Hello, as you can see this is my first post here, I am new to this forum and to goats but not to animals. I have raised exotic animals all of my life, mostly I have kept wild cats like servals, caracals, leopard cats, although there were lots of other types of animals along the way. Right now because of health reasons I live in California (my animals were all in Florida in what seemed like a lifetime ago) and I only have a female serval back home as a pet.
Here is my problem, I live on a 2+ acre piece of property in the foothills near Lake Tahoe and I have an pen on a slope that is about an acre. I was looking for some brush and weed control for the hillside and an acquaintance put a pair of wild type (like I have seen feral populations in Hawaii or other islands but not a truly wild goat) goats in the pen to control the brush. The female gave birth to twins on Jan 12th and 4 days later began bleeding and before I could even get off the phone with a local vet died. Since them I have raised the twins myself and recently the male began having problems urinating. I was told this is because I fed them grains, I have a lot of faith in the person who I get advice from but we never discussed diet once they were off milk. His sister is doing fine, and I have switched to grass hay for now but he is having lots of trouble urinating and can only go in small dribbles to about 1/4 the amount the female goes. I give him lots of water and he is eating and drinking, but he is very uncomfortable and seems like he is depressed, he just tends to cry if I am around and just wants to be rubbed or sit on my lap, which is no longer easy as these are full sized goats with good sized horns even at this age!
Any advice on what I can do to get him to pee, these are not my goats and I am not working because of my illness so I don't want to spend a lot of money (I already paid for vets and vaccinations along with all of the milk, grain, and grass hay so far) but his comfort and health are important so I have to do something. Is there a treatment I can give him, something like vinegar in the water to lower the pH? I put a lot of salt out for him to lick so he is thirsty and it works, he drinks a lot of water, and I offer him warm water with a little bit of molasses in it every hour. He does produce urine and he tries to go frequently but more often then not it is just drips and dribbles rather then a steady stream.
What should I do at this point?
Here is my problem, I live on a 2+ acre piece of property in the foothills near Lake Tahoe and I have an pen on a slope that is about an acre. I was looking for some brush and weed control for the hillside and an acquaintance put a pair of wild type (like I have seen feral populations in Hawaii or other islands but not a truly wild goat) goats in the pen to control the brush. The female gave birth to twins on Jan 12th and 4 days later began bleeding and before I could even get off the phone with a local vet died. Since them I have raised the twins myself and recently the male began having problems urinating. I was told this is because I fed them grains, I have a lot of faith in the person who I get advice from but we never discussed diet once they were off milk. His sister is doing fine, and I have switched to grass hay for now but he is having lots of trouble urinating and can only go in small dribbles to about 1/4 the amount the female goes. I give him lots of water and he is eating and drinking, but he is very uncomfortable and seems like he is depressed, he just tends to cry if I am around and just wants to be rubbed or sit on my lap, which is no longer easy as these are full sized goats with good sized horns even at this age!
Any advice on what I can do to get him to pee, these are not my goats and I am not working because of my illness so I don't want to spend a lot of money (I already paid for vets and vaccinations along with all of the milk, grain, and grass hay so far) but his comfort and health are important so I have to do something. Is there a treatment I can give him, something like vinegar in the water to lower the pH? I put a lot of salt out for him to lick so he is thirsty and it works, he drinks a lot of water, and I offer him warm water with a little bit of molasses in it every hour. He does produce urine and he tries to go frequently but more often then not it is just drips and dribbles rather then a steady stream.
What should I do at this point?
