So on Sunday (3 days ago) I went out to visit my boys, the goats. Here is a picture of Troy taken earlier this year... (he was itching his belly on the tub!)
Well Troy was not feeling good. All 3 other goats were way back in the pasture eatin the bushes and Troy was hangin out in his stall, looking a little lethargic. I talked to him, but he didnt really answer and tell me what was wrong. I was concerned, but I did see him get up and move around a little, and then he went back to his stall to lie down. So yesterday I decided on my way home from work, that I really should go check on him and my horse. I start walking into his pasture and rounded the corner and there is my horse looking great, but to the right of Edgar is Troy, ON HIS BACK, with his legs sticking straight up/out and his neck bent over himself! It was so sad, I thought he was dead! :(
I went straight to him and rolled him over and he stood up, but seemed in a lot of pain, he was not standing right, then he immediately laid back down and was groaning, breathing heavy and his belly was contracting a lot. I immediately called Andrea as I knew this was probably serious. She was at the Dr's office waiting to be seen, she told me to load him up and get him to her Mt Vernon clinic, it was an emergency. She said it sounded like he had a blocked urinary tract and his bladder could possibly rupture! Wow....
So I called Derek who was home and asked him what we should do. We agreed that Troy was worth the drive/expense to atleast have Andrea take a look at him, so he drove over to my parents, we loaded up Troy in the horsetrailer and hauled him up to Mt Vernon. Eric & Andrea were having Toni & Amanda over for dinner and pumpkin carving that night, so we messed those plans all up! But Toni & Amanda followed Eric to the clinic and we all were there to watch Andrea up close and personal.
Andrea did a blood test on Troy and determined after examining him, she was pretty sure he had a blockage and it was likely his bladder had already ruptured. After talking with Andrea and discussing the only 2 options available, we opted for Surgery (with a family discount!)... we paid $75 for Troy, but he has been and is a great goat, we felt we owed him the chance to live and according to Andrea, if they opened him up and found him to be beyond repair, she would not continue and if they did repair his bladder, he has a very strong chance of being just fine, since he is still young and healthy.
So she got him ready (with Amanda's & my help) for surgery and with the help of Jackie who is Andrea's boss and was DUE to have her own child THAT DAY!! While we readied the goat for surgery, Eric Derek & Toni went to Red Robin to get us all dinner.. The guys returned just in time for Scott (Jackies Husband) and Andrea to open up Troy. Actually Andrea did most of the cutting, all 5 of us spectators were standing right there to watch the whole thing! Scott threatened us that if we feel AT ALL faint or sick, to SIT DOWN or he'd kick our asses! lol Apparently he had a client think she was fine, but then she fainted and knocked out her front teeth in his clinic!!
So we watched as they opened him up and pulled things out. Oh I have to say prior to opening him up and knocking him unconscious, Andrea had me smell Troy's breath and it smelled highly of ammonia! NOT a smell that should come from your goats mouth! :( So anyways, back to surgery.... so as they were looking for his bladder, lots of urine just came flowing out of his belly. Scott was saying that Troy's bladder was a very angry bladder, it was pissed off because all of the veins were showing which is not at all normal... and then they found the leak! Seconds later the bladder hole was sewn up by Andrea! 1/2 of the problem was solved.... Scott did one layer of stitching.. oh let me say the cut they made on troy down the middle of his belly was probably atleast 12-14 inches! So Scott did a lower level stitch while Andrea felt his urinary tract for any blocks and she found it! Yeah... but the bad news was she was unable to push it out of him and did not have the proper tools to do so. Apparently they need to go steal something from another clinic that will work. Basically they have to stick a piece of tubing down his penis and get the tubing PAST the blockage so it opens up a tunnel for the bead to pass on it's own. If they cant get the bead out, then all that work was for nothing..
They put a second row of stitches in to sew him back up and decided that it would be better to work on the bead issue today. Give him time to wake up, the penis is easier to work with when he is awake vs passed out.. Apparently, if they can get ahold of it, basically they are going to cut the end of his penis off! OUCH... The guys at the clinic didnt like the sounds of that, all 3 of them got a little squeemish at that thought.. So we decided that Troy went in as a boy, and is coming out a girl! lol His new name is Troyena! :) We left Troy at the clinic for the night, not sure if he will get to come home today or tomorrow... We are hopefull that he will be okay, we just need that bead to pass so it was not all for nothing.. I know, Troy is just a goat and the cost of surgery seems silly to spend on a $75 goat, but he is a great goat and he is part of our family and he received a great surgery and a great chance at living... It was interesting to watch the entire surgery and process and I think Toni, Amanda & Eric enjoyed it as well. Nobody got squeemish or passed out, so Dr Scott was happy about that.
I am grateful to Scott and his wife for allowing Andrea to do a family member a favor and save my boy Troy's life! Scott said, he WOULD NOT be alive today.. He would have died within probably 12 hours of us bringing him in.
So I left work at 4:30 yesterday afternoon and did not get home until 15 minutes into my birthday! We left the clinic at 11pm last night, Eric had to work today at 7am, so not too bad for him, but Andrea had to be up by probably 5:30 as today was her day to head to OR to make farm calls ALL day today and then all day tomorrow and head back home from OR tomorrow. I hope she is not too tired. I have not heard anything yet this morning about Troy, I'm sure she would call if he had died or was not doing well, it is 9:30 and she is long on her way to OR by now, but I know she had to go to the clinic this morning, so she would have checked on him then. I'll wait for her call and hope Troy is out of the woods..
One funny thing about last night.. okay well part of this is not funny, it is sad, but there was a momma alpaca in the clinic, she was very colicky and probably is not going to make it, but she had a 2-3 month baby with her in her pen. Now the baby was kinda cute, but the ENTIRE time we were there, it made this noise over and over and over.. it just went "HMMM" So what you need to do right now, is (out loud) do that.. go HMM?.. Not an extended hmmmmm, but ya know when someone ask you a question and instead of saying "what" you say "hmm?" Now do that.. common do it... OKay, now that is the exact noise this alpaca baby made! So Derek would go over to his pen and would go "What" and the alpaca "Hmm?" Derek says "Whats that?" Alpaca says "Hmm?" over and over.. it was funny, we all were laughing at that.
As Andrea and Scott were in the surgery, I had said, DAMN I wish I had my camera so I could take pics and blog about this... Then about 5 minutes later someone said something about cell phones, so me, Derek, Amanda & Toni all whip out our phones and surround the surgery and start taking pics! It was like a swarm of papparazzi! lol So here are some not so good, but best I could do pics from my cell phone.. WARNING>>> THEY ARE GRAPHIC, PLEASE DONT VOMIT ON YOUR COMPUTER!!!!
Here he is knocked out on the table..
Andrea's in there lookin for his bladder I think at this point... or maybe tucking it back in after she repaired it... Eric had the responsibility of checking Troy's heartbeat every now/then to be sure he still had one...
Scott's hands on the Right there..
Getting ready to stitch him back up. I think Andrea (on the right) is looking for the stone in his urinary tract, prior to stitching him up... 
And this is Scott stitching him up.. the colored thing inside there (it is blueish in color) is placed in there to hold his guts in while they sew him up and just before putting in the final stitches, it is pulled out....
And here is Troy about 30-45 minutes after surgery, he is very groggy, drooling and barely awake. We propped him up against the wall/fence because apparently you want them in this position so he doesnt regurgitate. It was sad to see him in such misery, although I'm sure he was feeling no pain at this point. I love my boy Troy!
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