Daggone it...urinary calculi

[Farmer Kitty]

Oh, man, the poor little guy. It just keeps going doesn't it.

With the blood, could he have an infection in the tract somewhere? Kidneys, bladder, etc. I know in people and cattle one can get blood with these type of infections so, I'm throwing it out there for you to consider.

You've been through so much with him. I'm hoping and praying he makes it!

 

[m.holloway]

prayers and hope is all I can send. Hope is gets better soon for ya.

 

[cmjust0]

Oh, man, the poor little guy. It just keeps going doesn't it.

Lucky for us, he seems to have a pretty hard bark on him.. Lots of goats would have laid down by now, but he keeps on truckin'.

With the blood, could he have an infection in the tract somewhere? Kidneys, bladder, etc. I know in people and cattle one can get blood with these type of infections so, I'm throwing it out there for you to consider.

When he first started all this Sunday before last, I hit him with about 2.5ml of Bio-Mycin, hoping that's all it was. At the vet the next day, we took off his pizzle and the vet later hit him with Penicillin.. I hit him with Bio-Mycin for three days after that.

He's had blood occasionally, and with that much "activity" in his bladder/urethra...not entirely surprising, I guess. There's a lot going on down there.

If he keeps bleeding, though, I may well do another round of Bio-Mycin just to be on the safe side.

You've been through so much with him. I'm hoping and praying he makes it!

prayers and hope is all I can send. Hope is gets better soon for ya

Thanks, everybody..

 

[Farmer Kitty]

If he keeps bleeding, though, I may well do another round of Bio-Mycin just to be on the safe side.

Yeah, he could have developed since with all that is going on. Especially with not being able to empty correctly.

 

[cmjust0]

If he keeps bleeding, though, I may well do another round of Bio-Mycin just to be on the safe side.

Yeah, he could have developed since with all that is going on. Especially with not being able to empty correctly.

Good point.. I'll probably hit him with Bio-Mycin this evening, just in case.

 

[cmjust0]

Wife just called...said he was back to dribbly with no defined stream. Looked to be in a fair amount of discomfort, also.. I managed to wrangle up .3cc of Acepromazine, which is waiting at the vet's office; she's running to grab that now. Ace did the trick once before, and is actually part of Texas A&M's recommended therapy along with anti-inflammatory meds and ammonium chloride drenches. She already drenched him with the contents of 5 advil gelcaps a little while ago, so that may help. Plus, he'll almost certainly get an ammonium chloride drench tonight, acidosis or not...which, I'm thinking it's not because he never scoured nor bloated.

Who knows...maybe this is the last big chunk, right? Maybe he'll be home free after he gets past this little hump, right? :/

Doubt it, but...it could happen.

We're just trying to keep up hope for now. Wife didn't seem too keen on her first ever shot being an IM of Ace at such a crucial juncture, but she does what needs doing when it comes to the animals.



ps...getting a little tired of having to end every post on this subject with a :/

 

[Farmer Kitty]

 

[cmjust0]

Back to the vet this morning.. There's good news, and there's bad news.

The good news is that according to the ultrasound, the little guy's bladder is intact and totally clear of urinary calculi. The Ammonium Chloride/Acid Pack drenches apparently worked well.

The bad news is his penis is badly, badly inflamed. That's why the urine isn't flowing like it should. We did see him appear to empty his bladder at the vet's office (after Ace and a moderately successful attempt to catheterize with .05% lidocaine solution), so that's good.

They had been planning to do surgery and put in a foley catheter up until that point.. Since he did urinate and relieved some pressure, though, they decided to try a drug -- can't think of the name, but I'll ask again and lock it in my brain -- that's supposed to relax the muscles of the GI tract.. That, plus something stout for inflammation, plus something for pain, plus penicillin in case we're looking at an infection.. Hopefully, all that will be enough to cause him to stop straining, and if he stops straining, we're hopeful that the swelling will go down and that all will end up well.

All I know is that, after he urinated, he seemed really bright and went straight over to a little pile of leftover hay in the vet's stall and commenced to chowing down like there wasn't a thing in the world wrong with him..

We're still hopeful that he'll make it out alright.......who knows. The vet didn't even seem to have a good idea as to how it all would turn out, and I trust this vet implicitly.. I guess it could go either way, but again...hopeful.

Here's what really sucks, though...had I known that his bladder was clear, I would have stopped the AC/Acid Pack drenches. After seeing the ultrasound, I suspect it's probably been clear for days now and that I've been treating the wrong thing....inflammation of the penis looks exactly like the original urinary calculi symptoms and it faded right in as the calculi disappeared, so there was no reason for me to suspect anything had changed before seeing the ultrasound.. Even the vet was puzzled for a second..

Oh well.. I guess even if my several hundred dollar investment doesn't save this little guy, I feel like it will at least serve to educate and perhaps yield a better course of action for UC for me and all the folks I know raising goats in this area.. Next time I'll know to ask for plenty of Ace, a longer course of anti-inflammatories, whatever the GI relaxer is, and an appointment for another ultrasound no later than 3 days after the first visit to evaluate whether to keep drenching with ammonium chloride/acid pack..

Still...I just hope our poor little guinea pig of a goat makes it.

So, there we are.. Nothing more to say, so it much be time for the perfunctory

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Poor little guy. From one thing to the next. Hope he gets better!

 

[TxMom]

I really hope he gets better...and I'm glad you've posted all the updates, we've all learned a lot from your little guinea pig