current thinking on sheath cleaning

I have always had geldings and never cleaned a sheath in 20 yrs of ownership, and have always been of the 'don't intefere' camp.

However my new cob does have to have his kept clean as produces the most extraordinary willy 'beans'! I only found out their existence in the spring, when after a hack, he spent half an hour trying to wee. Cue a call to the vet who suggested I search for a bean before calling them out, and low and behold I found my first one! The relief on his face when he could finally go was hilarious....!

I keep an eye on it, and whenever he has it hanging down, just wash it with some luke warm water and try and pick off any larger pieces of smegma, and touch wood haven't had a major 'bean' since.
 
soulfull said:
Have known some horrendous stories of infections/sores and maggots.
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Funnily enough the only time one of my geldings got a sheath infection was after I cleaned it (with one of those proper sheath cleaning products). I never cleaned again after that (and also few of mine ever seemed to "dangle" anyway so it would have been very hard to do!). Touch wood, never had an issue.
 
My niece has a pony that has a horrendous sheath. He always has black gunk down his legs. We started cleaning it regularly and tried baby oil and sheath cleaner but never made any difference. When the vet came to vaccinate him we asked for advice. The vet said not to use anything especially oil as it just makes it worse. He said washing it would just produce gunk. He also said that horse that were gelded early seem to be worse. We leave it now and it has got better not worse.
 
I have never cleaned my geldings sheeth either, but for those of you with mares, have you ever had a feel of the crud that can accumulate around their bags?

Word of warning - do it carefully, but girls need checking too.
 
My boy can get a bit grotty in the winter. Mud and all sorts, I put some ky jelly into his sheath area, and then use plain warm water.
 
I've never cleaned a gelding in my life and never had a problem. When my gelding's is out it looks clean. I've seen more mares over the years with dirty bits. I don't like the idea of baby oil etc. if I had to do it I think I'd just use warm water and a sponge, perhaps a tiny bit of mild soap.
 
Wagtail said:
Over cleaning can cause more smegma to build up and therefore more cleaning. I also must point out that baby oil is not intended for internal use. Would you put it inside yourself? Oil will only make a problem worse and even start one that wasn't there in the first place. In all my years with geldings, I have never routinely cleaned their sheaths. None of my geldings have had a problem. The worst livery horse I have had for smegma was one that came from a yard where it was done routinely once a fortnight. After two years here (and no cleaning) the problem sorted itself out and now he never has the black gunge down his legs. The only time I would ever clean a sheath is if it started to look swollen or sore. In the wild horses do not have their sheaths cleaned and they manage fine. The stallion argument does not hold true because in the wild MOST stallions never get to 'use it'.
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This. I never clean them, upsetting the natural balance of the flora of the skin and inserting a foreign object ie your hand where its not supposed go is more likely to encourage problems and infection.
There is a saying that the only thing you should clean your ear with is your elbow, in other words don't and the same applies.
 
I cleaned my pony's today. When he gets dirty he gets the black tar stuff on his legs and not only does it stink but it attracts the flies.

I just clean with warm water and only when it gets a bit stinky.
 
Fwiw have never had an infection of any sort from shoving me hand up there :p, or from cleaning me ear 'oles.

I do wonder how many months some would let their geldings go with black tar getting down their back legs and generally stinking...
 
I clean my gelding's every few months with some sheath cleaner I got from the tack shop, it's just natural oil and it really loosens all the big flakes and they fall off. I have to tie the dog up whilst doing it though because it would appear she has a taste for 'willy crisps' and will come along and hoover them up bleurgh.
 
I clean one of mine every time he gets nasty black gunk down his legs...the other one is always clean and never has gunk, plus he tries to take my head off if I even go near it so I don't clean his!
 
ester said:
Fwiw have never had an infection of any sort from shoving me hand up there :p, or from cleaning me ear 'oles.

I do wonder how many months some would let their geldings go with black tar getting down their back legs and generally stinking...
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Wash the tar off daily and wipe around the sheath, but never go inside. Only ever had two horses here that got it and it would stop by itself if you left it. Most time I have had to wait is around 2 weeks. With the horse I described earlier, he would have these bouts of black tar very frequently to start with. Now it is less than once a year and only lasts for a couple of days.
 
Wagtail said:
Wash the tar off daily and wipe around the sheath, but never go inside. Only ever had two horses here that got it and it would stop by itself if you left it. Most time I have had to wait is around 2 weeks. With the horse I described earlier, he would have these bouts of black tar very frequently to start with. Now it is less than once a year and only lasts for a couple of days.
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Honestly, you may never have had a horse who needs it's sheath cleaning, but as far as recommending people leave well alone, you are simply wrong. Some horses need their sheaths cleaning. Some horses get a bean, and it is painful, and imo could trigger colic. This is the only horse I have ever cleaned & I've probably had 20 odd geldings in my life. I suspect now that some of those geldings suffered but I didn't realise at the time.
 
oh my word this is such a minefield! My vet told me to put baby oil on my youngster's willy though those who have said its not a good idea, make a lot of sense! My other horse has loads of black gunk down his back legs so now I don't know whether to clean or not clean! I think there are almost equal numbers of people advising both!!
 
siennamum said:
Honestly, you may never have had a horse who needs it's sheath cleaning, but as far as recommending people leave well alone, you are simply wrong. Some horses need their sheaths cleaning. Some horses get a bean, and it is painful, and imo could trigger colic. This is the only horse I have ever cleaned & I've probably had 20 odd geldings in my life. I suspect now that some of those geldings suffered but I didn't realise at the time.
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If a horse has a problem such as you describe, then I would attend to it. Also if there was an infection. But I think what we are discussing on this thread is the routine washing of the area which I firmly believe is detrimental and encourages more production of smegma, therefore making the problem worse.
 
If in doubt, do as little as possible to start with. Clean the tar off the legs and give the sheath a wipe round with warm water. You may find it resolves itself.

With my particularly mucky gelding, I never had to be invasive - would just wait until he dropped it (which he usually did if I brushed his tail) and then would give it a quick once over with water and a clean sponge while it was out. That usually resolved the worst of the tar issue for several months.

New gelding is shier and doesn't like showing off as much but, once it's out he gets the same treatment if necessary. I think I've only washed once in two years but I have taken advantage of the odd appearance to remove the worst of the "willy crisps" (love that) with a gentle rub. I'm not squeamish!

Like NellRosk, I've had dogs who were partial to the crisps and that's the bit that makes me go "bleurgh"!

ETA - I'm not one for doing this routinely but I have found that the tar really attracts flies, hence my occasional "interference". I would always say that if it's not necessary, don't do it! But then I am like that with all sorts of things, including housework ;)
 
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tobiano said:
oh my word this is such a minefield! My vet told me to put baby oil on my youngster's willy though those who have said its not a good idea, make a lot of sense! My other horse has loads of black gunk down his back legs so now I don't know whether to clean or not clean! I think there are almost equal numbers of people advising both!!
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I think that's the problem, so many different views on it. If my horse didn't have a specific problem I'd be leaving well alone, but am forced to do it due to his melanomas. My vet's advice on this (as I said earlier, warm water and liquid paraffin) really does make sense. The only thing you can correllate it to in humans would be thrush and it's common knowledge that using scented soap makes that worse or can even cause it in the first place.
 
Yes I started the thread for general thoughts rather than specific issues.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments. In my horses case I think I will clean around and in front of the sheath where he appears to have a little build up of gunk and leave the rest for now unless we run into any issues
 
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