Urinary Calculi Surgery

[DownUnder Gal]

William, my 5 year old boer/cashmere cross wether, had emergency surgery yesterday to remove a stone from his urethra.  He was completely blocked so couldn't pee.  He was put under general anaesthetic and intubated, x-rayed, ultra-sounded and had his bladder drained.  His bloods were normal.  His urethral process was removed and although a bit sooky he is now peeing ok, but still in a bit of discomfort as you can imagine.  Not eating yet; we think he has a sore throat from the tube. The stone has been sent off for mineral analysis and his urine will be analysed too. The vet is cautiously optimistic of a good outcome given we caught it early.  William was peeing ok on Tuesday morning, but when I got home from work on Tuesday evening I knew he wasn't right.  I suspect the condition may recur so I need to manage him closely in the future. 

I find UC very frustrating because not all risk factors can be managed out of the equation.  For example, I delayed having William castrated until 4 months, and he had very little grain in his diet and only up until 6 months.  Grass hay, fresh pasture, fresh browse (branches) and the odd vegetable cuttings (always checked for calcium:phosphorus ratio before giving), mineral block, baking soda and occasional seaweed meal has made up his diet for the last 4 1/2 years.  Lots of fresh water.  I manage all my other wethers the same.  No ammonium chloride is given with food as a preventative because they won't eat their hay even if I spray a very dilute solution on it (no wonder, it tastes awful).  I might have to drench William regularly with AC going forward, depending on what mineral the stone is made up of.  He does have an undershot jaw though, so I suspect that in summer when trying to graze he would inadvertently ingest some silica when the ground has dried out.  There's not a lot I can do about that.

I had the best sleep last night after being up for 42 hours straight. Anyway, will keep you guys posted on William's progress.  I'm glad we built a new sick bay a couple of months back for Atticus; it's coming in handy!

[Nanno]

I'm so sorry you and William had to go through this. I hope he does ok for you from here on out. It's certainly worrying though. UC is such a frustrating, scary problem because it can happen even when you do everything "right."

One thing to perhaps reconsider in your feeding program is baking soda. I used to feed it myself until I read that baking soda is not good for wethers because it increases the risk of UC. You want them to have more acidic urine and I believe baking soda makes it less acidic and counteracts any ammonium chloride you might feed. I've also read that free choice baking soda is really not necessary for goats of either sex and can interfere with the consumption and absorption of essential minerals. From a history standpoint, I read that baking soda was originally introduced as a supplement for dairy cows because they were being fed such a high grain ration that it was messing up their rumens. Baking soda was fed as a rumen buffer to help them cope with a difficult diet. Something to think about.

I hope William has no more trouble with stones!

[DownUnder Gal]

Thanks Nanno.  I had also read that baking soda causes urine to be more alkaline (which did concern me), but I didn't know about it interfering with the absorption of minerals.  Mineral balance is so complicated isn't it?  They seem to interact in such a complex manner and too much of one throws out the level of another.  I feel like I need to be a biochemist to understand it all.  I started feeding baking soda free choice years ago to enable them to regulate the pH of their rumens, given their "unnatural" feeding environment (not out on 100s of miles of range eating anything they wish).  Since it's been available to them I find they bloat a lot less and they nibble it only occasionally.  Still, it could be a factor in William's stones.  It might also be the seaweed meal - William and Penelope, his mother, both hit that really hard when I put it out.  They almost scoff the lot.  Interestingly they are both white goats and I understand that white goats are very susceptible to certain minerals compared with black or coloured goats.  I'll consult with the vet on those two aspects of the diet once the stone has been analysed.

[DownUnder Gal]

It's taking a while for William to get back to his old self.  Although he was eating his appetite was poor and his gut motility seemed to completely shut down for a week, which had me very worried.  He ended up having a rumen transfaunation on Sunday morning; the theory was that all of his gut bacteria had died and as probiotics hadn't helped, we needed to try something else.  William's dam Penelope was the donor; after Penelope having fasted they were both sedated at the vet clinic (still awake enough to wander around with their heads in their clouds) and the vet stomach tubed Penelope, pumped some water in and then sucked out the liquid from her rumen.  This was then pumped into William via stomach tube.  It's smelled very ripe!  We didn't quite get enough "juice" from Penelope so we weren't sure whether it would work.  In any event William started eating with gusto on Tuesday and rumination started on Wednesday morning.  That may have happened anyway; who knows?  He's almost back to his old self, starting to beat up his sister.  I take him down to the blackberry patch by the dam three times a day which he loves.  Most importantly he is peeing with ease.  We still haven't got the stone analysis back (I think it was sent to the US) so I will be very interested to see what type of stone it is and the extent to which we can limit a recurrence via dietary measures.  I'll need to change all the wethers' diets.  The vet agreed that the baking soda and seaweed meal should be eliminated, so Nanno, you were spot on with your advice there

[Nanno]

I'm so glad to hear that William is feeling better! I hope he continues to improve.

[DownUnder Gal]

I hope I'm not tempting fate by posting this update but William is doing really well.  I know he is feeling good because he frisks me for snacks every time I come into the paddock, which is something he used to do before he got sick.  He took a good three weeks to get over the surgery and only in the last few days have I integrated him back into the herd, and even then only during the day.  He had a few re-introductory visits with the other goats every couple of days in week two but golly, they can be cruel.  Always ganging up on him and brutally butting him just where it hurts.  Even if he visited with just one goat he got the rough end of the pineapple.  I had to physically intervene a number of times and take him away quickly.  After each encounter he started to drip blood from his sheath but I was warned that that was expected (and OK) by the vet.  It was still distressing.  He was obviously not ready to go back in the main paddock at that point but I needed to check from time to time how strong he was with the others and that seemed the only way to do it.  He was becoming a little depressed, having lost his position in the herd.  However, now William has re-established himself as 2IC (I am the boss ) and grazing away happily with the others in a new paddock of lush grass and lots of saplings.  I am so glad he has his dam and sister doing shifts in the sick bay paddock at night to keep him company; family bonds mean they treat him respectfully and don't shove him about.  I try to ensure anyone who is ill is not on his own (where possible and depending what the issue is).  William has lost 12kg which is what the vets wanted, given he was somewhat overweight at the time of surgery.  He can get around much easier now but I don't want him to lose any more.

I am mixing 1kg of salt with water per day and soaking everyone's hay with it on vets' orders, to encourage more water consumption.  I'm also putting coarse plain salt out free choice in addition to salt blocks.  After initially ignoring it most of the goats seem to be nibbling at it every day.  I just have to keep an eye on the weather and retrieve the pans if it starts to rain.  I've also removed all the sheep sorrel by hand from the paddock they're in which took about 5 hours - apparently it can exacerbate the type of stones William has.  He's had his urine tested and all looks good, for now.  It will be re-tested every few months.

[Dave-Trinity-Farms]

The best way I found to give AC is to take a cup or two of grain, moisten it and sprinkle the AC over it. 1 1/2 tables spoons. This amount of grain given once ever 2-4 weeks (depending upon how much they are eating their loose mineral mix with AC in it, is nominal.

[IdahoNancy]

DownUnder Gal I'm curious about stopping the seaweed meal. Do you recall why the vet thought you should stop that when you stopped the baking soda. I use kelp meal with my minerals.

[DownUnder Gal]

Hi Idaho Nancy, I used to put out about 1.5kg of seaweed meal a day and William always ate the majority of it in one go. Given he is the only goat that has had this issue, there was a theory that the seaweed meal may somehow have contributed to his stones (although we have no evidence to support this theory). So the vet thought best to stop giving it for the time being, at least.