Hunched back (occasionally) and urine not coming out forcefully. Urinary calculi?

[Moody]

I don't know how the urine would normally come out...it's not very fast though. Maybe not quite dribbling....and he hunches his back and his member usually comes out. This is not every time.

I think technically he should still be in rut but he is not. My girls are bred, I believe. He is alpine and around 9 months old now. He is an intact buck. He gets about 5 oz of dairy goat feed (i believe it has ammonium chloride in it, I will check) twice a day. Sometimes I sprinkle ammonium chloride on his food. 1/4 -1/2 tsp approx. he has free choice Sudan hay, and free choice coastal. Free choice loose minerals but the minerals keep getting moist somehow. I put out a fresh handful every day. I want to take him off grain completely but he is housed with the girls now and I wonder about just Sudan and coastal meeting all his needs. He has no forage right now.

 

[Moody]

I feed big v dairy goat pellet. It has what could be a 2:1 calcium to phosphorus ratio.

Calcium min is .80%
Calcium max is 1.3%

Phosphorus is min .60%

I freshen the water every day.

 

[Moody]

Also I see everywhere to feed a good quality hay. Maybe I feed crappy hay. It comes with no sign indicating its quality. It doesn't smell bad. The Sudan does have some mesquite sticks in it.

Also their Sudan is in round bale form. Never had hay in round bales before. Didn't know what to do with it so it was put outside on the ground. I never took the netting off, they did when they started playing king of the mountain on it. It is gone now.

The cow has a round bale and the netting is still on it in most places. The ends are being eaten.

 

[alsea1]

How is your goat doing?

 

[Sweetened]

This sounds a lot like urine marking, where they spray the back of their legs? My buck is still in rut even though the girls are due in February and he Urine marks a few times a day. I have noticed the boys will stand and dribble where the girls will pee to get it done.

I dont think hay is the issue. There are people whi strictly feed horse hay, others timothy, some alfalfa. Our bales didnt get hauled until late so they are dusty and our girls are fine. Theres a farm a few miles from me with 3-500 head of goats and they feed horse hay thats never covered.

Keep an eye on him. If youre too concerned or he starts not getting up, contact your vet to see if there is indeed something wrong.

 

[Moody]

I wondered if maybe he ate some of the netting since I never took it off. He is the one who eats anything I take to him. Apples, cabbage, lettuce. The other goats turn up their noses at those things. So I thought it was possible he ate some of the netting off the bale of hay and maybe had it balled up in his stomach. He is eating normally though. I guess he didn't eat it since I presume that would kill him days to a couple of weeks after eating it.

When he was in rut he was spraying his face and stinky. He has not done those things since late October. I have been adding ammonium chloride to his grain. He is still here being his nosy little self. Playing and running. So I guess if he has calculi it has not completely blocked anything. I will just continue to watch him.

 

[alsea1]

Sounds like he is doing okay.
If he had a blockage he was lucky enough to pass it.
Feeding bucks can be tricky. They do best on brush and plain ol hay. Not many of us have that luxury though.
I used to feed my goats as a group. I no longer do that now. Its a pain but I feed them in their stalls. That way I can control what feed each goat gets.
The girls get one thing and the buck gets something else that is geared for urinary health.