Please Help!

[rachelk]

Hopefully someone can help me with my umm delicate problem :)

My horse Minty seems to have a problem with over production of smegma and a swollen sheath. I have cleaned his sheath out on the recommendation of my vet and removed all traces of smegma from penis and surrounding areas approx one month ago. He has always had a large sheath ( he is large all over being a Percheron cross!) but it does seem to be swollen. Over the last week when i see him in the morning he has had so much excess smegma that it is smeared down his back legs and onto his belly!
I cleaned him again yesterday and today there is no sign of the foul smelling, evil stuff but alas i fear by next month it will appear again. Its a horrible problem and sheath cleaning is not one of my favourite chores! Once a year perhaps but certainly not on a monthly basis!!!
How often do people clean their geldings sheaths out? has anyone experienced this condition before and is there anything natural that i can give to him that may help? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Yann]

In my limited experience once a month would be a reasonable interval, but your chap does seem to be producing astonishing amounts of the stuff. Creaking sounds whilst riding are the usual sign that things need attention, I've never heard of a horse actually leaking like that.
Has the vet actually seen him, this doesn't sound right to me. A swelling usually indicates some sort of infection, is he uncomfortable or particularly sensitive when being sorted?

[rachelk]

Hi Yann
thanks for your reply,
Yes I've had the vet to him and i would have thought infection too however I've examined him fully in and around the area and he shows no obvious discomfort even during the cleaning process apart from looking a little puzzeled which is to be expected considering the circumstances:)
He doesn't make any sounds when ridden to indicate cleaning is required either just the evil discharge!
In all honesty I've been around horses for most of my life and never cleaned a sheath yet so all this is new to me it was just recently that a friend mentioned to me that she was going to clean Minty's paddockmate that I decided perhaps i was being a neglectful mother not to attend to it! he has always had a bit of a discharge but it's only since my first attempt that things seem to have gone amiss and i'm begining to wonder whether i've caused a problem by interfering with him in the first palce.

[DebO]

Hi, I've had 4 geldings now and have never cleaned their sheaths. I feel that if you can it's best left alone, because I feel the more you clean it the more you encourage the problem. Going onto humans, I had a friend who used to scrub herself below all the time and she always had thrush. She was obviously washing away the natural bacteria that helped.

However, if your gelding does have a problem then something needs to be done. Could it be the cleaning solution that is perhaps encouraging the extra discharge?

I would get a 2nd opinion to make sure nothing has been missed. Maybe he needs some other sort of medication.

If you type in cleaning horses sheaths on your internet search window you will find lots of articles on the subject, maybe you will find more info.

Hope you find an answer .

[rachelk]

Thanks DebO i'll do that:)

[artemis]

I have heard that the stuff that they put on cows udders is very good for this sort of problem. If you have a friendly dairy farmer nearby he may be able to help.

[ros]

I must say Merlin does tend to be a bit grubby down below; and I also find that the more I fiddle about the worse he gets.

He seems to go through phases - he'll be quite clean for a while, then he'll start getting smelly. He has the same problem with his sheath swelling, but it always goes down with exercise. It's definitely worse when he's in overnight in winter and I put some of it down to circulation; Frank (no longer with us, bless him) was Clydesdale X, and his used to blow up like a balloon if he had to stand in for any length of time - it really used to worry me. I cleaned it regularly and had him checked by the vet but it made no difference.

Merlin has a little Shire in him, we think, so I wonder if breeding is at all relevant? One Dales X pony on the yard has the same problem, but I don't think any of the others do. Anyone else have any ideas?

[Mossy]

Moss also has the same problem,worse in winter but less obvious after exercise. Is it something to do with these heavy natives as I've not seen any equine aristos giving one and all "far too much information" Again I tend not to fiddle, apart from anything else he likes it which is rather worrying!!!!:o :eek:

[Cathy Reynolds]

Benny has something cart-horse in his breeding and gets nasty lumps of smegma under the tip of his penis if you don't get them out every few months - we have to twitch him as otherwise he's a night mare. DebO, I'd not touched him for some time after we got him and we ended up having to get the vet in to sedate him to get the lump out; now I know better - some horses just have to be done, others not.

[rachelk]

Thanks guys,

I took DebO's advice and typed Sheath Cleaning into web ferret last night and apart from an awlful lot of information on hunting knives etc there was a couple of really interesting article's, with illustrations and all on the in's and out's of sheath cleaning which were really helpful there seems to be two lines of thought on this matter the people who do and the people who don't which is always the case isn't it.
I think that i will probably perservere with it but use one of the gels that's on the market instead of Detol and warm water this time and see if that makes a difference.
Interesting what you say about it being worse when your horse is boxed Ros as although I don't stable my boy he has recently been put in a small paddock in an attempt to control his weight gain so maybe there is something in that! or perhaps it is a breeding thing as my friend's horse is a thoroughbred and his privates are far cleaner and sweet smelling than my filthy boy!!!


Anyway thanks all:)

[LindaAd]

I'm sure it's not to do with breeding, rachelk: my Tristan was a very common cobby pony, and he was always clean and non-smelly; my other gelding, a very cobby type, produces black grease that sticks to his tummy, and he's very smelly indeed... The curious thing is that the other horses think Tristan is so non-sexy that sometimes they don't treat him as a horse at all (it's worse since he's been old and sick, but horses never did take much notice of him). The other chap is boss of the herd and the mares love him; I don't know if there's any connection.

[michellehendry5]

Red Rum Sheath Cleaner 250ml

Removes grease and deposits to protect against bacterial and fungal infections. Can also be used around the teat areas on mares to remove waxy deposits.

it costs £3.40

and comes in wipes can be purtised in robertsons catalouge or on line if you want the web site pm or email me

i use it on my two here

[DebO]

I was looking through my very comprehensive vet book last night, Veterinary Notes for Horse Owners by Capt M Horace which is about 700 pages! Very good book. His thoughts on sheath cleaning are:

A number of bacteria live on the skin covering the horse's penis and it is not a good idea to wash them away with strong antiseptics or antibiotics because this may encourage development of serious infections. In order to clean the penis should be caught when staling and washed gently with soap and water. (Mildl soap I would imagine with no perfume!)

[rachelk]

Minty is certainly the most dominant horse i have ever known linda he behaves like a stallion in some respects like pooing in the same place etc but i don't know whether the other horses find him more appealing though:) they seem to avoid him at all costs!
A friend actually has some sheath cleaning gel which i will use next time thanks michellehendry5.
As far as leaving it alone down there DebO i tend to agree but it's really got to the point where i have to attend to it as he smells quite bad and the smegma on his belly and legs would probably attract flies if i don't. i tried just washing it off a couple of times but by the next day alas it had returned! Hopefully after cleaning with the correct stuff his system will return to normal.
thanks

[cvb]

Rachel

has the weather changed at all ? May sound odd, but it does make a difference. Spring and autumn are fine - but in winter its too cold and they don't let it out to air so much ( :D ) and in summer the heat makes any smell and stickiness much worse.

Also one of boys spends more time lying down, so gets his back legs stickier because everythings squidged up together.

[rachelk]

We are in the middle of summer here CVB, and there has been an unusual amount of Nor'Wester winds lately ao all the horses have had runny eyes etc.. maybe that has something to do with it.
He does lie down alot too so obviously it's when he is on the ground that the stuff gets all over him that seems logical. Thanks for that CVB:)

[DebO]

Rachelk, yes understand as he already has a problem you need to attend to it. Hope your new solutions work.

Regards
Deb

[packhorse11]

Use very very mild soap - very very very mild soap.
no washing up liquid or anything like that.
No disinfectant etc.

I was taught they should be done once a week !!!

Try using rescue remedy if he gets twitchy - not on the sheath you understand - hahaha

Also try asking around for a homeopathic remedy for this maybe - ?????

It is obviously a common problem, so someone must be up to speed on on this problem somewhere ???