7 year old gelding

[wade3504]

I have a seven year old gelding that has been healthy for most of his life until now. Last week I noticed that he was not urinating right. He would go very little or act like he was going to go and then nothing. He did this multiple times. He also had trouble passing manure as there was very little with that and then for hours nothing. My local vet who is now only going to be used for shots and coggins, was not concerned with the passing of manure problem and only with the urinating problem but I was. My horse had no fever and no bean. The vet basically told me to put him on this sulpha drug that he gave me and said it should work and if not we'd go from there. He did nothing about his not passing manure right, so I called an equine clinic the next day and trailered him there. They found nothing with the urination problem even though all they did was do bloodwork and take a sample of his urine to be tested. He again had no fever and his bloodwork was fine. They did tube him with oil as they were concerned with that. I am almost positive he had a partial blockage and Bonnie helped to confirm that. He was fine with that two days later.

Anyway, he finished his meds and now he's doing it again with the urination problem. A vet was out yesterday to do teeth and he only does teeth but he called another vet that has a mobile unit and she can come do an ultrasound of the bladder and kidneys and possible catheter. The vet who did the teeth says it could be a stone even thought they are very rare.

My question, is has anyone had something similar happen and what did it end up being?

Thanks for any info.

Amanda

 

[Manyspots]

I am no vet and have not had any experience but am wondering also if it could be a stone. Bumping this up for someone else to help with.

 

[chandab]

Sorry I don't really have any idea, but do have a little story to share...

Several years ago, my half-Arab gelding was acting odd; he wouldn't stretch out to pee like normal and was acting funny. I thought of all kinds of things that could be wrong, but called in the vet to check him over. [FYI - he was pastured with a mare and her almost yearling filly.] The vet came and checked him over thoroughly, most everything checked out fine, except he was extremely sore in his big hind quarter muscle (the one along side the tail). We basically surmized that he had been kicked just right by the filly and his muscle was bruised and sore (wasn't the mare, as that would be too much work for her to kick that high); so he wouldn't stretch out to pee or much of anything else. We put him on bute for a couple days and he was back to himself in no time.

 

[disneyhorse]

Yes I've had a horse do exactly that!

I had a gelding that had developed urinary tract crystals. My vet said it's normally caused by a diet high in calcium but he was only a yearling (they normally develop it when they are a lot older) and he wasn't on a high calcium diet so who knows.

Anyway, it was a minor surgery where they cleaned the crystals from his urinary tract. The gelding was then prescribed a timothy-hay-only roughage with 4-way for grain and 2.5 grams of vitamin C for the rest of his life. He was fine thereafter.

It's best to just have a vet look and see, as that has to be painful!

Andrea

 

[wade3504]

Thanks Disneyhorse. The vet is coming out this week to go over him and do an ultrasound and catheter. I'm glad I didn't stick with what my local vet said.

 

[ThreeCFarm]

Amanda, you know I have no idea what is wrong with him, but I had hoped the problem would have resolved by now. I hope he feels better soon!

 

[Miniv]

The vet should be able to diagnose easily enough. Either a "bean" up in the fold (which is easy to take care of.) or as Disneyhorse said, urinary crystals....

We've experienced the crystals in our wethers, never our geldings.......

MA

 

[wade3504]

He was sedated and checked for a bean and there was nothing unless it was missed by 3 vets. I should have had him ultasounded and had a catheter done with the second set of vets but they had me thinking that he was fine.

 

[MiniforFaith]

I just had something similiar happen to my gelding back in Oct. The vet came out, did a good cleaning, and didn't find a bean.. She put him on antibotics and said it sounded like a urniary tract infection. He was on his meds' for 10 days and it seem to work like a charm..Sending prayers your way that it isn't serious..

:

 

[Rachel]

I had a similar problem with my gelding and he just so happened to be the same age. We noticed that he wasn't peeing normally. He was only going a little bit at a time and didn't "extend" whatsoever while peeing. My parents took him up to the vet for me and they did a thorough cleaning and then he was fine. (This happened in the dead of winter like now so I didn't dare try to clean him at our place.) He had trouble again the next winter so we followed the same procedure and he was fine again. We haven't noticed any trouble yet this winter thank goodness. I couldn't tell you if there was a bean or not as I wasn't there. This was just my experience. I sure hope you can get the problem resolved for your little guy soon!

 

[dangerranger]

one of our old geldings had simular simptoms, he wouldnt pee but in short spurts. turned out he was being stung by bees on his sheath.[OUCH!!!] kept swat on him for a while and it stoped.

 

[Rebecca]

Have you cleaned his sheath? That could be part of the problem.