Well about a year ago I brought Mr. P from over the other side of Melbourne. Me being me I just love my animals and I was playing with Mr. P on the ground as he was such a very nervous horse when I first got him. While I was standing there with him I smelt this awful smell and I mean awful. I looked down and there was Mr. P's penis hanging out and the stench was just incredible. It was not dirty but had a thick, creamy substance that stuck onto his penis. Hummm... not good, so what could I do to help him?

After I had assessed this situation I knew that I would have to wash this. Now I had only had him maybe just a month so I started to prepare him and I for this. He was such a good patient as I knew he knew that I was trying to help him. I just touched and played as much as I could. Now I know that this is not everyone's cup of tea but I knew I had to help. I did not wear gloves as this was a very sensitive area and I needed to be able to get where I had to go and gently.

I did wash my hands thoroughly and after rinsed with a bleach to protect my hands. I washed the area with chamomile tea and I tried this for a few weeks but to no avail. My next step was to call John, our local vet. He gave Mr. P an injection to calm him down so that he could treat this area. He informed me that he had an infection so we washed it down and had to treat him with

antibiotic cream.

I tried this for a few more weeks but nothing seemed to work, if anything it stayed the same. I got on the internet and many thanks to a lady by the name of Gigi Iacovelli. I found her website and voilà! We were on our way to fixing this problem. Mr. P did have a infection but a yeast infection. I was feeding his problem with the antibiotic cream that the vet had given me.
 

After keeping in touch with Gigi and doing some research of my own, I found that after following Gigi's steps I then went on to use yoghurt, yes yoghurt. It is used in chronic candida situations for us ladies so I applied it to Mr. P. It killed the yeast infection very quickly as it does not like the yoghurt. I brought a tub of yoghurt that had no preservatives and the sugar was totally natural (as any sugar will feed the problem). I put the yoghurt on the shaft of the penis and the end and as this is a dairy product I did wash it everyday as I had to keep him clean. I made a wash of Calendula flowers and I steeped them like tea, then I added one dessert spoon of pure apple cider vinegar as the vinegar restores the right pH in the penis. There has to be a mixture of good and bad bugs there for the skin to do its job.

Now for the first time in his time here his penis is dry. It was always sort of sticky and the flies drove him crazy. I got a good brand of natural fly spray for horses and if anyone wants the name of it I would be happy to email to you. It works wonderfully - I would spray it onto my hands and put it around the penis area and inside his legs, etcetera to keep him happy. So what I did was I changed a few things:

• I read Gigi's article, "A Yeasty Sheath",
• I put Mr. P on the Gotcha Feed Plan,
• I gave Mr. P some calendual and echinacea, steeped like tea and poured over his basic feed at night.

With the combination of all these things, my boy is back to having some quality of life now. He is happy and fat and when I first started to put the cream on (as recommended in Gigi's article) I used Canesten cream. Mr. P was standing in the paddock licking and chewing... Boy did I know then that I was on the right track.

I hope that this story helps anyone that is having the same trouble that I had. Mr. P is fine now - he is a happy chappy and I am so grateful for Gigi's website. She is a lovely person and will help anyone whom needs it so please contact her by email if needed or if I can help I will. I can control the yeast infection - I do not know if I have cured it but at least now Mr. P is comfortable.

Article written by Lyn Parkinson.