my horse suffered the same fate last week.
our fields are so wet and muddy he had been in for almost a week.
anyway when i mentioned it on the yard, i was told that geldings can be susceptabnle to this if standing in and are on hard feed.
i turned him out the next day, and he went back to normal.
this week though he has been in most of the week, and although he is clipped i have removed his rugs during the day, and all seems to be ok.
2, there might be an infection some where up there!
3, There might be a growth up there...
4, tiz true that if horses are imobilised in a stable, they can retain fluid. With males, it gathers in the sheath, and, or, legs.
It is more likely if the horse is on hard feed. Once exercise or turnout is upped it goes.
To be on the safe side, clean the sheath. If his routine has not changed lately ie, no change in feed, turnout, exercise... and you can find nothing apart from the usual when you clean the sheath, call the vet. There could be a growth, infection, etc or a reason why the horse is retaining fluid.
If it is simply a bad case of gunk, or the horse is on restricted turnout, it might be a few of days before the sheath returns to normal. Monitor it.
Yes and guess what, my boy's sheath is all swollen today, (I should never have posted about all this yesterday lol). So I'll be going up tomorrow with my container of hot water and having a good old rummage around. I can hardly wait... Bleurrghhh!
My boy is on box rest at the moment (but can be hacked in walk only) & I got up yesterday & his is also swollen. It also seems quite hot! I washed it this morning & nothing uptoward was found
It seemed to go down when I hacked him out, but was up again tonight
You've made me feel better about it as I was about to call the vet tomorrow & I could do with out any more vets bills at the mo