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Comment by Riley on April 30, 2009 at 11:57am

My horse rarely or never drops to pee. I have owned him since birth and he is now 14 and has never (knock on wood) had any kind of bladder/kidney infection. At a very young age, I taught him to pee on command (whistle). When I worked at the racetrack all the horses were taught to pee like this as every horse who finished in the money was taken to the test barn. Its just easier on everyone, especially the horse, if they provide the sample promptly and can then be cooled out and their needs attended to immediately after. I get my horse to pee before I ride him (imagine trying to do anything athletic yourself with a full bladder?), then immediately after as that aids in the cooling out process. This is a source of huge amusement at every barn I go to.

I usually only do a full clean job on the sheath once a year - this would vary by the individual - some just stay cleaner than others. My technique is a bit messy. First - stand facing the hindquarters. Put the hand closest to the horse on his back - you can feel the muscles tensing, this will tell you he's not okay with whatever you're doing at the moment and tension precedes kicking, so you have time to react somehow. Take a glob of vaseline in your other hand. Put your hand up there and spread it around. Go for a good long ride, the hotter & sweatier your horse gets the better. When you come home, you will proceed with step 2. You need to be using WARM water (would you want a cold shower on your hoo-hoo? You'd be kicking and screaming too!). Assume the step 1 position. Get the water temperature in the hose just right and start hosing as you normally would for a bath, feet first, then up the hindquarters, then just put the hose up the sheath and start rinsing out with plain warm water. Lube up your hand with a lot of non-drying soap - Dove, Johnson's creamy baby soap, anything gentle and labelled as soothing, moisturizing, non-irritating. Or use a sheath cleaner product. Reach up there, and really work it around. The vaseline + workout he's had will have loosened all the dried on, scabby-type bits and they should just slide out easily. I always find it amazing how far they can retract - honestly, feels like there's a little pouch up there right by the backbone! At this point, most of the boys have become used to the procedure, the tension is gone and many will even hang it out for you to finish the cleaning externally. Make sure you rinse really well to make sure all the soap is gone.

And I do the foot thing too - as well as using my elbow on light switches and paper towels on door handles! Sure wish all public toilets would be equipped with auto flushers, auto water, soap & towel dispensers and blind corner entrances to the washrooms instead of doors which eliminate touching ANYTHING!!!!

Comment by Debbie Burrows on April 30, 2009 at 9:21am

I have never cleaned a sheath myself. I am going to watch the vet the first time then I will gladly do it. I have no problems with that. Thanks for the ideas. I helped give shots and take blood yesterday for all thirty horses. Only had on act up on me. Went well.

Comment by Catherin McMillan on April 30, 2009 at 3:00am

the poor old thing. wonder how common this is. must say Ive never had one of my geldings or even the stallion I had do this

Comment by Jenny Hiscox on April 29, 2009 at 12:21pm

I used to look after my neighbor's old guy who never dropped, even to pee. Is that what you meant? It was already chronic when she more or less took him for retirement when a local riding school closed so he wouldn't be put down, so we never knew how it started.

Since he peed from inside, the - sheath I guess it is, the outside part that the penis is supposed to come outside of to pee - would be chapped, swollen, cracked, and get infected if you didn't wash it daily. When she first got him we would clean it up and get it all healed, then think we could leave it alone, but soon discovered that was not the case. He needed to be washed and have diaper-rash cream, or at the very least vaseline, applied daily. You could miss a day every once in a while, but never more than one day in a row or it would get sore again.

The vet was consulted and kept aware of the ongoing problem, but never said anything about bladder or kidney involvement. The horse was put on sulfa whenever the sheath got obviously infected.

Comment by Leslie Ann Dusty on April 29, 2009 at 12:00pm

Has anyone ever had bladder or kidney issues with horses that DON'T drop?? The barn I'm at has a schoolie gelding who has had a couple of infections and they think that's why. They have cleaned it, put him on penicillen, Vitamin c and they were going to try either pomegranite or grapefruit supplement. Try getting a urine sample!! He's also very shy!

Comment by Jenny Hiscox on April 29, 2009 at 11:21am

Sounds perfectly normal to me!

Comment by Bastian Cassidy-Feddern on April 29, 2009 at 10:48am

LOL! Barb, re the toliet thing...just like me...hands all on deck for sheath cleaning and foot on toliet flusher!

Comment by Robin on April 29, 2009 at 9:51am

Barbara - you are a true "horse mommy"! (and I do the foot thing too!)

Comment by Robin on April 29, 2009 at 9:45am

Hi Jenny. I sent my home email address to you. The company that hired me is called Tutor Doctor. The franchise owner is based in Milton (out your way!) and he says he has over 200 families that need tutors! Email me and I will give you his contact info.

Comment by Dorothy McDonall on April 29, 2009 at 9:44am

I have heard mixed things about cleaning the sheath at all. There is a school of thought out there that says less is best. For my part, whenever my horse "relaxes" I just take care of it there and then. This seems to happen about once a month and I take it as a cue that he's ready for some "refreshing." ;-)

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