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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | I'm posting this on the chance that someone will have had something similar to this situation. I have a 12 yo bay gelding (ive had him since he was 18 months old). He has been bleeding from his urethra since January. He was ultrasounded to look for stones, non were found but we pulled him off all alfalfa and put on vit C. He continued to bleed so he was scoped to his bladder and looked great, no stones and no rips or tears. I had him on a joint supplement with Devils Claw and was told to take him off of that as it can sometimes make a bleeding condition worse. He's been off of that for over 2 months. He is still bleeding. We know it's coming from the urethra because you can see the drop form. When he pees, the blood comes out after. His sheath is clean other than the blood that builds up around the opening which I keep cleaned off. He doesn't act painful anywhere. I am in contact with my vet about this. She is contacting other vets looking for answers also.
Any thoughts?
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
 
| Sounds obvious but is he easily irritated by flies and bugs? I have one gelding that if you don't keep fly spray on his sheath he will blow up something fierce with tons of discharge. Can a parasite get up in there I wonder? |
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Expert
Posts: 1611
 
| http://www.horsecollaborative.com/4-compelling-reasons-to-clean-you...
3. It’s nice to save money and do a sheath clean yourself.
You might even be the person who proudly says to anyone who will listen, “I always clean my horse’s sheath by myself.” It’s cool you’re not intimidated by a little smegma. But keep in mind that for more serious diagnostic purposes, a vet can be extremely helpful. They can notice the aberrations indicating a much larger health concern, like Habronema (parasites that cause sores in the penile region) or cancers, such as squamous cell carcinoma. To avoid viewer cringes, you can look up what those look like via Google search on your own.
No experience with your issue but hope you find answers. Just throwing the Habronema out there because I read this article off Facebook this morning...
Edited by astreakinchic 2015-04-29 2:18 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 477
Location: Lost in the swamps | High protien diets can cause bladder crystals, they are not seen by the naked eye you have to microscope them. my gelding had this and I had to do my own investigating after the Vet chalked it up to blister beetle because I was feeding alfalfa, but no way! He would have been much sicker. NO colic, fever,just bloody looking at the end of urinating and blood work and urinalysis showed nothing!!! Bun, creatinine, red and white blood were norm. Take a urine sample and let it sit, if there is sedement, have your vet look at it under a scope for crystals. They were scratching up his urithra. also iron can cause darkened urine too. My horse was intaking too portein (alfala and eq sr) for his activity level.
(25 and out to pasture)
Edited by imturnin3 2015-04-29 2:24 PM
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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | imturnin3, how did you find out about the crystals and cysts? The blood, which coats his hind legs, always appears crystalized to me. I just assumed it was from the dust sticking to it. I will ask the vet about this.
Thanks for the replys.
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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | Thought I would update this. I took him to OSU and they scoped again looking specifically for a tear in the urethra. They think they found it, but they weren't 100% certain. They will try to lazer the tear and get it to heal. There is more to the process, but I can't remember the exact terminology. They will do the surgery tomorrow. I'm sure hoping this works. |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Good luck, hope it works!! |
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 Tried and True
Posts: 21185
Location: Where I am happiest | Glad your making progress. Prayers this is it and a successfull surgery.  |
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| Buckwheat - 2015-04-29 1:34 PM
I'm posting this on the chance that someone will have had something similar to this situation. I have a 12 yo bay gelding (ive had him since he was 18 months old). He has been bleeding from his urethra since January. He was ultrasounded to look for stones, non were found but we pulled him off all alfalfa and put on vit C. He continued to bleed so he was scoped to his bladder and looked great, no stones and no rips or tears. I had him on a joint supplement with Devils Claw and was told to take him off of that as it can sometimes make a bleeding condition worse. He's been off of that for over 2 months. He is still bleeding. We know it's coming from the urethra because you can see the drop form. When he pees, the blood comes out after. His sheath is clean other than the blood that builds up around the opening which I keep cleaned off. He doesn't act painful anywhere. I am in contact with my vet about this. She is contacting other vets looking for answers also.
Any thoughts?
I am very surprised that non of your vets have analyzed his urine at the start of him starting to pee, half way thru and the very last amount to check for red blood counts.
Also no mention of hand palpating the bladder to check for stones thru his anus. Due to body thickness and difficult locations using machines is not a very good idea to get the answer of what is causing the blood drop.
Nor any mention of giving him sulfur type antibiotics, an antiseptic flush of his uretha or a simple saline flush or using an antibiotic grease such as Furazone.
The most common problem that I have encountered on a few rare occasions over 60 years of owning horses, is from a stallion ejaculation or on a gelding when he uses a muscle to pee in squirts as he finishes urinating and then a little blood drips out.
The name where the lesion is escapes me right now but also has the word penis in its name. Ask your vet where this 2nd penis thingy is going up to the bladder ..
The lesion can be created by physical activity ... running too hard and slipping, live cover on a tall mare where short stud has to really use himself to lunge upwards to complete the breeding or something as simple as a horse rolling over and his rear legs doing the splits.
And your drip of blood could be as simple as a small tear up inside his sheath where it connects to the base of his penis ... I have had a cutter and two race track colts do this because they decided to pee while exerting themselves and old floppy fell out part way and the wagging made a tear per the above .. this is where the different flushes can make it heal or packing his sheath and coating his penis with plain old KY Jelly which will keep the tear from sticking to itself and not healing.
Then there are the calcium crystals that can irritate an area ... which any vet should let a small jar of urine set to see if any crystals settle to the bottom of the jar or uses test strips to analyze the urine ... this is the reason your vet took your horse off of alfalfa and an overload of phosphorous can also cause a urine blood drip problem.
When you see the blood is very important for a correct diagnosis .. at start or pink urine flow or blood after he appears to have stopped urinating.
I am not a fan of taking a horse to university vets ... too often they need a guinea pig for a teaching class and can use your horse for some weird/rare text book item that have similar symptoms. .. I have yet to hear of anyone taking a horse to a university for vetting leave there with a simple fix ... diagnosis is always some rare item and horse has 50-50 chance of recovery.
Before I did any experimental surgery ... I would find me an old horse vet to do all of the above as much as possible... stop all supplements... throw all of your beet pulp and fancy feed away, and simplify his feed down to grass hay and whole oats and a salt block.
Time can be your best friend when a situation is unknown ... overvetting can end up being your worst enemy ...
and keep in mind doing red blood counts in his urine is more important than doing a blood panel test which only gives you the condition of the horses blood right at that moment and change if horse gets excited or changes to being calm within a matter of minutes .. this blood panel test is good to know but not to make any quick decisions from ...
GOOD LUCK .. HOPE IT IS SOMETHING SIMPLE ..
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2015-05-29 2:57 AM
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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | Thanks for the info. This horse was stripped off everything and only on grass hay, carrots, and vitamin C. This has been going on since January and getting worse every day. He was on 2 rounds of antibiotics, but nothing helped. He was scoped 2xs, ultrasounded and palpated. They took samples of his urine from the bladder and from the urethra. You could see blood in the urethra all the way to the "tear" and then it stopped.
The surgery went well. They didn't lazer, but did the cut to relieve the pressure. I will pick him up tomorrow. |
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Member
Posts: 30
| I went through this with a gelding a few years ago. It was awful and frustrating. We went to multiple vets, had tons of scopes done, and spent a lot of money. Finally one vet was able to see a tear in the urethra. We ended up doing surgery to take pressure off from the urethra, that worked for about 45 days and the tear came back so we had to do it a second time. Thankfully it worked.
The vet said that the last little spurt they sometimes do when urinating can cause a tear but it's not very common.
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Regular
Posts: 80
Location: Oregon | Thank you! I hope we don't have to do this again, but they said we might. I did my first cleaning tonight which wasn't too bad. Keeping my fingers crossed! |
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 Having Smokin Bandits
Posts: 4572
Location: Woodstown, NJ | Good luck! Whew, that must have been scary and frustrating! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 359
Location: BETWEEN HOT FLASHES AND GERITOL | I had a gelding that tore his urethra track had to have surgery, but he was fine after that still running today 18 yrs old. A&M said he probably passed a stone. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 999
Location: Sunny So Cal | Hope your horse is doing better! Praying that the laser worked and you won't have to do it again. |
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Unusual bleeding situation