A Swede in France
Chillin' with the herd
Hi everyone! My 10 month Ouessant wether Boris has urinary calculi. So far, he's not blocked, but he has painful episodes of a few hours when he's passing stones. My question is - does anyone have any idea for how long these episodes will occur? Not how long one episode lasts, but how many days it takes for a case like this to clear. I realise it's probably highly individual, but even a ballpark figure would be such good help (mostly for my mental health). I'll put all the info below for those who are interested, and for anyone it might help in the future.
Boris had been a bit off for 5 days before. Snotty nose, and behaving a bit strangely - standing with his head down, seeming skittish, and spending much more time in the shelter than usualIy - but he did all of that together with the other two, never isolating, and the ewes also looked weird, so we thought something was up with all of them. Only Boris was snotty. He was eating and cudding and drinking as normal, and still running around, so we were waiting to see if he'd fight off the snotty nose by himself. The UC started in the evening of Sunday Feb 16 when we found Boris on his side, panting, and grinding his teeth. We called the emergency vet (thank god we have such a thing here in rural France!) who said it's urinary calculi, bring him in. We did, and she checked him over. The ultrasound showed a distended / full bladder, but shortly after that he weed and emptied fully. There were no visible additional stones, although the vet said the machine cannot detect crystals smaller than 5 mm. She administered metamizole (a painkiller with antiinflammatory and antispasmodic properties that relaxe the urethra and make it easier for stones to pass), and broad spectrum antibiotic because he did have an infection (snotty nose and fever, 40 degrees c), and to protect from getting a UTI. She sent us home with more of the same. Boris was definitely feeling better after doing a wee, eating the straw in the van, grazing when we got home, etc. Phew.
Monday, Boris was fine in the morning (eating, drinking, moving around, looking normal) but had another episode lasting maybe 5 hours in the middle of the day. We'd seen him wee twice that morning so were not worried about his bladder exploding. He was clearly in a lot of pain though, so we gave him metamizole and kept an eye on him. We got an additional painkiller / anti-inflammatory from the vet to use if needed (banamine / flunixin). We also tried desperately to find a place to buy ammomium chloride (AC), but had to order online with express delivery for next day. Eventually, Boris recovered, weed, and was quickly back to his normal self by evening.
Tuesday he was doing great - zooming like a maniac, eating voraciously, and being generally cheeky. So good to see! We got some AC into him via wetting some lamb creep / pellets and powdering them with the stuff. We used 1.5 grammes to his 15 kg. He ate maybe 2/3rds. It was time for his second shot of antibiotic, so we gave him that at around 7 pm. At 8, I went out to check and he was grinding his teeth in pain, and not interested in treats or saying hello. So disheartening. We came him metamizole, checked on him a few times, and eventually went to bed. He was looking less uncomfortable than the days before, but he was grinding his teeth more, so my read is that a stone was passing but the bladder was not distended yet so his body language was more normal.
Today is Wednesday, and he looks ok. A bit less perky than yesterday but I think he probably had a bad night and didn't get a lot of rest. He's eating, moving, begging for treats, snuffling me to say hi, hanging with the girls, etc. All good. We tried to feed him more AC pellets but he's on to us and won't have it, so we'll drench instead. We're planning to do 1.5 grammes in 10 cl of water with a splash of cordial to make it more appetizing, twice a day. This adds up to 0.2 grammes per kilo of bodyweight, which is in the lower range of the recommendations I have seen.
So - when he's not having an episode he seems to feel great. When he has one, he's never been blocked but it's clearly super painful. There were no more visible stones in his system on Sunday night. The feed that caused this whole horrible series of events has been removed (more on that below).
Any idea how long it might be until he stops passing stones? I feel like I need something to hang my hope on. It's been crazy scary. I was sure we'd lose him, and I know it's my fault that he's sick. Most of the stories I read online are pretty horrific and end in death. I hope this one will be different, and will post updates in case it helps someone else in the future.
He got UC because I made two stupid mistakes. First of all, they have grazing but it's poor because it's winter. They also have free access to hay, and a mineral lick. Mistake one - since we got them, we've been giving them lamb creep as a treat, just a few handfuls to tame them and because it's fun for us. That feed was safe for wethers and had AC in it. Three weeks ago, we ran out and couldn't get more, so I got what I could find that best matched the contents of the previous one, but it was not lamb creep but a general supplemental feed for sheep and goats, kind of marketed to pets. It was way fluffier than the pellets, so less compact. At the same time, we got snow, so I started to give a bit more supplemental feed. I think having chickens ruined my head because having a grazer that I did not need to feed just felt so weird and neglectful. Then, Boris got sniffly and because he was maybe sick, I gave him even more - mostly because eating feels like a sign of health so I was using it to reassure myself that it was just a sniffly nose nothing more serious. After three weeks of that steradily growing ration of excessively phosphourous food (beets, barley, corn - I shudder to think of it now!) - BAM, urinary calculi. Rookie mistakes that he is paying for. Never again will I do such a thing.
I'll update below as things develop - because I so appreciate when others do that and I can read what and how people and their animals manage.
Pictures of Boris and I studying to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, and of Boris and Millipede during those snowy days two weeks ago
Boris had been a bit off for 5 days before. Snotty nose, and behaving a bit strangely - standing with his head down, seeming skittish, and spending much more time in the shelter than usualIy - but he did all of that together with the other two, never isolating, and the ewes also looked weird, so we thought something was up with all of them. Only Boris was snotty. He was eating and cudding and drinking as normal, and still running around, so we were waiting to see if he'd fight off the snotty nose by himself. The UC started in the evening of Sunday Feb 16 when we found Boris on his side, panting, and grinding his teeth. We called the emergency vet (thank god we have such a thing here in rural France!) who said it's urinary calculi, bring him in. We did, and she checked him over. The ultrasound showed a distended / full bladder, but shortly after that he weed and emptied fully. There were no visible additional stones, although the vet said the machine cannot detect crystals smaller than 5 mm. She administered metamizole (a painkiller with antiinflammatory and antispasmodic properties that relaxe the urethra and make it easier for stones to pass), and broad spectrum antibiotic because he did have an infection (snotty nose and fever, 40 degrees c), and to protect from getting a UTI. She sent us home with more of the same. Boris was definitely feeling better after doing a wee, eating the straw in the van, grazing when we got home, etc. Phew.
Monday, Boris was fine in the morning (eating, drinking, moving around, looking normal) but had another episode lasting maybe 5 hours in the middle of the day. We'd seen him wee twice that morning so were not worried about his bladder exploding. He was clearly in a lot of pain though, so we gave him metamizole and kept an eye on him. We got an additional painkiller / anti-inflammatory from the vet to use if needed (banamine / flunixin). We also tried desperately to find a place to buy ammomium chloride (AC), but had to order online with express delivery for next day. Eventually, Boris recovered, weed, and was quickly back to his normal self by evening.
Tuesday he was doing great - zooming like a maniac, eating voraciously, and being generally cheeky. So good to see! We got some AC into him via wetting some lamb creep / pellets and powdering them with the stuff. We used 1.5 grammes to his 15 kg. He ate maybe 2/3rds. It was time for his second shot of antibiotic, so we gave him that at around 7 pm. At 8, I went out to check and he was grinding his teeth in pain, and not interested in treats or saying hello. So disheartening. We came him metamizole, checked on him a few times, and eventually went to bed. He was looking less uncomfortable than the days before, but he was grinding his teeth more, so my read is that a stone was passing but the bladder was not distended yet so his body language was more normal.
Today is Wednesday, and he looks ok. A bit less perky than yesterday but I think he probably had a bad night and didn't get a lot of rest. He's eating, moving, begging for treats, snuffling me to say hi, hanging with the girls, etc. All good. We tried to feed him more AC pellets but he's on to us and won't have it, so we'll drench instead. We're planning to do 1.5 grammes in 10 cl of water with a splash of cordial to make it more appetizing, twice a day. This adds up to 0.2 grammes per kilo of bodyweight, which is in the lower range of the recommendations I have seen.
So - when he's not having an episode he seems to feel great. When he has one, he's never been blocked but it's clearly super painful. There were no more visible stones in his system on Sunday night. The feed that caused this whole horrible series of events has been removed (more on that below).
Any idea how long it might be until he stops passing stones? I feel like I need something to hang my hope on. It's been crazy scary. I was sure we'd lose him, and I know it's my fault that he's sick. Most of the stories I read online are pretty horrific and end in death. I hope this one will be different, and will post updates in case it helps someone else in the future.
He got UC because I made two stupid mistakes. First of all, they have grazing but it's poor because it's winter. They also have free access to hay, and a mineral lick. Mistake one - since we got them, we've been giving them lamb creep as a treat, just a few handfuls to tame them and because it's fun for us. That feed was safe for wethers and had AC in it. Three weeks ago, we ran out and couldn't get more, so I got what I could find that best matched the contents of the previous one, but it was not lamb creep but a general supplemental feed for sheep and goats, kind of marketed to pets. It was way fluffier than the pellets, so less compact. At the same time, we got snow, so I started to give a bit more supplemental feed. I think having chickens ruined my head because having a grazer that I did not need to feed just felt so weird and neglectful. Then, Boris got sniffly and because he was maybe sick, I gave him even more - mostly because eating feels like a sign of health so I was using it to reassure myself that it was just a sniffly nose nothing more serious. After three weeks of that steradily growing ration of excessively phosphourous food (beets, barley, corn - I shudder to think of it now!) - BAM, urinary calculi. Rookie mistakes that he is paying for. Never again will I do such a thing.
I'll update below as things develop - because I so appreciate when others do that and I can read what and how people and their animals manage.
Pictures of Boris and I studying to make sure nothing like this ever happens again, and of Boris and Millipede during those snowy days two weeks ago
. Hoping he's passed most by now. It's difficult to watch our pets in pain. 
