[[My horse needs to be sedated twice a year for teeth floating. She’s nineteen years old, so it is a routine procedure. If I don’t get her teeth floated, she can’t chew her feed properly and the bit hurts her, she tries to avoid it. So sedation is necessary sometimes even for routine stuff.]]
Oh great. Don’t get me started on equine teeth floating!!
Sheath cleaning isn’t something you do daily, weekly, or even monthly…horses can go for over a year without needing it…some might never need it. I have had circumstances where the horse developed an infection and was swollen three times the size he should have been. He was so tender he had to be sedated to find out the source of the infection. The infection was due to a “bean” or “clump” that had lodged to the inside wall of his sheath and had basically “grown” into the lining of his sheath. It just so happened that this horse had a problem with expelling dirt and other things from his sheath and was required to have annual or biannual cleanings after that. He has yet to have another problem. Sometimes, things that look silly are the things that can save lives…just a thought.
Ok Jill, what’s the deal with teeth floating? I have seen the effects if I wait too long to have it done…my old mare can’t chew worth a darn and most of her Equine Senior[sup]TM[/sup] ends up on the ground. My vet has me stick my hand in her mouth so I can feel the edges and waves…
I was joking. I was looking at how heated a debate can get about equine sheath smegma and just thought I’d keep the ball rolling. Sorry! I’m not the “smiley” type. I trust you care about your animals and are doing the right thing. Chewing is kind of an important thing.
Jill
Whew! You had me worried there for a minute! I’ll admit I’m a sucker for “whatever the vet says” thing, but I do listen to common sense…and factual evidence. When my horse was younger the teeth were done every two-three years, but the older she gets, the longer in the tooth she gets. Twice a year is necessary now. My vet doesn’t use the files anymore, he has flat paddles that use ultrasonic voodoo to even the teeth out. Still grosses me out just thinking about it, but it sounds so much better. The files on the teeth thing is 100 times worse than fingernails on the chalkboard.
YOUR horse had a medical problem and clearly needs some assistance in this area - which is far different than saying “this horse is male, we need to fiddle with his wanker”. Those of us coming down against routine sheath cleaning have mostly said “unless there is a medical reason”, and infection certainly qualifies.
I still say it’s like douching. There are some very, very limited reasons for a douche but by far the majority of them are entirely unnecessary.
If sawdust bedding causes problems – maybe horses should have some other sort of bedding rather than fooling with their privates? At the stable I used to work at we didn’t use sawdust for bedding, maybe that’s why the horses didn’t have problems with “penis boogers”.
I still don’t see how this gets into quackery. Most horse owners don’t mind putting in a little preventative maintenence in order to avoid expensive vet visits, weenies three times their normal size, etc. If a 1-2 time a year cleaning prevents the vet EVER having to treat a horse for a penile infection, I don’t see what the problem is. (and, judging from another message board I read MANY geldings enjoy this procedure to an embarassing degree. People have the vet do it because its “icky.”)
For the record, I have a mare, and she ALSO needs to be sedated for routine dental work. A lot of people will sedate a horse that has been on stall rest for an extended period of time. People sedate horses for a lot of things you may deem uneccesary, and they do it for their own safety. I’m not sure you are aware of this, but horses weigh about 1200 pounds and can easily kill you without ever intending malice. Dogs don’t need to be sedated for ear cleanings because it is very easy to hold them down if they protest. If a cat was the size of a horse there’s no way you could trim its claws without sedation. Try putting a horse in a headlock someday. I assure you that even three strong men would not be able to hold my average-sized and obediant mare down to do her teeth.
Safety first.
Nobody mentioned masturbation.
I don’t know about the frequency of masturbation in feral horses (and I would hope researchers would find better ways to blow their funding), but I’ve known plenty of stallions to masturbate.
The fact that the stallion isn’t actually breeding does not mean he’s not ejaculating.
It’s SOP on most farms to wash a stallion’s penis before breeding and collecting semen. I’m not aware of any research that says whether or not this reduces infections in the lucky mares, but that seems to be the generally accepted idea. I’m also not aware of any research that says definitively whether or not washing the penis and reducing the debris collected along with the semen is beneficial to the semen when cooled/frozen.
It doesn’t seem so silly to me to wash the penis of a stallion used in a live cover situation. If the stallion transfers bacteria from one mare to another in the wild, nobody cares if she doesn’t conceive or gets an infection that leads to spontaneous abortion. With the time and money invested in breeding horses, a simple, seemingly harmless procedure that just might save them costly vet visits, lost pregnancies and lost breeding seasons is going to remain popular.
According to some horse statistics I recently researched for an informative speech (pre vet student) I have found some alarming news for owners who don’t want to “ask” the vet’s opinions. There are over 6 million horses in the United States. Over half of them are privately owned for personal recreation. Privately owned horses depend on their owners for over 90% of their medical administration and preventive medicine needs. Did you konw that almost 70,000 horses die per year due to improperly administered intramuscular shots. That’s right. Most owners feel that this is a relatively simple procedure and they can do it. All fine and dandy, but if you don’t realize that antiobiotics administered into the bloodflow of a horse can be lethal, then you haven’t informed yourself to the level of being a competent horse owner. Me, personally, I have cleaned 3 sheaths in 20 years of caring and maintaing my horses and show horses for stables I have worked for. My father is a farrier and breeder of saddle mules. Sheath cleaning is a RARE occurance, but it is needed in some instances. Scoffing at the problem will not make it go away. Realize that cases exist where preventative sheath cleaning has saved lives and led to healthier horses. Just as floating teeth help senior horses maintain good weight. Just as tetanus shots help horses against barbed wire fences we manufactured. All of today’s tactics to horse ownership would be laughed at in the past. It’s called a “learning process” and if you ever think you stop learning about how to care for a living thing you are very, very wrong.
As for a radio blaring in the barn…I keep one on almost all the time. It helps the horses become accustomed to strange noises and causes them less stress than if you train them in a quiet barn all their lives and then put them in a ring with music accompaniment or general crowd “noise”. Sometimes it’s the stupid things that work the best.
(typo fixed - Jill)
[Edited by JillGat on 12-04-2001 at 01:14 PM]
As for the masturbation part…I would call that a “failed breeding attempt”. Humans are the only “animal” which procreates for “fun”. Horses only breed when in heat and if not in heat, mares will not so delicately turn the stallion down. Young studs will “attempt” to breed…but I don’t think “masturbation” is their whole goal. Stallions will run with bred mares for months without even thinking about trying to ride one. Try to compare that to men…haha. Anyway, that’s my two cents worth on the subject.
On the uncanny side, did you all know that a pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes??? Anybody else wanna be a pig? LOL
[Edited by JillGat on 12-04-2001 at 01:23 PM]
A couple of related Straight Dope columns:
Do female pigs have six minute orgasms? and Does the pig have a corkscrew shaped penis?
They’re stimulating themselves to the point of ejaculation. They’re not attempting to breed anything. The only point I was making was that they do ejaculate even if they aren’t being bred to mares.
Geldings do not.
I was just throwing it out there since some people feel the ejaculation issue is an important factor in this whole sheath cleaning debate.
Gotcha…I just didn’t want people thinking horses hid in the corner of the paddock with a “playmare” issue stimulating themselves…LOL.