Timing of castration

[DMiller779]

I made the decision to have the castration process done on my bactrian camel. I had hoped not to do it but changed my mind after seeing the behavior change in my llama when he matured.
My camel is 1 year and 7 months old. Neither I nor a horse vet have been able to detect any dropping of his testicles. I have to be away from my camel for several months and I have great concern that he may mature while I am away.
Can anyone tell me when the testicles normally drop on a bactrian camel? I don't know if they are any different from a dromedary in that regard.
Any information would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Doug

[camel_guardian]

i got my camel gelded at 6 months old. the vet actually had to go in and find them to castrate. ur vet may have to do the same. don't wait too long or else he'll get more aggressive

[camel drover]

as my vet said he either has them or he doesn't !!!!! in either case they will be right there!!!!!! they don't grow them later!!!!! i wanted to smack him for that one ^%*@%(*SMART &*%$&!!! In horses a male can be a crypt orchid (both testicles developed in side the abdominal cavity vary rare but seen or a mono orchid where one testicle is in and the other is out where you can get at it it even happens in humans i had a step son that was a mono!!!!! they did not castrate him but they did cut him and fix it!!!! he wasn't happy (7years old)this is fairly common and fixes it self with gravity and time in most cases (in humans ) so as for your camel I'm sure it could happen though i have never seen it in camel but what do i know i cant even spell KAT!!! Restrain him or tranquilize him or BOTH and aggressively palpate him and you can feel them there (he will not be happy either ) but there there my bull was 4 and you could barely see a faint bulge from the testicle happy hunting, remember
ALWAYS REMIMBER MEIDI-YOKER BULLS MAKE GREAT GELDINGS S.
POST SCRIPT: if you have a bactrin female bactrin bulls are a little harder to come by than the droms?????? if you get tough and work him hard enough you can keep him a bull safely ????? if he was a bottle baby cut him !!!!!! just an opinion S.

[DMiller779]

Thanks everyone for the input. I am still waiting to hear from the person that sold me the camel. She is also a vet and they have 48 camels so they should have knowledge and experience. My biggest problem is contacting her!
If I don't hear from her soon I will probably take your advice and bring him to a good equine vet about 60 miles from where I live.
I would really like to get some exact information on the procedure, including the amount and type of medication to use for the procedure.
I brought him in for a broken tooth several months ago. My local vet conferred with the vet that I bought him from as to the amount of dosage so he could remove a piece of the cracked tooth. It was only supposed to make him drowsy and he would remain standing. The medication was supposed to take about 5 minutes to take effect. About 30 seconds after the injection I told the vet my camel was going down. He said , "No way, I gave him a light dose and it'll take awhile to take effect." I repeated, that "I know my camel, he's going down...now!" about that time his knees started buckling and the vet and I were able to get him to a nearby stall for the procedure. I had told them that he must not be layed on his side with his head on the ground due to the strong possibility of aspiration. In spite of this caveat, that is eactly what they were doing. I let myself into the stall and took my camel's head and held it while the vet removed the piece of tooth. The vet said that he would recover quickly from the small dosage. Ten minutes later my camel was not recovering and his head was getting very heavy. The assistant went to get the doctor and he gave Samson a recovery shot. This quickly brought my boy back and I was able to get him to his feet and walk it off.
I apologize for the long story, but the lesson I learned is that I will never part from my boy during ANY medical procedure. I am his only advocate. The vet was an excellent fellow and did a great job with the tooth. But, being an equine vet, and getting some quick instructions over the phone, produced less than desirable results. If I hadn't read some heart breaking stories on this forum about the loss of wonderful pet camels due to aspiration, I am convinced that I would have lost my camel too.
From that point on I determined that I would get all information BEFORE any medical procedure and then "stand by" in case they forget to hold that big beautiful head up! : )

Regards and Merry Christmas to all,
Doug

[DMiller779]

For some reason, my last post was screwed up and I noticed that on the thread it attributed someone else's post under my name. Has anyone else noticed anything unusual on this thread?

Doug

[DMiller779]

I don't know why the last 3 postings are attributed to me. They appear to be from another thread.

Doug

[bactrian]

yes indeed, sometimes something went wrong. For example when I wrote somethin, it was under another id. Really strange.

[Cameleer]

This is Cameleer testing the forum for problems

[bactrian]

Hope you will find the problem