Mojo Lost His Pizzle

Poor Mojo. He had quite a tough weekend. Saturday morning at morning feed time, Becky and I noticed that Mojo did not come out of his house for breakfast. This is quite unusual, but he has been out of sorts for the past week, ever since he was moved away from his two "girlfriends", O' Malley and Sissy. It didn't take Becky long, though, to conclude that something just wasn't right with Mojo. Further observation showed that he seemed to be in distress....his usual "maaaaaaa" was one of pain. He kept trying to lie down inside his house, and when he wasn't lying down, was pawing at the ground.

Becky assessed Mojo and found him to have a distended bladder. Apparently he had become blocked somewhere in is urinary system.

Male goats can be prone to calculi (urinary stones, or crystals) and this can be a life threatening situation if they are not unblocked (which is sometimes impossible to accomplish). Eating alfalfa can very often cause these stones in male goats. Although Mojo had not been eating alfalfa, it seems that perhaps our homegrown hay might be a little too rich for this little fellow.

Well, to make a long story short.....Mojo got a ride in the goat ambulance (gator) up to Dr. Becky's garage. A quick sedative was given and Becky did a more thorough inspection. The end result was excision of his "pizzle" or urethral extension, which is a little tube at the end of his "reproductive organ" (after all this blog is rated G). Once this was snipped off, a copious amount of urine began to drain....relieving his distress. Inspection of his pizzle yielded a small stone that had apparently caused the obstruction.

This was quite a close call for Mojo. Unfortunately, this may end up being a major health risk for Mojo. And sadly, there is nothing to do to prevent this from happening again. For now we will keep our fingers crossed and hope that this is just a solitary incident!