"Baby"; I can't pee!!!!

"Baby" still a little sleepy from anesthesia

“Baby” came to see me on Monday. He is an 8 year old, castrated, male goat, that was shivering, reluctant to stand up and would not eat. His owner is also a veterinarian, but works mostly on small animals and did not feel comfortable diagnosing and treating her own pet. When “Baby” arrived at the clinic, he was standing, had a temperature of 101F and was shivering. His stomach was working well and his heart and lungs sounded normal. During his physical exam, I heard him grinding his teeth, which is a common sign of pain in animals, as is shivering.  After discussion with the owner, and further assessment of “Baby,” we determined he was “blocked.” This means he has urinary stones or “calculi”, which have blocked the urethra, and prevented him from urinating.  

Urolithiasis (urine stones) is a severe, painful emergency situation. If the calculi are not cleared from the urethra, the urine backs up, can cause damage to the urethra, and if there is enough urine in the bladder, can even cause the bladder to rupture.  The penis of a male goat (buck) is similar to a male sheep (ram), but is very different from cows, horses, pigs, dogs and cats. Over to the side, is a picture of a male goat penis. The urethral process (#2 in the picture) is very small and is often the site of obstruction in blocked goats.  The presence of testosterone in intact, male goats allows for adequate development of the urethra from the bladder to the end of the urethral process. When male goats are castrated at a very young age, the urethra is not as developed therefore predisposing a wether (castrated male) to blockage.  Many times we recommend our goat clients to feed a urine acidifier along with the hay and grain. Ammonium chloride is the most common urine acidifier used, and it drops the pH of the urine to slow/prevent the formation of stones.

So after I diagnosed “Baby” with a urinary tract blockage it was time to have a discussion with the owner as to our next step. The most common first step to correcting the issue is to cut off the urethral process of the penis.  Many times, this is enough to provide immediate relief. We do not have an X-ray machine at the clinic, so I was not able to take a radiograph of the goat to see if there were more stones in the bladder.  We decided we would start with removal of the urethral process and if this did not solve the issue, then we would need to open up the abdomen, and the bladder, to try to flush out the stones with a catheter.

“Baby” was sedated with an injectable anesthetic. Because this is a very painful situation, the injectable sedation was not sufficient.  We also have a gas anesthesia machine at the clinic, so we completely anesthetized him with gas to perform the procedure.  After a little bit of effort, we were able to exteriorize the penis and cut off the urethral process. Immediately we were getting a steady stream of urine. Based on the apparent relief, we woke “Baby” up and did not proceed with the much more invasive procedure.  As soon as he was awake enough, he started chewing his cud; a much better sign than grinding his teeth!!!

The picture is of the urethral process that I cut off. You can see on the right hand side of the picture, a reddened portion of the urethral process. This is most likely where the blockage was.  “Baby” was sent home with a prescription of urine acidifier, pain medication and antibiotics. Hopefully he has no further issues and neither do the other 4 wethers on the farm!!!!