Is male odor a sign of maturity?

[Pat Shields]

I know generally how old Redemption is, maybe six months now. He smells sweet like a horse, and his urine has no odor and his feces smell like horse droppings. But Salvatore's age is a mystery. Now that he is much healthier (His dandruff has even nearly disappeared!) his urine and feces smell bad. Not a diseased kind of bad like it might be a sign of illness or infection, but more like the smell of a guy who doesn't wipe his butt or take a bath. Really, I said they smell bad, but it is more of a strong waste smell than a bad smell.

So I am wondering if this is just another sign that Sal might be much more mature than his size would indicate. Or maybe it is a breed thing? Red is a long-haired mix. But Sal is looking more and more like the Abyssinian mix as was suggested when I first got him 3 weeks ago; he now has two distinct rosettes on his bum and has one distinct one on his left back, and another area asymmetrically on the right that might be a rosette. He also has pointy face hair as I have seen in pix of Abyssinians.

At any rate, the odor is different and stronger. I can't smell too much because of olfactory nerve damage, but if I can smell Sal's waste, then it has to be strong.

 

[piggyfan]

Have you cleaned his grease gland?

 

[Wiebke]

I would regularly check his bits and grease gland, but Sal sounds like he is producing a fair bit of "eau de male", otherwise known as testosterone!

PS: My hub hasn't got too much left in terms of smell, but he always notices when one of my neutered boars has had a busy "ladies' day" - the scent must be fairly deeply wired into our brains.

 

[piglet_and_rogers_mama]

i have 3 boars, all close to a year, and they dont have a noticable odor. sometimes when george needs his grease gland cleaned, he smells a little bit like dirt (not to be mean, it just really smells like dirt when your planting a flower or something haha) but not offensively. maybe give him a bath and see if it comes back, you never no it could be worth a vet visit if it's an indication of some problem.

 

[Pat Shields]

OK, I'll have to go over to the care section and look up what to do with the grease gland and how to do it, thanks for telling me. Come to think of it, it just might be a poorly functioning gland or something, as he does not have a greasy spot on his little body and his skin and hair are so terribly dry. Now that things are clearing up with better nutrition, maybe the grease gland is starting to work right and is trying to get putrid stuff out that has built up. Just a guess. He is going to get another bath within a day or so, so I could do the cleaning then. I did check his boar bits and they looked normal and healthy with no hay or vegetation stuck on.

 

[TAN]

My Bumble is an abby - 4 months old and sometimes he lets off the most disgusting stink - usually when he knows females are near by - its testosterone>>> its sooo bad you can almost taste the lumps