[Jacob-list] burst bladder?

[Paintedrockfarm at aol.com]

Hi Linda,
 
It has been my experience that urinary calculosis (also known as water  
belly) does occur in sheep, including Jacobs, more commonly in goats.   It is most 
often seen in young, castrated males but is  usually associated with dietary 
issues -- primarily in the calcium to  phosphorus ratio being out of whack, so 
to speak.  I'm sure there are other  contributing factors, as I have read, but 
the majority seem to be diet  related.  This condition is commonly seen in 
feedlot sheep operations fed  high grain concentrations of pelleted feed, little 
hay, etc.  In winter,  lack of access to fresh drinking water can further 
complicate the  situation.  In order to prevent urinary calculi (stones) from the 
 developing, calcium should meet or exceed a 2.5:1 ratios to phosphorus.  
 
We experienced a urinary calculosis problem in our first Jacob ram --  intact 
male, not castrated, who could not pee.  Straining was evident, lack  of 
appetite and staying away from the rest of the flock all were key indicators  
something was wrong.  A "Merck" consultation and phone call to the vet  confirmed 
my suspicions.  Catheterizing a sheep is a difficult task as the  male urethra 
is very long, exceeding the length of standard size  catheters.  The bladder 
is located deep within the pelvic cavity and cannot  be easily palpated unless 
extremely full, which in this case it was.  
 
We were able to dislodge the stone with a catheter, medicate the ram with  
lasix and antibiotics for a few days and things were fine.  I think he  urinated 
for more than a half hour! We traced the "culprit" back to the  grain ration 
by having hay, water and grain sent off for analysis.  In our  case, the 
phosphorus was almost the same level as the calcium, which was  determined to be 
the primary cause of stone development.  Combine that with  persistently frozen 
water buckets (we now maintain heated buckets in all our  winter paddocks) and 
we had prime calculi development conditions.  We were  fortunate enough to 
save the ram before surgical intervention was  required.
 
We did utilize ammonium chloride temporarily to acidify the urine until we  
could pinpoint the cause of the problem.  We worked with our feed mill, who  
employed the help of Buckeye Feeds, to reformulate their entire line of sheep  
and goat feeds.  They said they had heard of other flocks with similar  issues 
but didn't know the feed aspect for prevention.  Our current feed, a  whole 
grain mix, contains a calcium:phosphorus ratio of 4.5:1.  Feeding  quality 
alfalfa or other mixed hay with high calcium content is also  recommended. We are 
fortunate to have a quality, locally owned mill who was  willing to look into 
the problem and doing something about it!
 
Too high of a phosphorus level (and subsequently too low of a calcium  level) 
seems to cause the most problems in urinary calculi  development.  As a vet 
tech, we often see this problem in dogs with stones  developing inside the 
bladder.  Again, traced back to food, dietary changes  geared towards making the 
urine more acidic than alkaline, as it should be, are  the best source of 
prevention.  Like they say, an ounce of prevention is  worth a pound of cure.  In 
dogs and cats both, surgical intervention is  often required first to remove 
the blockages.  In cats, it is usually the  intact male cat who experiences 
bladder stones since the urethra in the male is  much shorter than in females.  We 
do see this problem in neutered males but  more commonly with intact male 
cats.  Isn't that odd?  I mean in  sheep its the exact opposite!  As for dogs, 
I'm not sure.  We tend to  see equal numbers of both sexes with urinary calculi 
issues.  In either  case, if the animal cannot urinate and the bladder 
ruptures, prognosis isn't  always favorable and surgery is generally expensive.  
 
I would have been willing to go the surgery route to save my ram but unless  
we had spent the time and effort in pinpoint the cause of the problem, we 
would  have been back in the same boat several weeks later.  I think determining  
WHY something happens is the best source for preventing future problems. -- 
and  that works with any breed of livestock!
 
Just my 2 cents, for what its worth -- Cheryl
Mike  & Cheryl Terrano
_Painted  Rock Farm_ (http://members.aol.com/paintedrockfarm) 

Route 4 Box 726
Buckhannon, WV 26201-9205
(304)  457-6620 
paintedrockfarm at aol.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20050316/7414821f/attachment.html