HOW YOUNG do you / can you geld your colts?

[Jesse'sMom]

OMG... I have a colt born 4/4..
he is a total 100% complete boy.. he is driving me nuts.. NEeds to be gelded terribly, as in, already talking to the girls dropping & "doing the whams" if you know what i mean.
I cannot wait to geld him.. How young do you guys geld, and any bad feedback on it? I never keep my colts, and i never have to worry about gelding them, but this boy.. uh, yeah- for sure needs the boys to be gone...

[Hillside H Ranch]

You can geld him now.
I routinely geld my colts before weaning, anywhere from 3-5 months of age. As far as how young CAN you geld? Within a few days of birth, if all is normal and they are healthy.

[risingstarfarm]

Ditto what Hillside said.

I had a VERY naughty colt a few years ago and he was gelded at 5 weeks.

[Jesse'sMom]

VERY cool! thank you! I have never had a foal who was such a "boy" at such a young age & I mentioned to a few people to geld him & they thought I was nuts cause he was so young! thank you!!!

[dbaygirl]

Guys, please define "very naughty" and what can possibly be so bad at the tender age of 2 months? I don't understand how a baby this age can do any harm. Surely the mother can discipline the colt? I've had a few colts; one was quite the boy but nothing that would give me the urge to do surgery on the little tyke. How bad can a baby be?

I never hear anyone talking about their "bad" fillies...

[Indy-lou]

Dogs and cats are now spayed and neutered at weeks of age, rather than the long-held idea that they needed to go through a heat cycle or be close to that age.
As far as colts go, if the testicles are fully descended, there is no set age for gelding them. Some folks like to geld them while they are still nursing their mothers, with the idea that with mom around, it is less stressful.
You can geld them anytime the testicles are fully descended.
I tend to think anytime between the ages of 4 mos to 1 year is fine.
I had our colt gelded one month after weaning at the age of 7 mos. One major reason for waiting is for Fall to come with cooler daytime temps and the first overnight freeze, which kills off flying insects.
I really based my timing on the insect thing, more than anything else.

[Leena]

Guys, please define "very naughty" and what can possibly be so bad at the tender age of 2 months? I don't understand how a baby this age can do any harm. Surely the mother can discipline the colt? I've had a few colts; one was quite the boy but nothing that would give me the urge to do surgery on the little tyke. How bad can a baby be?

I never hear anyone talking about their "bad" fillies...

Well I had one that attack me in my face, leaving me with a big bum; then the farrier and finally the vet..all in between 2 months and 4 months of age. But my drama was he had a retained one so we were able to geld him only this spring at 2 years old.
We were able to survive and get him some education by sending him with our big 3 years old and 4 years old boys for all this time. With the boys, he became really well educated but still very unpredictable and somewhere dangerous.

I had another one we gelded at 7 months.

I have not seen bad fillies until they get in heat !!!!

[Ashemont]

We routinely gelded after the flies were gone... usually November or December... but I have gelded as early as 6 weeks with no ill effects.

How do the various breed associations treat this nowadays? Can you present a foal as a gelding? I know they used to have to be intact.

[Foxtrot's]

...In fact, my vet recommends early gelding. Mine was done at five months, before weaning. I could not feel the two testicles, but vet could feel they had dropped, and it made a huge difference in bahaviour and I did not have to keep getting after the little guy.

[LoveMyArabians]

Whenever you decide the time is right... just make sure that the vet who does the gelding has a great track record before you do the procedure.

Although the procedure of gelding seems harmless... it is not. Get references from the vet, question them on the 2 most important, common things that can go wrong which are caused mostly by inadequate vet knowledge and inexperience.

Do your homework... will save you lots of heartache and money.

Cindy

[Zu Zu]

Sounds like it should have be done YESTERDAY! Good-Luck !

[FriesianX]

My old vet (now retired) had several Standardbred breeders - and they were gelding the colts at 30 days. With great success - the colts were easier to handle, less trauma on all - and apparently they did it based on the recommendation of several other BIG breeders.

Several years ago, I did have one gelded at 45 days - he was very studdy. Mom was very tolerant. He became a doll within a week after gelding :yes: Some boys are just too much boy!

[Tackpud]

Guys, please define "very naughty" and what can possibly be so bad at the tender age of 2 months? I don't understand how a baby this age can do any harm. Surely the mother can discipline the colt? I've had a few colts; one was quite the boy but nothing that would give me the urge to do surgery on the little tyke. How bad can a baby be?

I never hear anyone talking about their "bad" fillies...


Then I will tell you about my "bad" filly! From the moment she was born she was a nightmare to deal with. Came out nickering and acting like she owned the world. By day two she was trying to bite everyone and kick anyone who dared to come into the stall. By one month she would run up to you in the paddock then turn and kick out at you. Forget about manners in the stall - nasty and rotten. Mom is easy to deal with and we've never had a problem handling her. She's shown for years and is back on the circuit competing successfully now. Throughout all of this, mom never changed her attitude toward people - didn't get protective of the filly with us, let us handle her (mom) with no problems, etc.

Her mom had absolutely no interest in disciplining her - 1st foal... Mom also wouldn't let any other horse near her (and I mean that - she went after another one we put in to try and teach the baby some manners, and we just managed to intervene before we had a dead horse.). We handled her (baby) from the start - literally forced her to submit on occasion but she was just born tough and mean. Mom wouldn't wean her - I finally had to put an old gelding in with them (that took some doing with mom's protectiveness), get the filly onto him, and get mom slowly weaned. (Tried the quick wean method and almost lost the mom.) The gelding finally stood up to the filly and wouldn't take any cr** off her so we started being able to deal with her. They had to live in the same stall together since that was the only way we could get hold of the filly without getting hurt.

The old guy passed from colic and the filly finally started straightening out (at about 1 year old). You could never let your guard down around her, but she wouldn't attack without warning anymore.

This wasn't my first foal, so I know it wasn't that we didn't handle her correctly. Her half sister (different dads) is a dream and has been from the start. This one was just born tough and mean and believe me, she did some damage to all of us. She is now on her way to an event career and they think she may make an advanced horse one day. Doesn't back down from anything...

It's not just the boys!:winkgrin:

[paintjumper]

We have our babies born in April, when the bad weather is over, (typically our wet, cold months are Feb, early March). We geld in October when it is getting cooler and the flies are not as bad and wean about 4-5 weeks later, they do better on mama as she provides a bit of comfort and they must keep moving with the mare/baby herd so they tend to not swell as much. If I have questions about a colt I will wean and make up my mind before the next spring, around March before it gets hot and the bugs take over.