Rocky is going in for surgery

Rocky had been displaying some issues urinating, he would go, but then look like he still needed to, but nothing would come out.  I took him to the vet and they did a urine panel on him and said everything looked ok and that he maybe needed a bit more salt in his diet.

He continued to look like he needed to go more and more, he began to 'drop' more frequently, then he started to have incontinence.  I took him back to a different vet for a second opinion.  While we waited, inside finally since it was a very chilly, VERY windy MT morning, I walked Rocky around the exam area and let him investigate everything.  We walked around he stocks (he is not a fan of those), then I led him THROUGH the stocks (open on both ends) way to go bud! And then he go to see and hear the ultrasound cart.  He did so well, he generally is not super keen about the stocks and being at the vets as a whole.

The vet arrived and introduced himself to Rocky.  He very quickly listed off things it could be causing his issues, and how we could go about testing for each issue, he was very knowledgable!  His first recommendation was to do a rectal ultrasound on his bladder.  Rocky is pretty squirmy for all shots, I don't blame him.  Donkeys also have quite thick muscling on their necks and it makes it difficult to find a vein.  Thankfully this shot was a bit easier than past ones and he quickly relaxed from the sedative.

The vet was able to successfully use the ultrasound machine on him and Rocky actually tolerated the whole situation better than I thought he would! I thought for sure there would be a rodeo and some kicking, but he didn't fight it too much, which made the whole thing go so much quicker.  The vet found a calcium stone quite quickly and that was that.  I got brought up to speed on what causes them, how they can be removed, recovery etc.   It's big enough to require surgery, a little bigger than a golf ball.  I'm looking forward to having him back to his old self, I can't stand the thought that something is hurting him or making him uncomfortable.

We are looking at after Thanksgiving for surgery, I will be getting his recovery room in the barn set up this week. I need to find him a little bell so he can summon me at will. :)

If you'd like to help out click the button below! Stay tuned for progress updates.
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