Bladder Controll

Question
My horse Mocert is a 12 year old Quarter horse gelding. We have had him for 1 year and his old owners said he had this problem since the got him.  He doesn't extend his penis when he urinates. He also doesn't urinate all at one time it just drips or goes in a stream for a few seconds. He also get urinates all over his back legs and irritates the skin and it clumps. He has had his bladder flushed. We want as much help as we can find so any thing you could suggest for his legs or urination would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Your horse may suffer from partial urinary obstruction or perhaps neurologic damage to the nerves supplying the bladder and penis. Your horse needs a good examination including blood work and a urinalysis to evaluate for abnormal cells that could indicate inflammation, a mass or a tumor associated with the bladder or urethra. If I had the opportunity to look at your horse, I would probably also scope the bladder with a long endoscope to evaluate the inside look for evidence of inflammation, stones or masses. I would also perform a rectal exam to try to express the bladder manually through the rectum. Your horse may have nerve damage, for which there may be some medications that might help him. These could be tried if the other examinations I have described are normal. A combination of bethanechol (to help the bladder muscle to contract when he urinates) might help him empty his bladder more completely. Then a drug to change the bladder sphincter tone might also help. Phenoxybenzmaine would help decrease the sphincter tone to allow urine passage more completely and with less impedance. Sometimes a weak sphincter causes the dripping continuously, so more sphincter tone is necessary in which case the drug to use is phenylpropanolamine. If your horse has a urinary obstruction, he probably strains when he tries to urinate and there may be blood in the urine that you may or may not see with the naked eye (use the urinalysis to find it).If there is inflammation or a mass, there can be straining, but there are also abnormal cells in the urinalysis. Surgical intervention may be necessary for urinary obstructions, stones or strictures (scarring of the tube causing a smaller opening) of the urinary tract. Flushing the bladder alone will do nothing to stop this situation but may be necessary on a regular basis if the horse continues to fail to empty his bladder with urination attempts because urinary "sludge" accumulates in the bladder, stretches the bladder muscle walls and further damages it ability to function well when it contracts. Your horse needs a more complete work up to diagnose the condition and thereby facilitate some targeted potentially helpful treatment. IF there is nerve damage, the problems you see may never be comletely corrected, and occasionally the damage is too severe to even see much improvement. I hope this helps some. Please feel free to contact me again.

Gina, another thought to be clearer. In addition to what Ive mentioned, your horse needs a good examination of his sheath, penis, glans and  urethra to rule out problems in these areas as the cause of what you're seeing. he'll need to be sedated and the penis should be completely extracted for a complete exam. Your horse may be experiencing pain when he urinates and a complete exam including all the above will be necessary.