Castration cont.

Post Operative Care and Complications

Care

• The horse should remain quiet for 24 hr post surgery and observed for excessive bleeding or depression.
  
  
• After 24 hr, the gelding should be exercised. Healing begins on the inside and healing of the skin should occur only after everything else is healed. Exercise will help keep the incisions open and promote normal healing. Begin with at least 15 minutes of exercise twice a day.  The first couple days should be mild exercise.  By the third day, more vigorous exercise can be used.
  
  
• House the gelding in a clean and dry place to prevent infection. Use fly control as necessary.
  
  
• The gelding is essentially sterile by 3 days post-op but fertility has been documented up to 3 weeks.
  
  
• Follow all instructions given by your veterinarian.

Complications

• Swelling: Some preputial and scrotal edema is normal. It usually is greatest 3 to 6 days after surgery and subsides by 9 days. Excessive swelling is a common complication and typically occurs with inadequate wound drainage, inadequate postoperative exercise, poor lymphatic drainage, excessive surgical trauma or infection. Excessive postoperative swelling is painful and reduces willingness to exercise, causing the wound to seal prematurely and compounding the problem. Treatment involves nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to decrease pain and inflammation, and increase tolerance to exercise.
  
  
• Excessive hemorrhage: Hemorrhage may occur during, immediately after or several days after surgery. Some bleeding from scrotal wounds after castration is norma. If profuse bleeding continues unabated for more than 15 minutes, the hemorrhage should be considered excessive. This is then an EMERGENCY. CALL THE VETERINARIAN IMMEDIATELY.
  
  
• Infections: Infections have a number of causes. Premature closing of the skin before the rest of the wound is healed is one cause that can be prevented by exercise. The spermatic cord can develop an infection known as a Scirrhous chord that is serious and may form an abscess. This type of infection needs to be aggressively treated by the veterinarian and often requires long-term antibiotics and subsequent surgery to remove the infected tissue.
  
  
• Post-castration herniation: The abdominal contents come through the inguinal canal. This is an EMERGENCY. CALL THE VET IMMEDIATELY.