Slight incontinence in older gelding

[sarahann1]

Hello all,

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of slightly incontinent veteran geldings?

Basically, the horse is fine within himself, eating, drinking, not colicy, cantered off up the field as fine as a creaky 27/28yearish horse can, he's just a tad leaky when it's all hanging out, like a dripping tap. My vet has said not to worry, he thinks it's down to a loose sphincter and to monitor it for the time being.

Anyone else had something similar, it's not something I've ever come across before and vet said it's not commom either.

Ta folks.

Hot cross buns for responses

 

[shergar]

Did your vet check for a bean as they can slow down the flow of urine.

 

[Smurf's Gran]

I had this with a pony years ago, (over 30 years to be precise) and I'm sorry to say that it was the start of his kidneys packing up. He was an older teen but had had a very tough life before I owned him.

The vets did not investigate fully, but gave me kidney powder (as it was then described - sorry don't know what it was) He was very happy and was his usual self, but he just dribbled and dripped, and made his hind legs sore due to urine burns (I had to find a wound spray to coat and protect his hind legs) He continued like this for many months, until his demeanor changed and we knew it was time.

Hope its something different for you xx

 

[wildandwoolly]

I had an older pony (24) which I inherited who dribbled. On investigation it turned out that his bladder had "silted up" which reduced its capacity and this caused an overflow of urine to leak out which started to scald his back legs. He had his bladder flushed out with saline solution on two separate occasions (masses of chalky stuff was flushed out) and he was fine for quite a long time (couple of years) but the third time he was uncomfortable and we felt it was time to call it a day.

Interestingly, I heard of a pony of similar breeding who had the same problem so perhaps there can be a genetic link/predisposition.

Hope you manage to help him. xx

 

[sarahann1]

Did your vet check for a bean as they can slow down the flow of urine.

The vet hasn't been out yet, he's not having any bother when he needs to go thankfully.

I had this with a pony years ago, (over 30 years to be precise) and I'm sorry to say that it was the start of his kidneys packing up. He was an older teen but had had a very tough life before I owned him.

The vets did not investigate fully, but gave me kidney powder (as it was then described - sorry don't know what it was) He was very happy and was his usual self, but he just dribbled and dripped, and made his hind legs sore due to urine burns (I had to find a wound spray to coat and protect his hind legs) He continued like this for many months, until his demeanor changed and we knew it was time.

Hope its something different for you xx

Thanks for the information, sorry it wasn't a good outcome for your chap. I'll look out for any supplements which aid kidney health, it wouldn't hurt to put him on something as a preventative.

I had an older pony (24) which I inherited who dribbled. On investigation it turned out that his bladder had "silted up" which reduced its capacity and this caused an overflow of urine to leak out which started to scald his back legs. He had his bladder flushed out with saline solution on two separate occasions (masses of chalky stuff was flushed out) and he was fine for quite a long time (couple of years) but the third time he was uncomfortable and we felt it was time to call it a day.

Interestingly, I heard of a pony of similar breeding who had the same problem so perhaps there can be a genetic link/predisposition.

Hope you manage to help him. xx

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind if it gets any worse.

In general he seems to be fine now, the leakiness isn't constant so I'm not overly worried at the moment, will keep in mind what you've all mentioned, thanks again.

 

[sueonmull]

I had a similar dribbly problem with my older retired gelding. The diagnosis was sabulous cystitis caused by a build up of sediment in the bladder. He did have a couple of bladder washes a few months apart to remove the sediment. Eventually we noticed a pattern in that he was continent during the winter months, which was a relief as I wasn’t looking forward to be continually washing his hind legs during the colder weather. It used to start about May time when he moved from winter to summer grazing. It would improve after a week or so and then start again as I swapped him between his two ‘summer’ fields, again improving after a few days. There appeared to be some link with whatever was in the field be it fresh grass (though ours was never that lush) or something else growing there. He was put on a low calcium diet but we never did get to the bottom of it, sadly we lost him a couple of winters ago due to something that didn't appear to be related.
In our case a bladder wash was very straightforward with mild sedation. I would always recommend a bladder endoscopy to rule out any issues with stones, tumours etc (there was nothing with my boy). Apart from being nuisance we learnt to live with it.

 

[sueonmull]

Forgot to add that blood tests showed no issues with kidney function though intermittently we would pick up blood in the urine via a dipstick test which I did regularly to try to understand more about the problem..

 

[wkiwi]

I'll look out for any supplements which aid kidney health, it wouldn't hurt to put him on something as a preventative. .

Note that all supplements have side effects if given longterm (even something like garlic or Vit.C) so best to diagnose a kidney problem first (doesn't take much to do this).
I knew of one horse that had a bladder issue that was unusual and linked to Cushings, so wouldn't hurt to have blood test for that in a horse of that age too. Early treatment for anything is often better than waiting

 

[sarahann1]

I had a similar dribbly problem with my older retired gelding. The diagnosis was sabulous cystitis caused by a build up of sediment in the bladder. He did have a couple of bladder washes a few months apart to remove the sediment. Eventually we noticed a pattern in that he was continent during the winter months, which was a relief as I wasn’t looking forward to be continually washing his hind legs during the colder weather. It used to start about May time when he moved from winter to summer grazing. It would improve after a week or so and then start again as I swapped him between his two ‘summer’ fields, again improving after a few days. There appeared to be some link with whatever was in the field be it fresh grass (though ours was never that lush) or something else growing there. He was put on a low calcium diet but we never did get to the bottom of it, sadly we lost him a couple of winters ago due to something that didn't appear to be related.
In our case a bladder wash was very straightforward with mild sedation. I would always recommend a bladder endoscopy to rule out any issues with stones, tumours etc (there was nothing with my boy). Apart from being nuisance we learnt to live with it.

Thanks for the info, I'll keep this in mind, happily he seems to have dried up again, so I'm hoping it was a random one off.

Note that all supplements have side effects if given longterm (even something like garlic or Vit.C) so best to diagnose a kidney problem first (doesn't take much to do this).
I knew of one horse that had a bladder issue that was unusual and linked to Cushings, so wouldn't hurt to have blood test for that in a horse of that age too. Early treatment for anything is often better than waiting

Thanks, he's had a cushings test, his levels were only 44, so not overly high and not enough to warrant meds. He's at an age now where it wouldn't matter about long term side effects of supplements, but if you have references for where you've seen these side effects I'd like to read them for future horses benefit

 

[wkiwi]

The side effects of a supplement depends on what's in it. Suggest if you find one you want to use, then use 'google scholar' to look for research articles on it. However, there is a summary of the garlic issues at http://equinefreelance.com/free-articles/garlic/ which you may be interested in. Note that some 'longterm' effects might only be weeks or months, rather than years.
Re him 'drying up' - it could always have been a mild urinary tract infection that has cleared up on its own, so yes cross fingers it was a one-off.
Aren't horses a worry - LOL