help! Very swollen sheath!

[TheMadHatter512]

Hi all- my horse has a very swollen sheath. It is very hard when I touch it and today I watched my gelding pee and his penis didn't even come out of the sheath. It doesn't seem to hurt him but I want to get it fixed. Sadly it is the dead of winter and still around 30 degrees F so I can't clean it. Does anyone have any ideas!? Any help would be much adored!

 

[Tia]

Call the vet in the morning.

 

[PennyJ]

We had something very similar back in the summer last July when his sheath swelled up to enormous proportions. He looked magnificent, but was obviously in some discomfort with all that swaying about. I gave his sheath a really good clean, but the swelling didn't go down over the next 2 days, if anything it got a bit worse, so I called the vet. She extracted an enormous smegma bean (sorry everyone) and prescribed 7 days of bute and exercise to reduce the swelling. So seeing as how it's winter it's most likely to be gunk up there that's causing the problem...

 

[archoak]

Agree with Tia, friends gelding had this and he had been kicked

 

[SusieJane]

My gelding had this too ~ and he had a "bean" ~ Whilst I know its cold where ever you are, can't you do him in his stable, well rugged, with warm water, bit of baby oil and gentle soap.

The swelling (Odema) can go down their legs, underneath their bellies and cause a real discomfort for them.

If its something he's prone to, why don't you put bit of vaseline round his bits to stop mud sticking to it when he's turned out.

Finally, lots of turn out helps take down the swelling, and it is also quite painful for some of them.

 

[fizzer]

agree with above, we had one who regulary swelled in the winter, was told lots of exercise would help, it def does, even just 10 mins on the lunge a day will do the trick if you cant ride, however i would get the vet to confirm what is causing problem

 

[Allykat]

We had one at the yard who swelled when he was on box rest. Vet said it was ok and to just keep an eye on him. All the time he could pee happily it was ok. It went down once he started working again.

I'd call the vet though if you are worried, it may be due to an injury

 

[PhenominalCat]

Glad you mentioned that, Allykat. Mine is on box rest and I noticed this morning that he was quite swollen.

I'll ask the vet to check on her next visit.