Equine castration – special scenarios

Standing equine castration

Watch this explanation of standing castration (9:53 min) – see on youtube

Did you identify the error in her explanation? Hint: It was the part about the function of the epididymis. What part of the gonad actually produces testosterone? And she gave her drugs after the fact; they are much more effective preop.

Exercises

Now work through this exercise for more on standing castrations:

Level B

Key Takeaways

Evaluate your patient. Will he be safe if he feels pain or something funny? If he isn’t safe without pain, abort the plan and offer a recumbent castration.

Stay close to the horse and with your handler on the same side

Give your preop medications (NSAID +/- antibiotic) PREOP.

Do not use xylazine alone as your sedation. Xylazine+butorphanol or detomidine +butorphanol would be much safer.

Block the spermatic cords and the skin with lidocaine.

If complications (hemorrhage, evisceration), you will want to lie him down. Be prepared for that possibility.

Resources

Equine Standing Sedation 

Video compilation no video is perfect!

 

License

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Large Animal Surgery - Supplemental Notes Copyright © by Erin Malone, DVM, PhD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.