Mission:

 To provide excellent Equine Veterinary care and service through the support of the Doctors, the Staff, and the Customers.

We also strive to bring new services for the benefit and
advancement of Equine health,
and continually work to provide a local resource for education of the public and equine professionals in matters of the health and welfare of horses.

Got Nuts!!???

Gelding a horse is a very common procedure. Gelding refers to removing the testicles on a male horse. It can be done at any time after the testicles have descended. When male foals are born they should already have both testicles descended. Although some will descend at a later time. When the testicles are removed, the testicle, and epididymis is removed as shown by the arrows.

Each testicle has an epididymis which serves to transport the semen where it is stored in the tail of the epididymis or "button". The horseman's tale has been that if the button was left in the horse, the horse would be "proud cut" and retain stallion like characteristics. However the epididymis only stores sperm and is not capable of making testosterone.

Male horses that have one or both testicles undescended are called cryptorchids. During development as a fetus the testicles are located by the kidneys and have to descend down through the inguinal rings into the scrotum. They may have the testicles in their inguinal region or in their belly. If horses have been improperly gelded by lay people and only one testicle was taken out the horse will look like a gelding but may retain stallion behavior and characteristics. In order to determine if these horses have a testicle, blood work needs to be run. There are two different types of tests to determine if a horse still has testicular tissue present. One is a testosterone level, and the other is a HCG stimulation test where a baseline measurement is taken and then a drug is given to see of they have any testicular tissue to respond to the drug. Another blood sample is then taken a few hours later to determine if the horse has any testicular tissue that has responded to the stimulation. Gelding a cryptorchid horse is more involved and involves stitches whereas a routine gelding usually does not require any stitches. The testicle that is not descended is usually smaller and has reduced fertility because the temperature inside is higher than in the scrotum and it affects the development of the testicle. Since cryptorchidism is inherited it is recommended that these horses be gelded and not used as breeding animals.