Daggone it...urinary calculi

[cmjust0]

Yeah, I think he's still got some quality of life at this point. He still trots over for hay and starts eating before you can even get it out of your hands. Given what little it seems to take to put a goat off its feed, I take that to mean he feels pretty ok. Still likes to sniff your face while you scratch his chin, too..

Still, he's fooled us before... I mean, he got to where he could almost keep a stream going and then BAM...he was humped up again, hurting, barely dribbling, all seemingly out of nowhere. Did that a couple of times, actually..

It's basically just a waiting game.. He does seem more zen with dribbling now, though, like it doesn't bug him as much as it once did. Who knows...dribbling pee may wind up being his version of normal. So long as he's ok with it, who am I to judge?

I'd still like to see a little stone fall out and have him bust loose a big ol' stream, though. Could happen, right?

Prolly not, but...it could.

 

[ksalvagno]

Anything can happen. I never rule anything out. It is great that the little guy keeps on going!

 

[cmjust0]

I think we should have named him Timex.

 

[vaden boers]

if you check my web page www.freewebs.com/vadenboers , or conni ross's web page ( a boer breeder ) there is a recipe for a drench that will help disolve those stones and do exactly what the vets is doing , i trust connie ross and her years of expiernce in goats , she has saved more than one of my goats with her advice , know this doesnt help now , but maybe someon in the future , i have been told white viniger is better for this than apple cider i have used the white viniger beofre and just added it to my bucks water and used it with water as a drench and it worked , but i caught it early , sorry about your goat .

 

[cmjust0]

We were successful at getting the calculi to dissolve...what we didn't do well enough was treat the inflammation, which should have been done with dexamethasone. We treated with Ketofen (a muscle relaxer/NSAID/analgesic like Banamine) but it wasn't enough to keep him from swelling up and making the problem much worse..

If I had it to do over again, I'd have had him on dex and AC drenches for about a week.. I think we'd have been over it by now if we'd have done that.

Live and learn..

Little guy was attacking the crap out of the hay last night, and I stood for probably 10 minutes and never saw him even try to urinate. I palpated around on him and didn't feel a full bladder. I'm about 99% confident that he didn't pop it, so either I couldn't find it because I'm an idiot (entirely possible) or it wasn't super full....like he'd been able to empty it.

If he's eating, he's OK...that's my working theory at this point. He's on zero meds right now, except for continuing AC drenches. Nothing for pain or inflammation, though. He's had too much already...maybe he'll have to go back on dex after a while, but we'll see.

 

[cmjust0]

Little guy's still living, btw... No changes, still dribbly. You would think he'd be all depressed and ready for someone to put him out of his misery, but no...he still attacks his hay with a vengeance and likes to be scratched under the chin.. The dribblies actually seem to be a fairly minor annoyance at this point, and he seems to kinda be living around it.

Noticed last night that his voice is changing.. He's going from the little kid 'baaa' to a really weird grunty 'baaa,' sometimes in mid-'baaaa.'

So long as he doesn't go downhill from here, I'll keep watching and waiting and feeding and scratching his head. What else ya gonna do, right?

 

[lilhill]

Nothing else. Just keep lovin' on him.

 

[trestlecreek]

Sounds like he's hanging on real well for you!
How does the vet feel about him dribbling? Have they considered doing some further x-rays and tests?

 

[cmjust0]

The vet would pretty much do anything I asked. We considered an x-ray, but the doc didn't know how well it would show even a single big stone through the soft tissue of the penis. May not be much diagnostic value. At this point, though, I sincerely doubt we're still looking at urinary calculi per se.. Chances are, we're looking at permanent damage to the urethra... Scar tissue, that sort of thing.

As for the vet's take on the dribbles, he seems to basically consider that to be urination...period. A couple of times he'd ask "Is he urinating?" and I'd say "Well, he's dribbling." He'd say, "Well, that's good..." and move on.. He realizes -- as I've come to realize -- that he's not gonna die so long as he can dribble. Might take him 5 minutes to dribble himself out, of course, whereas it takes the other buck 10 seconds, but hey...whatever works for him I guess.

Put it this way... If I went to the doctor and all I could do was dribble, and the doctor said "Yeah, that probably hurts. Let's just go ahead and euthanize you..."

Um...no, I'm OK, really. I'll just dribble. It's fine, really, I'm OK. Forget I was ever here...........

 

[trestlecreek]

Yep, I see what you are saying.

There are other surgical ways to go about helping him without euthanization though.

They can also run tests to determine the type of stone so that they can accurately prescribe the right medications......

Just some thoughts,...

If he can dribble through life and be fine, than that is good, but dribbling to me says infection is on the way!!! I hope I'm not right, but that is what dribbling tends to lead to....