I have done some research on this subject ..I had a "chryptorchid " colt, only 1 testis descended. It is possible ..and common for the testis to not drop as soon as they do in bigger horses. It is something to do with the growth rate in minis verses the larger breed horses. It was about 8 years ago that I did this research. we found out about this little problem AFTER we opended up the little guy. There is a blood test you can do that measures the amount of testosterone , you should do this blood test before the surgery , and again after to measure levels , to make sure everything is out. The study was done in England, and what I read (10 pages or so ) made a lot of sense to me , and to my open minded vet. I was told that if you don't feel both testis at a very young age , you should wait until max age 3 , by then if they don't come down they probably wont at all .. I remember now , it was due to the mini horses grow at a slower rate than the bigger ones , therefore the testes don't grow as fast and wont get stuck in the tube , so eventually they could drop , unless you have a horse that is a very fast grower , and the testes grow so fast that they get stuck way up inside. I am making a general , and simple statement , the documents were very elaborate.good luck and the condition is called CRYPTORCHID my spelling may be way off
Sorry but you are wrong here.
There is absolutely NO reason whatsoever why a Mini should drop later than a big horse, none, zilch, nada.
The testicles HAVE to be present at birth, there is no way round this one, if they do not come down within three days the inguinal ring closes and they
cannot physically come down.
The condition is hereditary but it's another of these sneaky ones like patella luxation and undershot jaws etc.
It is NOT acceptable.
It would MOST certainly put me off using such a colt as a stallion.
Honestly, what is the point??
We are knee deep in really nice colts, why on earth would I use a colt whose testicles have not descended til three years old??
Why would I put such a problem into my bloodlines??
Bit like saying "Dwarfism in a stallion is OK as it's only a 50/50 chance"
Sorry but I prefer NO chance at all of these problems because, you know what??
Stuff is always going to happen, no matter how careful we are, no matter how watchful.
There will always be dwarfs because that just sometimes happens.
There will always be undershot jaws, patella luxation and late descending testicles.
As a "one off" these things happen in all breeds.
So why on earth would we say that late descenders are common in Minis??
Why would we tolerate it, it never used to be true??
The reason is that, by tolerating something that I consider to be a HUGE fault in a prospective breeding stallion, we have
allowed it to become common.
We need to start stamping this sort of thing out and the very first step to doing this is by changing our thinking.
I have never had a foal that was not descended, fully, at birth.
I have never had a colt who had removed his testicles at weaning who did not have them back, in place, by a yearling.
I start using my colts as two year olds.
I geld the foals that I am not going to keep.
So that proves what I am saying.
This should be a given.
Who in their right mind would buy, as a future stallion, a colt whose testicles were not fully descended.
([SIZE=8pt]and I know this last sentence is going to make a few people wince and a few more blush as I happen to know a few who should have known better have done just that!!! Never fear, I bought a stallion once, a mature horse, and I never checked to see how many he had!! Luckily he had two nice ones as he was Rabbit's father!! So that is a bit tongue in cheek, as a lot of us actually
have
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