Prepuce

PREPUCE
(Bull, Ram, Buck, Stallion, Boar, Dog, Rabbit, Cock)

Bull

  • The prepuce or sheath is a tubular sheath covering the cranial free portion of the penis in non-erect state
  • The preputial cavity is 35 to 40 cm long and narrow and consists of external and internal layers
  • The external layer extends from the scrotum to about the umbilicus
  • This layer is continuous with the skin at the orifice and is loosely attached to the adjacent structures by a large amount of connective tissue
  • The internal or penile layer extends to the tip of the glans. This layer is loosely attached to the body of the penis and closely attached to the glans
  • The free surface has number of longitudinal folds. Both layers are hairless modified skin. Cavity of the prepuce is rather small but capable of considerable dilatation
  • The glans is in the caudal half of the cavity. The preputial orifice is the opening of the prepuce
  • It is about 5 cm behind the umbilicus and is about 2.5 cm in diameter but capable of dilatation, faces downward and a little forward and are hidden by number of long hairs.

Species Differences

Ram and Buck

  • The prepuce is relatively short

Stallion

  • It is shorter but wider. The orifice has no hairs around it
  • The prepuce is a double invagination of the skin, which contains and covers the free or prescrotal part of the penis, which consists of two layers - external and internal
  • The external layer of sheath extends from the scrotum towards the umbilicus where the external layer is reflected dorsally and backwards forming the margin of the preputial orifice
  • Dorsally it is continuous with the integument of the abdominal wall. It is marked by a median raphi preputii
  • The internal layer passes backward from the preputial orifice a distance of about 15 to 20 cm and is then reflected forward until it approaches the orifice, when it again reflected backward. It thus forms within the cavity of the sheath a secondary tubular invagination, the prepuce proper
  • Its orifice is surrounded by a thick margin, the preputial ring

Boar

  • The preputial cavity is very long and partially divided by a circular fold into a caudal narrow part and a much wider cranial part
  • In the dorsal wall of the wide part, there is a circular opening, which leads to a cul-de-sac, the preputial diverticulum

Dog

  • As in bull

Rabbit

  • The prepuce is well developed

Cock

  • Absent
Last modified: Friday, 20 April 2012, 10:49 AM