That wasn't the afternoon I planned

I could also have titled this post, "Getting to add another vet to my life" or "You don't know what you don't know" or "I just want a month without a $500+ vet bill' or... well, you get the idea. 

I'll start off by saying it wasn't one of the horses this time. Instead, our next contestant on "Who can rack up the most vet bills?" was... Everett the sheep. I'll add his picture so you remember which one he is.


G. noticed yesterday that Everett wasn't looking quite right. We kept an eye on him, but about 10:30 pm he was looking a little less right. We knew bloat could be a problem, so I got to practice my skills at syringing liquid down an animal's throat at about 11:00 pm. This morning he looked about the same, so we did another round and kept an eye on him. 

(You see where this is going don't you?) 

By mid-afternoon he was looking decidedly worse, but by about 3:45, he had moved from just not feeling well to me cold calling the sheep vet I had researched (just in case) and arranging to bring him in immediately. He was doing so not fine by the time G. and I pulled out of the driveway, I had a few doubts about arriving at the vets with a breathing animal. I got there in a bit less than the 45 minutes maps said it would take. We left a live sheep with the very nice staff and left for home hoping the 50/50 odds we were given landed in Everett's favor. 

Essentially, he had urinary stones in his urethra causing him to be unable automated and inflating his bladder. They needed to sedate him, use a catheter to remove the urine build-up, do an ultrasound to see what was going on , then amputate the very top of his pizzle (yes, that is the technical term) to enlarge the passage and to remove the stones they could reach. 

We made it home at a more reasonable speed and waited to hear how things went. I'm happy to say he avoided the worst-case scenario in that he survived the surgery, his bladder had not ruptured, and the ultrasound didn't reveal any larger stones in his bladder. He did have some blood in his urine which is not great. We were told that he is much more comfortable now and has stopped making the really concerning wheezing sounds. (Did you know sheep can have some of the same meds that are used for horses? Just at significantly smaller doses. Everett's is currently on both Banamine and Ace.) We have moved into guardedly hopeful as to his prognosis. He just needs to remain stable overnight and we might be able to remove that guardedly part. 

I also quizzed the vet's office as to the reasons behind the urinary stones. We'll be changing a few things about the sheep's maintenance as well as adding in a once a month treatment to keep stones away from all three. There is a very steep learning curve to caring for a new species. 

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