Swollen sheath - warning: this contains a rather close up picture of a swollen sheath!!

Mary Poppins

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Oct 10, 2004
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The vet has checked this out and says that it is due to Ben being on box rest. The fluid has built up in his sheath and because of his lack of movement it won't drain away. There is nothing I can do about it until he starts to move again. I was rather horrified when I saw how swollen it was.

I just thought that I would share because other horsey people may be interested - I am not after advice on what to do about it (that is why I asked my vet before posting on here). It isn't causing any problems, he is eating, drinking and weeing fine. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

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No, but interesting to see thankyou mp. Hope he’s ok. I’ve always been asked if I felt flipo’s is swollen and I had never seen any other way so I wasn’t sure but now I’ve seen bens I’m definitely sure flipo’s has never been like that. Poor guy, he’s really going through the mill isn’t he.
 
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No, but interesting to see thankyou mp. Hope he’s ok. I’ve always been asked if I felt flipo’s is swollen and I had never seen any other way so I wasn’t sure but now I’ve seen bens I’m definitely sure flipo’s has never been like that. Poor guy, he’s really going through the mill isn’t he.
Yes he is, poor boy.

He lets me touch it fine and it doesn’t seem to hurt him. I would ideally like to watch him wee, but he hasn’t yet done this when I have been there. His bed is wet and he drinks lots so I think he is ok. It is just another thing to worry about.
 
Oooh that does look swollen. Yes, Jack has had that in the past, when he had hives he developed fluid collection lumps under his belly and in his sheath, he looked like he had balls, pretty much how Ben looks. It was quite alarming to see but didn't seem to cause him any discomfort. Poor old Ben, sending him love x
 
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Seen a few get like it, Bo used to randomly, never bothered him so didn't worry too much about it but massage for lymphatic drainage seemed to help.
 
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Oooh that does look swollen. Yes, Jack has had that in the past, when he had hives he developed fluid collection lumps under his belly and in his sheath, he looked like he had balls, pretty much how Ben looks. It was quite alarming to see but didn't seem to cause him any discomfort. Poor old Ben, sending him love x

Thank you. Yes he does look like a stallion right now, although I have never looked closely at a stallion before so I don't actually know what their bits look like!
 
Seen a few get like it, Bo used to randomly, never bothered him so didn't worry too much about it but massage for lymphatic drainage seemed to help.

How would do I do a massage for lymphatic drainage? He has equine massages every month and physio frequently as well.
 
How would do I do a massage for lymphatic drainage? He has equine massages every month and physio frequently as well.
Theres certain strokes that help with additional drainage, The one we used a lot was stroking from the stifle area to the back of the leg, ground parallel sweeps all the way down to the hock. It's not about pressure or poking any certain bit, really just a flat hand stroke repeatedly to give the stimulation that movement would. I was shown by the England team sports massage/McTimony chiro lady when crewing endurance horses, it helped them to remove lactic acid in the hind end but its just a general lymphatic stimulator, I bet your massage lady could show you :)
 
Theres certain strokes that help with additional drainage, The one we used a lot was stroking from the stifle area to the back of the leg, ground parallel sweeps all the way down to the hock. It's not about pressure or poking any certain bit, really just a flat hand stroke repeatedly to give the stimulation that movement would. I was shown by the England team sports massage/McTimony chiro lady when crewing endurance horses, it helped them to remove lactic acid in the hind end but its just a general lymphatic stimulator, I bet your massage lady could show you :)

Thank you. I am going to book him in for another massage this morning, so this is definitely something I will ask about.
 
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Ziggy had exactly this when he was on box rest. It looked awful but it didn't hurt him, and it went away once he could move around.
That is comforting to know. Ben is allowed two 5 minute walks per day, but they are obviously not enough to stop the swelling. I am looking forward to his next check up and dreading it in equal measure. If there has been an improvement in his lameness he can start to move, but if not we have to face some difficult decisions. While living in limbo land isn't great, having to make that decision will be far worse.
 
Sonny has swelled a bit in the past when he was not active enough. Mostly in really cold nasty weather.

He has always had in and out but sometimes. they just hang out far too much.

Last summer no one wanted to leave the fans :mad:.
That will change this year I expanded the third area up Into tree area for shade.
Buying more panels was a perfect use for the money from some saddles I was not using.
 
I was thinking gentle massage might help too.
Interestingly chunkys bits swelled a bit over the summer. Not as bad as that. He's out in the field so I thought it might have been the flies or heat. It went down and I never gave it a second thought. Now seeing that and the comments I wonder if maybe he wasn't moving about in the field enough due to the heat.
 
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