Why can't female horses be 'fixed'?

Question

I was just wondering hwy male horses can be gelded, but females can't get 'spayed/fixed'?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Mares CAN be spayed and it's usually a simple operation called tubal ligation.  It does not involve major abdominal surgery.  Your vet can give you more information.

Answer 3

they can be spayed, just like cats and dogs;  it's pretty expensive, and it's a lot easier to control a mare's access to stallions than to pay for an expensive and potentially dangerous operation, especially if the mare has good bloodlines, and may be a potential broodmare one day.

Answer 4

They can be.  Some equine vets do actually spay mares.  The reason that this isn't traditionally done is because it is an invasive surgery that requires complete anesthesia.

Answer 5

To spay a mare requires an extremely invasive surgery with her being totally sedated... every time a horse is sedated that heavily, there is a huge risk of complications.

For the gelding procedure, though, the horse isn't sedated as heavily and doesn't require the vet to open him up on an operating room table.

Spaying is more expensive, too. The mare has to be shipped to a veterinary surgical facility, and therefore the medical costs are much higher because of being at that facility.

Stallions are just gelded at the farm, unless they are cryptorchids.

Answer 6

the male operation is external, the female operation is internal.

Answer 7

Female horses, or mares, can't be  fixed because of their size. Any time you have to make an incision into a horse's stomach, you take a huge risk of losing the horse. Because of the way a horse is put together, there is a tremendous amount of pressure against the muscles and skin around the whole area of the stomach. I have heard of mares having their reproductive organs removed, but only in cases where they were life-threatening. Most attempts end up in death. In most cases, it is simply safer for the horse to keep them separated from any stallions.

Also, with horses, any use of anesthesia can pose serious risks for complications. Many do not respond well to being completely sedated, especially for as long as they would need to be in order to be spayed. With a male horse, they put him out only long enough for a very quick and simple procedure. He is usually only out for about 15-20 minutes. A mare would would have to be out for at least an hour. Also, the incisions for gelding are small and external. There really is no weight pushing against a male's incision. His incision doesn't go through the abdominal wall, where a mare's would almost have to.

Hope that helps!

Answer 8

Mares can be spayed, it is an in house surgery and is expensive compared to the cost of gelding. So to control the horse population we opt to only castrate the males.

However, if a mare must be spayed it can be done they have improved the procedure and can do it through a very small incision. The main reason a mare will be spayed is because she is very moody and can become dangerous if she is in season. Especially if she is a show horse.

Answer 9

An operation of this size would be very stressful on a mare.

With male horses, the operation is all external. Just a snip and a few stitches.

A mare would need to have her entire stomach cut open, just as a cat or dog does. A wound of this size would not only be easy to get infected, but would not heal easily. The horse would not be able to be turned out for months--or until the stitches were taken out.

Answer 10

Geez people.  Some of the answers on here are obviously uneducated.  Don't answer about something you have no experience with.

Spaying  a horse is not like spaying a cat or dog.  They do not make an incision, it is not major surgery,  and they do not have to put the horse completely under.  The only time they do that is if there is a problem, but for a standard spay, it's not major surgery by any means.

They go in vaginally and use a local anesthetic.  They use a thing that looks kind of like a chain twitch, wrap it around the ovary and twist until it pops off.  Then they cauterize the site.  Pretty simple.

I think the reason it is not common is simply because it is riskier due to the fact that it's internal.  If there is excessive bleeding, it is harder to get to in order to fix it.

Plus people prefer to have the males fixed because it helps their attitudes and because stallions can be such a pain to keep.

Answer 11

Female horses absolutely CAN be spayed, but the reason it isn't performed very often is its exorbitant price, and much higher complication risk than would to geld a stud.  This procedure is usually only reserved for "extreme" cases, such as a mare that is an absolute nut because of hormones and poses a danger to others because of it.

Answer 12

You gotta surgerically remove the tubes in the horses body. A male they just cut the nuts off.

Answer 13

The opperation is too invasive to do on a horse. Horses are large animals (ovbiously), so cannot be put under ansethesia for long because Their heartrate slows too much.