[Irish]

A rambling and totally useless story specifically for BobD this morning ...

Well now, we had this goat .... well, really, I had this goat ... well, to be totally truthful I had two goats. One was named Butter Ball and the other Odat.

Odat was a birthday present to me from a girlfriend that had this notion that I really needed a pet goat. So she showed up, on my birthday, with this very tiny little wiggly thing wrapped inside her coat. When I peeked inside there was the oddest nose that I had ever seen for a puppy and then there were these weird cat like yellow eyes and then ... it went Brrrahhh!

So now being the proud but totally befuddled owner of a three day old goat I quickly discovered what farmers meant when they say goats are herd animals. This poor little thing would scream if left alone even for a moment. So now I am the proud owner of a three day old house goat ...

Now my beloved hubby comes home to be greeted by this wagging tail and Brrrahhh! and declared "Oh that &*-= goat just must have a little brother". Our son thought he had said "Odat Goat" and hence his name and whence Butter Ball came into our lives and why we now have a huge fenced pen and goat shed in our backyard.

So, as life goes, Oday and Butter went from being little kids to full size (150 pound) togenburg billies. About a year later I woke up one morning to the most wretched screaming I think I have ever heard in my life. Rushing to the goat pen, no shoes - barely dressed, I discovered Odat down on the ground, rolling in agony and screaming as if he were dying ... which was exactly what I thought was happening.

Way before the days of 911 (thank heavens because they would have laughed me off the face of the earth) I grab the phone and call my vet. I tell the receptionist what is happening and she says .......

"Honey, our vet doesn't treat exotic pets!" "Exotic pets!", say I, "It's a #$@* #$%@& farm goat!!!!" So grabbing the phone book I am desperate to find some other vet and when I tell my story I am told ..."Togenburgs?, I don't think the AKC lists a breed called togensburgs???" AHHH!

Perhaps some of you don't know that Mike and I live in Mid-Maryland, Diary Cow country and I somehow can only find vets qualified to wipe the little fuzzy bottoms of hamsters and gerbils .... AHHH!

I did finally find one in the next town ten miles away and the dear gentleman even made house (farm) calls. So he shows up an hour later and by this time poor Odat has screamed himself horse ... there is only this rasping ragged breath coming from the little beast. The vet takes on look and announces "Blocked Urethra! And if we don't operate his is only hours from death!" I just about fainted.

This gentleman (my hero of the moment) scoops up this 150 pound goat, which was no small feat and carries his off to his little compact station wagon, putting Odat in the back seat. As he drove off he tells me that by dinner time we will know if the goat survived the day and the surgery.

So Mike comes home that evening, I tell my tale and we pack up our son to head to the vets. I should note here that by this time poor Butter was horse from screaming at being left alone all day ... AHHH!

We are sitting there - next to the Persian cat owner - who's appointment is right behind the lady with the violet blue toy poodle - in this plush pristine white waiting room when the vet says it's our turn. He has somehow stuffed Odat into a dog crate, I have no idea how he accomplished that one. He tells me that Odat did well through the surgery but he still doesn't know if it was successful as Odat has not yet passed any water.

We unfold the little guy from the crate, put him on a dog leash figuring he is probably too sore to run very fast or far and head down the hall to pay our bill. The vet is walking with us still concerned about Odat's future.

By this time all the purebred posh pet owners in the crowded waiting room are looking at this farm goat (think woolly shaggy motley pony) when suddenly Odat puts on the brakes, cocks his back leg and throughly saturates the pure white corner of the receptionist's desk with a bright yellow stain.

At the very same moment both Odat and the Vet let out this satisfied sigh of relief! Our Vet was grinning ear to ear as he announced it was "another successful day of small miracles!"

AWESOME Story isn't it!

Susan

[whitecree]

Errrr....

Ooookaaayyyy.

[BobD]

LOL...Susan...Thanks!

My wife has been in agony for nearly a week now with a kidney stone that the docs couldn't find on x-rays or any other way. One doc even implied that she was a hypocondriac (SP?) and was acting like she was in pain just to get off work and take pain killers. She passed the stone yesterday after straining her urine for a week...and promptly flushed the tiny reddish-brown grain of sand away because that couldn't have been the stone...it was way too small to cause that much pain!!!

So she's hopefully on the road to recovery!

Bob

[Ashbys]

I have a friend that passed a stone, when it was over he told me before I ever go through that again I will shoot myself it isn't worth it .

[Kenny_S]

Funny you should post about your wife's kidney stone. Well not funny but, Yesterday, I visited a friend who has several of those tiny little specks and had pass several this week already and show me a picture of what those ting little spects looked like magnafied. Like little knife blades. Yep, and we wonder why those that are trying to pass them are in so much pain. Fortuntantly, I have never had one. Guess it was from all that beer in my younger days. Mush younger days.
Anyway, This friend tried to pass one while I was there. Scared the begibbies out of me as he was rolling on the floor begging me to get the shotgun out and put an end to his misery. Finally got him up and in to the bath room where I left him using some choice words. Finally, a sigh of relief and he came out and said, the was the easiest one yet. WHAT? Easy? Lord help me if I ever get one. I am cutting it off!

[Kenny_S]

BTW Susan, Cute story.

[BobD]

The problem is that the tube from the kidney to the bladder is VERY small...the tube out of the body from the bladder is much bigger...so once it hits the bladder, the rest is downhill!!!

When it first hit, she went to the hospital in tears...and she NEVER cries...and they gave her two shots of morphine to knock down the pain...

Bob

[Eddy Smiles]

"Your're just trying to get our Goat, right?"

[Dylan]

Thanks for the laugh of the day.

Dylan

[Nancy-ID]

Susan, I loved your story. And Soooo true. Vets just do not want to work with goats! I bred and showed Nigerians and LaManchas up until a few years ago. I did most everything myself but when I needed a vet it was a nightmare trying to get one, then trying to get them to really check it out. Give Odat a huge smooch on his cute little goat lips for me, for peeing in the vets office Did he tell you to add vinegar to their water? Or ammonium chloride in the water. Make sure they always have plenty of water and salt, preferably loose salt (they intake more of it) to increase water consumption. If you have a problem with Urinary Calculi again and can feel the blockage in the, ummm, urethral process, snip it off with scissors.