Horse Reproduction (PG)

The Rotation

Warning: The following account contains very graphic details that may disturb certain persons sensitive to descriptions of genital manipulations. THIS MEANS YOU ADI!!!

Friday afternoon was spent arm-length deep into female horses rectums. The weather didn't seem so cold anymore. The horses kept me warm from the inside out.

No it wasn't some perverted unnatural act, it was a pretty common vet thing to do for large animals called "rectal palpation".

What do you do if there is no high-tech ultrasound or x-ray machine around and you need to check on a horse's or cow's inner reproductive health? You do a rectal palpation.

Step 1: Catch horse. Easier said than done. Especially if the horse is naughty. And a lot of horses are.

Step 2: You can go straight into a rectal palpation in the field but it IS safer in a special holding "stocks" where the horse can't kick you or run away.

Step 3: Bandage tail so hair doesn't go flying everywhere.

Step 4: Put on arm length plastic gloves with a LOT of lubricant.

(Optional: A "calving sleeve" over the glove, this holds the glove in place, and even more importantly PREVENTS poo, pee and other assorted junk like pus going down your clothes. I was SO gald I invested in one, most of my classmates had brown armpits after the practical.)

Step 5: With fingers held in a cone shape "dive" into the anus. Make SURE it IS the anus, not the vagina. Although it IS possible to do a vaginal palpation, it should be avoided unless you have made yourself pretty sterile. How do you know you've gone into the vagina? You arms will come out clean and poo-free.

(Optional: Ann, our lecturer, said you could extract whatever poo was in the rectum to make you look "cool" and "professional". Actually, it's quite fun.)

(Also optional: You can give the horse a local anaesthetic or muscle relaxant to reduce the constrictions within the rectum to give better access to internal structures.)

Step 6: Proceed to examine structures through the rectal wall especially the uterus and ovaries. In other circumstances you may want to feel the bones of the hips, the bladder and in cases of gas, intestine distension. You can also introduce an internal ultrasound to check things out in further detail.

I spent quite a while doing this because it was my first time in a horse, and my first horse happened to be a young mare with a small undeveloped reproductive system.

It was only hours after I had spent in the two horses that I examined that I finally located the ovaries in the last half hour of the class.

That was well worth the cutting off of blood flow to BOTH my arms. Until yesterday they were still throbbing slightly.

I think that horses don't squeeze as bad as cows. But I may have forgotten how it felt like. My last cow rectal palpation was 2 years ago. But I'll find out soon enough. Cow palpations will be on this Friday!

Step 7: Once arms have fallen off body, throw gloves away and proceed to wash any lubricant on the horse off with detergent.

Step 8: UNbandage horse's tail. They prefer it naked thank you very much.

Step 9: Release horse into paddock. Preferably giving it a treat at the same time to reduce the trauma of having many a vet student examine it from inside it's behind.