As most of you know Sam and Dean had emergency surgery last weekend. Here's what happened.....
Sam, Dave and Dean
Well, last weekend our friends Dave and Robyn got married! This was one of those very laid back kind of weddings which I just learned is probably the best kind of wedding out there. It also makes things a little easier when your goats get sick and need emergency surgery that same day! Yup, that happened.
Dave (best man), Dave (groom), Robyn (bride) and Amanda
I woke up Friday morning very relaxed and excited to start my long weekend. I was sitting out on the deck enjoying my morning coffee with Bogart.
I noticed a weird sound. Yeah I recognize that sound. It's a goat. But why are the goats crying? Usually they are still sleeping at 7 am.
I make my way up to the barn to check things out. I look in the window and everything looks fine. I can't tell which goat is crying but I don't see anything crazy happening in there. Dave then follows me up and lets the goats outside. That's when I noticed Sam standing in the corner crying and straining away from the other goats.
At first I thought maybe that he hurt his leg. I patted him down but didn't notice anything unusual. He kept leaning back and signaling to his rear. So then I though well maybe he's constipated. I decided to sit for a few minutes an observe his behavior.
As I watched him I noticed that he was straining like he was trying to poop but then he would have little dribbles of pee coming out. Then I knew right away what was going on. He had to pee.
I got my phone out and went Google crazy. Sadly I didn't find anything that sounded promising as far as trying to fix his problem from home.
I called the Metro Emergency Clinic and they told me to call Fundy vet. It was only 7:30 am by then and the vet didn't open until 8 or 8:30. We tried for that time to massage his genitalia to work out the stones to hopefully get him to pee. Nothing worked. Poor Sam was crying and in a lot of discomfort.
Finally I got a hold of Fundy vet. They gave me two options... 1) a $1200+ surgery OR 2) euthanasia. Neither of those options worked for us. I resorted to Facebook and called for help from friends and family. I was told to try Complete Care in Lake Echo.
When I called they said they had a vet that could see me if we went down there ASAP. So off we went. We piled Sam into the back of Dave's Dodge Journey and drove there. The vet we met there was Dr. Morrison. He seemed very confident that he could fix Sam with a little surgery right then and there in the exam room. Usually this procedure is done inside a barn so we weren't concerned about anything.
He gave Sam some conscious sedation and some local anesthetic and then quickly did a surgery that removed the end of his penis to make his pee hole larger to pass the stones.
When Sam was able to walk around he started peeing again!! Yay!! He saved Sam! Dave and I had to rush out to go to Dave and Robyn's wedding so we left Sam there for a few hours to recover.
Thankfully we made it to the wedding in once piece. We were JUST in time. We managed to get ready in the car on our way there but we did still smell like a dirty goat!After the wedding we drove back to the vet to pick up Sam where he was feeling great again. We brought him home and all was good! I did notice that Dean was acting a little funny but I thought I was being paranoid - which I usually am. Normally I trust my 'sick animal instincts' but this time I ignored it.
At 6 pm we check the animals, all was good so we left for the wedding reception. We had a great time and when we returned home at 10:30 pm we went to check on the goats one last time before going to bed. That's when I noticed Dean was acting very weird. He was crying, grinding his teeth, stomping and banging his head on the wall. OH NO!! Shit, shit, shit!! I called the emergency number at Complete Care again and thankfully within 10 minutes Dr. Morrison returned my call. He agreed to meet us at the clinic again to check out Dean.
We piled Dean into the car and met him there at around 11:15pm. He checked over Dean and agreed the same thing was happening here. God have mercy on us! He did another surgery on Dean. Dean was a little more difficult to do because he had less sedation so that we wouldn't have to stay as long to have him recover to bring him home. Every time the vet was almost done Dean would start flailing around and kick. Ugh! That was exhausting.
FYI- Sam is 106 lbs and Dean is 155 lbs!!
Finally he successfully completed the surgery and went into his recovery position and had a nice long pee! While we waiting he trimmed up Dean's hooves and gave Dave some pointers. He also removed Deans scraggly horn for us since it was starting to dig into his head.
After all was done and good went headed back home and got home around 1:30-2 am. We got the goats settled in and went to bed!
Since their surgery last week both of the goats are doing fantastic and we are forever thankful for Dr. Morrison's hard work and late night availability saving Sam and Dean!!
Sam's Surgery
Dean's Surgery
For those wondering why this happened here's your answer.
This time of year hay becomes as rare as gold because nobody has any left after the long winter.
Our supplier was out of hay so we just started feeding them more grains to supplement the hay until some became available. Since Sam and Dean were castrated at a young age their private parts were not fully developed. So in this case where we gave them lots of grains it created a sediment in the bladder which in turn blocked their pee hole since it is small and under developed. The surgery removed the end of their penis to make the opening larger to allow the sediment to pass. The vet sent a sample off to a lab to have it tested! If we didn't do surgery their bladder would have ruptured and soon after they would have died.
A friend of mine let us buy some of her hay stock pile to hold us off until we can get some more!
Lesson learned!
We are just happy to have our boys back to normal again!
This time of year hay becomes as rare as gold because nobody has any left after the long winter.
Our supplier was out of hay so we just started feeding them more grains to supplement the hay until some became available. Since Sam and Dean were castrated at a young age their private parts were not fully developed. So in this case where we gave them lots of grains it created a sediment in the bladder which in turn blocked their pee hole since it is small and under developed. The surgery removed the end of their penis to make the opening larger to allow the sediment to pass. The vet sent a sample off to a lab to have it tested! If we didn't do surgery their bladder would have ruptured and soon after they would have died.
A friend of mine let us buy some of her hay stock pile to hold us off until we can get some more!
Lesson learned!
We are just happy to have our boys back to normal again!
happy to have hay again thanks to a friend
Dave and Dean
Kevin, Dean and Sam. 1 week post surgery and doing great!
- Amanda