My senior gelding (28 years old) had been very healthy and active until recently. He started exhibiting blood in his urine, sometimes as clots. After a week of doing this, his sheath began to swell. The swelling recedes when he moves around, but if he stands long, it looks like he has two oranges in his sheath, the swelling is that big. He has no obstruction to urinating and he is still happy and healthy appearing on the outside. My vet took blood samples and urine sample, and kidney and liver functions are normal, and no white blood cell counts. He is perplexed and said he can’t treat it unless we “scope” him, which would require a long haul to a horse surgery 4 hours away and a lot of money. Has anyone had these symptoms appear in an older gelding?
What color is your horse? If grey, then possibly melanoma.
The blood in the urine, along with clots really throws a wrench in the diagnostic works because many, many things can cause swelling of the sheath which is improved with movement.
Is he cushiongoid?
Yes, he was diagnosed with Cushings, or PPID as my Vet calls it (he says horses don’t get Cushings, they get PPID-dogs get cushings…) and his adrenals are way off. He is on Prescend for that. We started giving him Equinnox too which seems to make him feel very good. He is a big(17 hds) drafty horse, about 1600 pds. He is not grey, bay with black socks. I just rode him today-depsite his weird symptoms, blood in urine, swollen sheath, and being a senior, he’s great on the trails and loves to go riding. When I turned him out after, he trotted off. How’s that for a 28 year old with all these strange symptoms? I’d really like to hear if anyone else has had this exp. with a gelding. II also feed him Platinum Performance. I love this horse and hope we have many more trail rides together if I can keep him healthy.
Can you call another vet with a portable scope?
My older guy (age 20) had similar symptoms and when I called the best diagnostic vet in the area, they took me VERY seriously…like disturbingly seriously. I hauled him in immediately and again, every vet and vet student and tech in the practice was in the exam room with us - which I interpreted as “this is probably going to be a very interesting/complicated learning experience for the professionals and bad for horse/me.” We ultra-sounded and scoped him - he had a bladder stone. When I brought him into the clinic again a few days later to get it broken up, we scoped again and he had clearly passed it himself - the area in the bladder where the stone had been sitting was still inflamed and there was a clear appearance of scraping all down the urethra. Vet said stones are very uncommon but they do happen in older horses. Vet was also surprised that he was able to pass it himself at the size it was, so his sheath and the little opening at the end were very inflamed for a WHILE after.
I suppose had I not gotten the diagnostics, he would have just passed it himself and been fine…but considering it could have been something far more serious/painful, to me it was 100% worth the couple hundred dollars I spent getting it properly checked out. I second the recommendation to find a vet with a portable scope or one that is closer to you.
Thank you so much for sharing your exp. with your horse and the bladder stone. That sounds the most like what my big guy has than anything else I’ve read or heard. My horse is a 17 hd. 1600 pd. mustang (yes, you read that right!) and he is very tough and stoic. He could be passing a bladder stone and not showing the discomfort you would expect. That they happen in older horses makes sense too. I will look for a Vet in our area with a portable scope-that sounds like the best option for us! Thank you so much!!!
