How to Clean a Horse's Sheath
A horse's sheath needs regular cleaning. It will often appear dirty and horse owners often worry about the danger of infection.
Sheath infections can occur but these are usually accompanied by obvious swelling and inflammation of the sheath.
SPECIALISED HORSE SHEATH CLEANERS
There are specialised sheath cleaners marketed for cleaning the horse’s sheath.
However, these can sometimes be difficult to track down an alternative is to use watered down washing up liquid - but make sure that does not contain disinfectant .
The problem with using disinfectants in washing solutions is that it not only kills potentially troublesome bacteria but also wipes out the natural bacterial flora normally present in the horse's sheath.
This can encourage the proliferation of resistant bacteria and you end up with a worse problem than you started with.
Never use a medicinal shampoo or iodine based soap to clean a horse's sheath . These soaps can cause a lot of irritation to the sheath.
CLEANING THE HORSE'S SHEATH
To start cleaning make up a soapy solution in a bucket.
Soap up your hands and gently use your fingers to remove the dirt that has gathered in the folds of the horse's sheath.
The majority of the dirt that needs removing is in the outer part of the sheath so don’t worry that you are not doing a good job by not attending to cleaning the horse's pen is itself.
You will probably want to wear rubber gloves when doing this!
SEDATIVES TO RELAX YOUR HORSE WHILE CLEANING HIS SHEATH
If you are handling a nervous or young horse you may want to contact your vet to ask him to come and give your gelding or stallion a sedative to completely relax his private parts and allow him/her to check this area out and also make cleaning the sheath much easier.
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