[Jacob-list] Urinary Calculi/wethering

[ARTHUR PARTRIDGE]

--Neal wrote:

>Ammonia chloride has to be used very carefully, and is toxic and not 

>palatable. It would be used here to tie up the calcium into calcium 

>chloride. I do not understand why you would do this if the problem is too 

>much phosphorus in ratio to calcium.

=========
As I recall, the ammonia chloride in the rumen turns into acidic NH4+
(ammonium ion) and the acidity helps prevent calculi (i.e. stones) from
forming in the urethra of the wether/ram.  You'd think that some vinegar
added to the water would do the same thing.  I don't know why one acidic
treatment works and the other might not.  I Googled and found  lot of
papers.  Here are two of particular interest.  The first one is a study on
using ammonium chloride and the other is on the problem of urinary calculi
(UC) in wethers/rams/goats, in general.

I don't understand the chemistry behind the role that phosphorus plays in
causing UC.  I better read some of these papers too.  I would use ammonium
chloride only if I thought there might be a problem, like if a ram or
wether accidently ate an entire 50 lb bag of grain or got into something
else that had a high phosphorus content -- 50 lbs of bananas??
Cathy
Moscow, Idaho

>

This takes awhile to download:l
[PDF] U. S. Department of Agriculture and Texas A&M University, College ...
in controlling urinary calculi. Experimental Procedure. Ammonium chloride
.... 
While the ammonium ion may. be utilized as a source of nonprotein nitro- ...
http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/30/6/1002.pdf - similar pages

>

Urinary Calculi in Wether Lambs/Kids - goat and boer
Ammonium chloride should be added to the feed at the rate of 0.5-1.5% see
Table 1). 
... However, treatment of urinary calculi is a desperation effort. ...
http://uvalde.tamu.edu/staff/Machen7.htm - 19k