| 0719Singapore
horse penile bleeding, maggots, problems health and welfare educational for animal lovers,
excerpts from The
Glamorous Vets, Singapore, sponsored by AsiaHomes Internet.
August 04, 2002 The horse is still bleeding "The horse is bleeding from the penis," the riding instructress phoned me just when I sat down for a late dinner at half past seven. "The gelding (horse that has been castrated) has been bleeding the whole afternoon." I pictured blood spurting from the penile artery non-stop for some reason and it would be extremely difficult to treat this case as the penis will be retracted and hidden inside the body, around 30 cm away from the preputial or foreskin opening, not hanging outside the body as in the human male. A continuous loss of blood from the penis is always an emergency but this gelding was dripping blood in small amount. What was the cause of it? The riding instructress did not know. "Can you bandage it or use ice to stop the bleeding?" I asked as I did not think it was a serious situation. It was not possible to bandage the penile area nor were there ice cubes available. "The horse is still bleeding," the riding instructress phoned again. "Please come and see him." Would the horse die if not attended to? At the stable, the horse was not bleeding profusely. There was some blood stains at the prepuce. I bent to check the penis. I was able to move it out of the preputial opening as the horse did not mind. The head of the penis was like a volcanic crater as maggots had eaten up nearly eighty percentage of the flesh and causing bleeding and pain. Fortunately, the urethra was not attacked. The urethra was easily seen as a yellowish white long straw-like tube at the base of the penile head. I got the quiet horse out of the stable box and standing on the road as it would be more spacious to work there. The horse felt the pain and retracted his penis up into his body. How can I remove the maggots on a standing horse? General anaesthesia would be too expensive. Fortunately, there was the xylazine tranquiliser which has one side effect. It causes the horse's penis to come down. The problem is how much of xylazine should I use in this 500 kg horse. If I inject an insufficient dosage into the jugular vein, the penis will never come down. If I use more, the horse may collapse and hurt himself. "It is best to remove the maggots in the morning when it is easier to see them," I said. The stable lights were too dim and I had no torch nor forceps to remove the maggots. The owner could not wait as her horse was suffering. The tropical night was cool and the high humidity had gone in this leafy riding stable where I could see more trees and shrubs than in any club in Singapore. Dew had condensed onto the windscreen of my car even thought this was eight thirty in the night. Should I override the owner's wishes? Was it in the interest of the horse to get treated now? What if he dies overnight although it is unusual for horses with penile maggot wounds to die. There are always exceptions in medicine. A maggot may get into the vein and carried to the lungs or brain causing thrombosis and obstruction and leading to death. This is always a possibility. I gave the xylazine injection after giving antibiotics. Nothing happened for five minutes. The penis was still retracted. Suddenly, the horse staggered as if he was going to fall down onto the hard tarred road.  The owner was in tears. "He is going to die," she said.
Her friend held the horse's head up as the head sank towards the road and it looked as if
the horse was dying. "It is very heavy" she said as she tried to prop up the
head with both hands. Otherwise, why would his head be sinking so low?"It is not going to die," I assured Ms Rose. I had seen the effects of xylazine in the racehorse practice of eight years, but for the owner, this must be very traumatic. The horse's head nearly reached the floor and he could barely stand up. "Do you have a bale of hay to put under the horse's stomach?" I asked the riding instructress. Well, this is not Britain and there was none. I saw two big bags of wood shavings further away and she got them under the horse's abdomen so that they would prevent injury. For the next ten minutes, we were trying to get the horse to stand squarely on four legs. I put the heavy head on my shoulder as Ms Anderson could no longer hold the head up. The horse was wobbly and leant to the right side. Ms Anderson pushed the leaning side to prevent the horse from falling down. Ms Rose was helping from the other side. I shifted the horse's head to the other shoulder as it was real heavy after syringing warm salt water and the Negasunt anti-fly powder into the preputial opening a few times. "We got to get the horse into the stable as there is a bedding of wood shavings," I said as the horse's penis came out from the prepuce and we needed to start removing the maggots. The riding instructress commented that the bedding was too thin and spread the two bags of wood shavings onto the centre of the stable floor. She certainly knew about horses. Was this the right time to walk the horse? Would he collapse?  I pulled the rope attached to his bridle. He was able to make it to the
stable box standing. Ms Rose said her horse dislike the rope and it was taken off quickly
although the horse was not aware of what was going on. "Have you got the forceps to pull out the maggots?" Ms Rose
asked me. I did not have any. It was really dark inside the stable but Ms Rose had
excellent eye sight and started to pull out the maggots. She would not believe that the
horse would collapse onto her as I advised her to be careful Unbelieveably, there were at
least a hundred maggots. Her friend's mobile phone rang. They had to explain what
was happening in clinical details. "It is really the wrong time to talk about the horse's dick," Ms Rose commented as her friend spoke at length in two or three cellular calls while placing one hand to hold the maggots. What is a dick? It must be a British slang for penis. Singapore does have a famous singer called Dick Lee. Would he be offended if he is called Penis Lee?  "He must have the cleanest penis in the stables,"
Ms Rose said as we cleaned his organ several times in a pail of water and removed the
greyish oil called smegma found in the foreskin of the penis. "Somehow it looks different," Ms Rose said of the cleaned up penis. The smegma could attract flies. The penis was hanging loose now. "You mean it should be longer?" I asked. I could not speak the word "flaccid penis" in front of teenaged girls. She does know better than the veterinarian about the length and size of the phallus of her own horse. Nowadays, young people are not so hypocritical and will call a spade a spade. It took more than an hour before almost all maggots were removed. They had tunnelled deep into the flesh. The horse passed urine soon after although his head was still down. As to the cause of the wound, the horse had been kicked by another horse seven days ago. The flies must have waited for him to pass urine before depositing the eggs onto his injured penile head as normally, the penis is hidden inside the body. I was grateful for the help of these two teenagers in the removal of maggots. It was really dark and it was risky to work under the belly of a tranquilised 500 kg horse. However, we had to be alert and over time, the horse was steady and could stand on four legs without wobbling. The deep friendship of the horse owner and her friend and love of the horses ensure that the horse will make a prompt recovery. If treatment was delayed a few more days, the maggots might have eaten up the urethra and the horse would have painful and difficult urination as well as infection. OTHER PROBLEMS WITH THE EQUINE PREPUCE. Sometimes, insects or biting flies may cause irritation at the preputial opening and the horse feels itchy. It bites the prepuce leading to wounds and swelling. Maggots may grow if flies manage to deposit eggs on the wounds. The stablehand is often blamed for not doing a good job! It is important that you include the equine prepuce in your daily washing and cleaning. In such cases, there will be no blood being passed in the urine.
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