medicine sometimes you do everything right and it still goes wrong, aka "rare but expected complications").

But to set your mind at ease, he was at the vet school within several hours of the procedure. He was mostly drip-dripping which we didn't like but didn't consider something that warranted a trip to the vet school, when he started to show "colic-like" signs, which really concerned us. This was because blood was pooling up in his abdominal cavity, putting pressure on his intestinal tract (hence the colic like signs) rather than exiting his body. He had a couple episodes of more serious bleeding over the next 24 hours that made me very glad it was under their care, and his blood count dropped below where they would do a transfusion, but since he always remained alert, comfortable and with a good appetite and vitals, they held off and monitored it regularly.

Lucky me, his bleeding was so persistent that they didn't want to pack it for fear of really opening it up again and starting a gusher given his blood count, and for that same reason they didn't want to actively go clean it out when it did look like the bleeding had mostly resolved. This meant when he came home a week later, yours truly got to warm hose and massage the poor dude and his faux draft horse balls. I learned he is really an incredibly well behaved youngster and that cleaning out week old blood clots is skanky biidness even for those of us with a strong stomach.

[LockeMeadows]

I can handle almost any ickiness; I'm an ER nurse in a very "interesting" area.

Today, the boy is doing better. His pain level is down and he's eating and drinking just fine. The vet came out and checked him. They are leaving his packing in until tomorrow. So far so good.

Yes, he does has faux draft horse balls. Poor boy.

[DMK]

yeah, I'm pretty good for all the sights, but the smells are not my favorite thing, and 10 day old blood clots? Not a good smell. :dead:

Glad your guy is doing better.

[Home Again Farm]

Jingling that the news continues good!

[Private Diamonds]

Yes, he does has faux draft horse balls. Poor boy.


Uh, yeah he does :(

[BSFKimbees]

Glad to hear he's doing better... It's scary when you think about all that can go wrong.

My gelding was caught while we were still at the clinic (I bring my guys in as my Vet is only 15 min away and I'm too cheap to pay a farm call) so he just didn't leave until they got it under control. Even when he came home it was still maintenance for a few days.

I suppose I am a little luckier than most having a Vet that is so close. Someone can be here or I there pretty much immediately.

Still giving Jingles!