It's nip nip time and they went a way. Is this possible?

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user 3234

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Our little colt has had both testicle decended since birth. He is now almost 6 mo old and we have scheduled his appointment to go to the vet to get him castrated and now I can no longer feel either of his testicles.

Is it possible he is holding them in? Can they go back up into his tube and decend at a later date?
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Yep It can happen, my colt did. They came back by 18 months. I really dont know why, or how, they do it.
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Mabe Nathan will know?
 
If they were truely there in the first place (and not two misplaced pieces of fat, for example) then they are still there, just hiding. They are so small, and the muscles so strong, that they can pull them up very close to their bodies and "hide" them quite well.
 
What Nathan says is exactly what I think, even though I don't have nearly his experience. When I first started having colts gelded, I would check and check and wasn't totally sure I was feeling "them". They can hold them up so tight that it takes a lot of practice to tell that they're actually there by touch.

H and I have had lots of horses gelded over the years, several I of them it was only a ghost of a feel and wondering if for sure they were there (and they were -- but not for long as the vet did his thing!). The most recent one, one was visibly descended and the other was down but being held to the body and I was not completely sure I felt it then, but I knew I had in the fall (so wasn't worried). I was surprised, though, to see how big it actually was (maybe 2" long!). Even that size, he held it so snug I was not able to feel it prior to gelding but knew I had done so last fall.

Once though they are really down (including if they are down at birth) I do NOT think they can / do pass back through the ring into the body cavity. I think they are merely being held up tight to the body, and that most individuals are unable to feel them.

My vet has a reputation of being able to geld "the normal way" miniature horses that were called cryptorchid. I really wonder if it's just what I'm saying here (not that he's not awesome -- I adore him as a vet and a person). That people (even some vets?) call some of these minis cryptorchid when they really aren't.
 
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Jill, I would have to agree with you on the statement that some may call a horse cryptorchid when they are not. Often times one or both of the testicles will withdraw and in other cases have come through the ring but not dropped into the sack yet. I have had to have a vet tell me if they were fully descended a couple of times over the years and recently could feel only one on a colt so was worried. I could feel them both shortly after that but had to have someone else check him, then I could feel them both.

Two days ago I was trimming a two year old colt and happened to look "up there" and think gee, I was sure this colt had dropped. I was, in my mind trying to think of the exact instance (s) where I noticed them before. He was even acting "nice" so I thought something was wrong with him. He had pulled them up so tight he looked like a weanling and when feeling up there I could not readily feel them. Yesterday they were back!
 
I have gelded several, but they were adults. I never had to geld a young colt before. I felt them when he was born just to make sure they were there and over the last five months I've checked ever so often and they were still there. In the last week or so I think I can feel them, but I am sure he is withdrawing them. The muscle to withddrawal them into his body must be stronger now because he never did before. I just want to make sure they will not go back up in the tube and not come down. Anyone have experience with this in a young colt? Someone mentioned if you give them a small dose of quiettech to mellow them out they will ususally drop them? To do this how much would I give a 5-6mo old colt? :DOH!
 
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Don't worry, they can't
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A few days after birth the canal will close. That's why crypts are so hard to treat. They can run, but they can't hide! Poor guy :p
 

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