MASSIVE sheath swelling - causes??

JanetGeorge

JanetGeorge

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Shropshire/Worcs. borders
www.horseandhound.co.uk
My 4 year old RID stallion was absolutely FINE on Saturday - on Sunday morning he had THE most massively swollen sheath I have ever seen! Junior vet came out as an emergency and gave IV antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, recommended gentle exercise (in hand) and alternate hot/cold hosing - with follow up in-feed anti-inflammatories and Pen/Strep im.

By Tuesday there was NO improvement - although his appetite remained good and he was able to wee - and to let down and draw up. So senior vet came out - scanned the sheath looking for any pus pocket or foreign body, none found. More IV antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, repeated today, along with gentle exercise 4 times daily and alternate hot and cold hosing.

At present, the only theories we have managed to come up with:

1. that he caught a foot up in the rug surcingle (he really tucks his back feet up when he rolls) and managed to kick himself;

or
2) he had a TEENSY scab on the sheath - about the right size to be a thorn prick (God knows how!)

Neither really seems that probable!! IF it was infection - to cause a swelling of that magnitude - you'd have expected a high temp/loss of appetite. His temp DID get up to 38.5 - and his appetite is good.

Any other experiences, thoughts, suggestions gratefully received. NO chance he's been kicked - except by himself; his sheath was cleaned a couple of weeks ago - and was quite clean to start with.
 
An elderly gelding at my yard gets this, his owner reckons its to do with too much protein in his diet- his last flare up came after eating this year's hay.
 
My 18yo gelding has always had a swollen sheath, which I regularly mentioned to the vet when having his annual jabs. The vet always said that as it's cold, and not painful and it's always been like that not to worry. Anyway, there's been a few threads on here about the "bean" so I thought I'd have a poke about to see if I could find one, (I've never properly cleaned "it", just ran my baby oiled hands down it when it's appeared during a grooming session, and had a quick "pick"). So armed with warm water, rubber gloves and a bottle of sheath cleaner I gave it a really good clean. The next day he had a normal size sheath, which made me feel guilty that I'd been neglecting his personal hygiene! However, the following day it blew up until it was the size of a very large melon, and he could hardly walk. I cold hosed it and kept him out and it went down over the next couple of days, and has since remained a normal size and feels soft, but I would be very wary of cleaning it again! Probably not much help to you though!
 
My cousing gelding had exactly the same thing, one day fine the next his sheath was swollen to the size of a football..the vet came out & thought he had some sort of water infection..a few days later once the swelling had gone down the vet came out again & found two little bite marks..he'd been bitten by an adder while rolling/laying in his field!!
 
Is he otherwise OK in himself? Does he have filled legs too at all?

With hindsight, a filled sheath was the only warning we got of the massive migrating redworm explosion that the little colt on our yard had. The filled sheath was due to the protein leakage caused by the worm damage to the gut.
 
Thanks for the suggestions - keep them coming. Not much chance of it being excess protein - he isn't on much feed - mainly haylage and controlled quantities. An adder bite seems unlikely - the only scab was tiny and single - and he's had NO chance to be in contact with adders. His sheath was cleaned several weeks ago - and he's had it done quite regularly with no problems.

He's regularly wormed - with equest or equamax - so unlikely to be redworm. No filled legs, no swelling anywhere else and his appetite is fine. He's not quite himself - but that's not surprising with a HUGE swelling that makes even walking uncomfortable.

I'll try to take some pics today so you can see just HOW bad it is - although I THINK it might have been down by about 5% yesterday (I'm looking at it too often!)
 
Only experience I've had of this has been either infection or a kick (colts playing and one managed to both barrel the other one up and under - made me wince and OH turned quite pale :)). Swollen sheaths do take ages to go down though, being rather low slung and prone to filling with fluid:) Re-reading this sounds like teaching my granny to suck eggs, sorry :o
 
In Feb this year my boy was diagnosed with Lymphangitis. He started dragging his back foot the Thurs night (I thought he was just being lazy whilst lungeing) but on Sat morning his sheath was huge! I've never seen anything like it.

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The first vet out treated for infection on the Sat, she gave it all a clean out and prescribed antibiotics and anti-inflams with instructions that if it hadn't started going down by Mon/Tues than to call her back out. I got fobbed off by a second vet over the phone (the original vet wasn't available) on the Tues, as it was getting much bigger and going up his belly, that it sounded more like a pulled muscle at the top of the leg. Was told to keep walking him out inhand with limited turnout.
After much thinking I got a second opinion from a different practise. The vet diagnosed lymphangitis, prescribed a second course of antibiotics and anti-inflams, suggesting plenty of exercise on the lunge without tack (the swelling had reached girth area) to keep the fluid moving and draining. This worked a treat and a week after all the swelling had disappeared.
At not point did his back legs swell, which I know is a common indication of this problem.

Hope this is of some help!
 
my lad had lymphangitis and obviously his legs swelled right up, once the swelling had subsided in his legs his sheath became massive too, similar to the pics above.

basically the lymphangitis had gone from his legs to his sheath.

might be worth asking the vet about it with your particular horse.
 
EstherYoung said:
Is he otherwise OK in himself? Does he have filled legs too at all?

With hindsight, a filled sheath was the only warning we got of the massive migrating redworm explosion that the little colt on our yard had. The filled sheath was due to the protein leakage caused by the worm damage to the gut.
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this also caused my boy to have a swollen shealth and colitis
 
barbaraNcolin said:
In Feb this year my boy was diagnosed with Lymphangitis. He started dragging his back foot the Thurs night (I thought he was just being lazy whilst lungeing) but on Sat morning his sheath was huge! I've never seen anything like it.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid that's tiny compared to my poor chap - at its worst, the tip of his sheath was just about level with his hocks!! :eek: Absolutely no sign of lymphangitis - and no swelling anywhere else.

Thankfully it HAS started to subside a little - probably a 10-15% reduction in size. Although his tempo was up a little bit today - 39.4 which is the highest it's been!:confused: Vet came again today - he's costing me a small fortune - more iv drugs and yet more tomorrow.
 
In my geldings case, it was a smegma bean about the size of a golf ball up there (YUK YUK YUK) but would that apply in your case? Do/can stallions get smegma beans? Again once the root of the problem had been removed (by the vet) the swelling sorted itself out in a couple of days with exercise.
 
JG wrote:
He's regularly wormed - with equest or equamax - so unlikely to be redworm.
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So was Czar :( I think I'm getting obsessed after all this...but it's scared the heck out of me as we thought we had a good worm regime, but no, the little boogers got resistant to moxidectin and they can stay in the gut wall for up to two years without showing on egg counts.

Hope your guy deflates soon, whatever the cause is.
 
My friend has a similar thing with her slightly overweight pony. After lots of sheath cleaning and antibiotics the vet determined that is was actually mastitis - the nipples are behind the sheath towards the balls. Weird!
 
My 19 year old has a swollen sheath, it's Been there for about 4 months . I cleaned it the other week and changed his feed to baileys lo cal which is amazing but the swelling is still visable ... They recommended bloods to b taken to check his kidneys and heart r functioning ok they were taken yesterday and at the moment I'm awaiting the results ... Apparently to much protein can b one of the issues which is why I tried the lo cal before the bloods were taken ...
 
My old boy had 2 bouts of lymphangitis, the first and the worst caused his sheath to swell to the size of a cows udder, it was so swollen it started to turn blue! :eek:

Hope you get him sorted.
 
I've known two incidences of this:

The first, in a young gelding was due to worm damage - despite him being regularly wormed.

The second, in my elderly gelding was apparently due to him having a heart murmur and blood pooling in the sheath area. He also showed general viral infection type symptoms too.
 
my elderly gelding sheath swells if he is in for more than 24 hours. It is enormous. I had a couple of vets out over the years as I was really concerned but the concensus of opinion is that whereas some horses get filled legs when they stand in - my boy gets a filled sheath. If I turn him out it will go down over the next 48 hours.
 
Do you know if he is allergic for anything? My 7 year old fjord also has had a very swollen sheath, and infections because of it, lots of black bad smelling icky stoff. (all 4 legs were swollen to) My vet couldn't find a cause for it and took bloodtestes to look for allergies. They came out with loads of allergies... :( Includes barley, sugerbeet, some grasses, pollen and so on. Now I feed him only oats and good hay and that has helped.
Haven't had a badly swollen sheath since lasts autumn. :)

It swells up sometimes now aswell but never as bad as it was.

Good luck!

(I hope my english is alright, don't use it as often as I should)
 
my gelding had exactly this 4 months ago with exactly the same signs. It was an infection and it took an age to clear up - he had baytril which led to ventral swelling ( scary! ) it took aound 2 months to return to normal
 
I have a 8 year old studhorse. I cam home and his sheath and penis had dropped and was swollen to the size of a very large balloon.It has signs of infection.the vet is out of town.he said to administer penicillin.this is the biggest and most horrifying sight I have ever seen.my horse is eating alot and acting somewhat himself.he also said to soak it in hot water and epsom salt and I did,it is so swollen it appears to be bursting,help!!! I dunno what to do
 
Cherokees Mom, are you in the UK or US? I'm not sure what your pharmacy rules are like, if you're in the US, however I would ask your vet about something like Diurizone (hydrocholrothiazide/dexamethasone) which is a diuretic (to reduce water retention), and a steroid (to reduce inflammation). In France it is marketed as a cow anti-inflammatory, however my vet always prescribes this rather than bute for horses - depending on the situation.

however if the swelling is as bad as you say, can you cont get an emergency call out from another vet practice?
 
Casey76 said:
Cherokees Mom, are you in the UK or US? I'm not sure what your pharmacy rules are like, if you're in the US, however I would ask your vet about something like Diurizone (hydrocholrothiazide/dexamethasone) which is a diuretic (to reduce water retention), and a steroid (to reduce inflammation). In France it is marketed as a cow anti-inflammatory, however my vet always prescribes this rather than bute for horses - depending on the situation.

however if the swelling is as bad as you say, can you cont get an emergency call out from another vet practice?
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im from the us,The little town I am from doesnt have much options.i have two more days before we can see a vet and the waiting game is killing me and him both,If i could just get the swelling down I am sure he could be saved,any remedies to reduce swelling,it is larger than a balloon now and im not sure if he is peeing,I just cant believe he is still moving around and eating as good as he is,and how long before antibiotics should start to work
 
I dont see any scabs at all,but it has began to crack and bust open I guess from being out so long,we just went through some extreme cold weather in south .very unusual may I add.So i kept him in stable until it passed and when i let him out this is what we found,he penis hasnt retracted in two days and im so so afraid that it has cut the circulation off,I am going crazy,this is my first and only horse,the only one I ever been around and yes hes a stud,kinda a tuff choice for a first timer but I do love him so much,
 
Cherokee's Mum, I would recommend regular cold-water hosing and walking, to try to bring the swelling down and improve circulation. You could even very gently masage the swollen areas.
Maybe get in contact with vet departments at universities, see if they have any ideas/suggestions? And send them pictures - might be an interesting case study for their students as well.
 
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