Note's Surgery

Today dawned early, I had to take Note to a large veterinary clinic in Greeley for his castration surgery to become a gelding, and we had to check in at 7:15am so there was sufficient time for them to run blood work before surgery.  I had explained to the staff when I scheduled this appointment that it would make all of our lives easier if I could fast him at home the night before, because he sort of goes into self-destruct mode in new places, especially if there are other horses around that he doesn't know. Thankfully we were able to make the morning of the surgery a mostly peaceful experience by leaving Bit of Honey just as the sun was coming up.

Note loaded nicely into the trailer because I didn't give him a chance to argue with himself while looking at his reflection in the mirrored walls of the trailer.  He also stood quietly for traveling and quietly in the trailer at the clinic while I got him checked in at the front office. 

The border collies insisted that they should come in case I needed assistance, so I let Miles and Forrest hop in the truck too.  Our first stop was the gas station so we could fuel up.  Forrest was very attentive.  If he could have, he would have formally saluted to report for Border Collie Duty.

Then we were on the road to Greeley to Countryside Veterinary Clinic.  They have a good sized surgery suite and the capability to do this castration even if it turned into an abdominal surgery in search of the retained testicle. 

When we arrived at the clinic it was a matter of some simple paperwork authorizing them to do the surgery on Note, and giving them all of his particulars like age and color.

I unloaded Note out of the trailer, and unfortunately he immediately saw his reflection and began to posture.  The technician was quick with the blood draw for blood work.  This is to check the function of his liver and kidneys, red blood cells and white blood cells to make sure he could handle the anesthesia.  We adjourned to the main area where she then sedated Note, placed his IV catheter, and cleaned his hooves.

Once he was sedated and had a catheter he was ready and waiting in the surgery prep room.  This is a small room about the size of a large stall with padded walls and rubber mats on the floor for laying the horse down in preparation for surgery.

The next step, after the surgeon introduced himself, was to position Note in the corner of the room.  They can open the door (also padded on the inside) so Note was standing in a small safe space.  His lead rope was then threaded through a ring higher up on the wall, and he was given his induction medications to make him fall asleep.  As his legs began to buckle, the technician and vet student pushed against the door while the surgeon held the lead rope taut so that Note would just gently lie down in the right position.

Once he was asleep and lying down, the technician placed a tube in his mouth and throat so that they can regulate his breathing while under anesthesia.  In this photo she is inflating the cuff which holds the tube in place in his trachea.  The vet student in the background is placing plastic sleeves on Note's hooves and lower legs to make sure that no dirt will enter the surgery area.  After the sleeves are on, they fastened soft ropes around Notes' pasterns, so that they could attach him to the hoist, which lifted him up in the air and then carried him into the surgery suite next door, behind one of the padded walls.

Once the hoist had moved him into the surgery room, the humans all sprang into action to get him placed just so on the surgery table.

When Note was in position, the technician quickly began hooking him up to all the monitoring equipment.  She did a great job keeping track of his vital signs, including his heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen levels.  These all remained stable and in normal range.  For those who are interested, he was at approximately 27 beats per minute for pulse, 8 breaths per minute, and at about 98% oxygen level throughout.  I was a technician myself for six years before I went to training horses full time, so I really appreciated the thorough job this technician did for Note.

At this point I adjourned to a neighboring room to watch the surgery through a window so I would be out of the way.  The vet student began to scrub the incision site with chlorhexidine and then alcohol, to make sure that it was very clean and sterile to prevent any infection.

Once things were completely clean, the surgeon laid the sterile drapes over the area to prevent any other contamination, and then they began the actual surgery.

We were all hoping that the retained testicle would just be high in Note's flank and easy to locate, but it ended up being quite deep in the body cavity, causing his castration to morph into a treasure hunt type of abdominal surgery.  When the surgeon did find it, it was about the size of a golf ball.  The other, normal, testicle was the size and shape of a russet potato.  Interestingly, even though the retained testicle was so small, it could still pump out quite a bit of testosterone.  This is why it was important to get both of them during the procedure, otherwise he would essentially still be a stallion, though probably infertile.

After the hour long surgery was complete, Note had been sewn up, and the drapes had been removed, they reattached Note's feet to the hoist so he could be transported to a quiet dark room, also with padded walls and rubber floor so he could safely wake up.  They wrapped his legs in case he had a rough time, to make sure he wouldn't injure himself. 

At this point I had a wrap-up discussion with the surgeon, who explained where the retained testicle had been located and he showed me both of them.  He recommended I give Note about an hour to wake up in the recovery room, then a couple hours to fully wake up before I tried to trailer him home.  I thanked him for his great work, then I headed to a Sonic with the dogs to get some lunch.

I wanted to be sure Note had sufficient time to recover before I went back to the clinic to harass the staff about taking him home right away, so the border collies and I went to a small park near the Sonic.  The clinic was far enough away from home that it didn't make sense to drive all the way home, then turn around and come straight back.  We went for a nice walk, laid down in the shade, and generally enjoyed an hour or two. 

When we loaded up and headed back to the clinic I was eager to hear how Note recovered.  I went into the front office and explained I was back to pick him up if he was awake enough.  It sounded like Note waking up was NOT the same pleasant walk in the park for the staff as the nice walk in the park I had just taken.  I got a wide eyed stare from the receptionist who said, "Oh yes, he is DEFINITELY awake enough.  He still thinks he's a stallion and is screaming at the other horses."  I replied that he's only been a gelding for a couple hours and he doesn't know how to do it yet!  She generously smiled at my little joke. 

From her comments and those of the technician who was attempting to fly "Note the 1000 lb kite" around the back of the clinic on the end of a lead rope, I gathered that he woke up swinging.  Apparently he was an angry drunk, and it was an unfortunate circumstance that they had two other stallions and several mares in the stalling area behind the clinic when he awoke.  The technician looked grateful I had brought my chain, and she was more than happy to hand him back over to me.  Thankfully, as most track horses do, Note respects the chain, and as soon as I had it on him and had tapped him a couple times he put his brain back in his head.  He behaved himself for me to load him back in the trailer, then he did a lot of jumping around and screaming once he was in there.  This rocked the trailer quite a bit.  It made me chuckle as I thought of the faces on the front office staff, and I said to the dogs, "if the trailer's a-rocking, don't go a-knockin!"

I got home with Note and rearranged his paddock so it's much smaller.  Because it was a more invasive surgery than a typical castration I need to restrict his movement for three weeks on stall rest.  Then he can have two weeks in his small paddock, and after that I can start him into riding training.

Note has settled into Bit of Honey Training life so well, his only hang up has been posturing at new horses (including arguing with his reflection in the mirrored horse trailer), and getting tremendously distracted by the mares.  I think once the excess testosterone wears off he will be so much more relaxed and happy, and then he will be able to focus and think about his new job post-racetrack life.   Plus then he can have turnout in the bigger field and paddocks with his friends, and life will be lots better now that he can participate as part of my G-Rated facility.

On the way home Miles slept in the back seat of the cab, but Forrest wanted to have a debriefing and wrap up session regarding the events of the day.  He rested nicely in the passenger seat, crossing his paws, staring at me as if to say, "I certainly feel that went well.  I did enjoy our lunch break at the park, and now that we are on our way home with the horse safely stowed in the trailer, what is next on the agenda?"

It was a successful day.  Note is officially a gelding.  I always repeat the oft-spoken phrase "good stallions make great geldings!"