Advice please - swollen sheath

[tractor]

Hi,

Been hunting with dear Cobby today, he was as right as rain but when I came back home I noticed his sheath is swollen.

He is eating, drinking and peeing fine. His bits and bobs are all where they should be (ie not hanging down) but his sheath feels and looks "full" - kind of puddingy if that makes sense?

It doesn't seem to be bothering him at all, but I will call the vet on Monday if there's no improvement. The only thing we can think of is that he's on very good haylage atm, would that affect it? He's always fed good haylage and we've never had a problem before.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thank you for reading xx

 

[ameeyal]

My geldings sheath some times looks puddingy in his case its when the sheath hasnt tucked its self back up properly, if you put your hand up there it should go back to normal.

 

[nikkimariet]

Bruce (14 yo ISH) has this problem, sheath is most swollen before work, seems to go down after working...and being a grey horse.....malignant tumor was first instinctual worry....

Me and Fran had a good feel *yuck* and couldn't find anything. So, called vet out, he could feel something that was described as 'thickened fold of skin'. So, had poor Bruce knocked out and a sample was taken and sent off..... Turned out to be nothing except a thick fold of skin, and now we don't worry ourselves about it, and just keep an eye out for anything exceptional IE a lump, bleeding etc.

I think best thing to do is get the vet out, yes it's a call out charge etc.....it might just be a sting, or a minor allergic reaction to a plant in the field....perhaps he's been prickled by a thistle or something?!! but best to act now rather than leaving it too late xoxo

(fyi Bruce is also fed haylage)

 

[tractor]

Thank you for your replies.

I went to the yard this morning, he was quite swollen but not as bad as yesterday, seemed to be only on his left hand side. Stuck him on the walker for 45 mins, sheath was cold (ie normal) and not swollen at all when he came off.

By the time I'd washed him off and put him in his stable, it was beginning to swell and heat up - less that 15 mins later. He is fine apart from this. We've cut his hard feed down just in case, but he's been fed the same as everyone else, so it will be odd if it's feed related.

I'll speak to my vet tomorrow, hopefully we will get an answer or at least some progress soon.

 

[soloequestrian]

This might be a daft thing to say because you're suggesting the swelling is linked with exercise, but have you tried just cleaning it? One of mine occasionally gets swollen in his sheath area, I clean it (just with warm water), there is only ever a small amount of gunk and a small bean, but the swelling goes down once it's clean.

 

[paddy555]

he's on very good haylage atm, would that affect it?

yes. I often check the sheaths on ours and the swelling to me is a warning sign to get them onto a lower sugar feed or at least be aware of a potential feed problem. Obviously there are other causes but I have noticed feed can be one of them.

 

[nikkimariet]

Fingers crossed for normal outcome!! xoxo

 

[scrat]

Could it be fly bites? My veteran was had a swollen sheath because he had been bitten by nasty early season bloodsucking flies. They were in his ears too. He is prone to a bit of swelling anyway and I have had to have the vet out twice because I have been caught out by the sudden arrival of these flies (due to milder temperatures) The only way I can avoid this now is to apply liberal amounts of Sudocrem to his sheath and in his ears to form a barrier against the flies.

 

[tractor]

Thanks everyone, vet came tonight and had a good feel around, couldn't find anything and just gave him a good clean. There were a few yellowy lumps of stuff that came out, but nothing bigger than a fingernail.

We have a few theories, he's been fed pretty much the same for the last 10 winters (good haylage, a fair bit of hard feed) as he's always hunting so feed probably isn't the cause. The vet seemed to agree with the theory that he may have got something splashed into his sheath - puddle containing farm chemicals/bit of mangy mud which has just upset the balance of bacteria up inside him but not enough to cause an actual infection.

He seemed fairly confident that nothing more would come of it, he said to keep a close eye on it for a week then not to worry.

Thank you to everyone who took time to reply.

sarah x