Steer with calcified stones

[gsc]

Hi all,
Thanks for any and all help. I have 28 days till fair and I have a steer with calcified stones in his bladder. They are not obstructing his urine now but I am concerned with what will come within the next 28 days.
The vet has him on Banaime for the next 3 days and Ammonium Cloride to help acidifly his urine.
If anyone else has had this problem can you please give me some ideas. Should I try to drag this out till fair, or slaughter the steer sooner.
Thank you

 

[firesweepranch]

Oh boy, do I have experience with that 
We had a steer my daughter showed this year, and around March noticed he was "trickling" urine instead of a full stream. Upon closer inspection, his sheath had white powder and white stones attached to the hair on the inside and he was VERY sore and would not let us touch it! I started watching him closer, and when he would lay down he would stretch his legs out to the side periodically like he was having pain. We ended up having him at the vet several times before we decided to cut his show career short and butcher him. His urine was horrible and he was throwing proteins like mad in it. Lots of stones! We started control by backing him off grain (concentrates cause the stones) and putting him on pasture at night with the show heifers. That worked for a few months, until we could not get a finish on him, and had to up his grain again. Long story short, we tried putting salt in his diet (vet suggestion to change the pH of the urine and get him to drink more), but the only cure when he got bad was pasture and no grain. He looked like crud by the time we hit Regionals (he was half simmie half angus), and instead of dragging it out pulled him from the rest of the shows. My end goal was to have a freezer full of beef, and not a dead steer that could not be processed. We accomplished that, and he tastes good! But for 5 months it was not easy...

 

[rackranch]

Watch him and make sure he has plenty of fresh water to drink... you may be limited on drugs if your fair is terminal or the steers are kept by the buyers for slaughter becuse of WITHDRAW PERIODS on the available drugs... We have a steer now that has periods were he dripples and almost always has some build up on his sheath but he eats, drinks , and converts so we don't worry to much about it... G-Luck

 

[farmin female]

We had a calf at our county show just a few weeks ago that had this problem.  Actually, his problem started last spring with what some people I believe call "water belly".  Anyway, the young lady who owned the calf took it to their vet who re-routed the uretha and had the calf urinating out the back end like a heifer.  You couldn't tell anything different about the calf unless he let loose and then you better be standing at least 3 feet back because it was a gusher.  Funny part was the calf won his class.  Go figure.

I had a breeder who was also a vet tell me several years ago to added 1/4 tsp ammonium chloride to the feed each day.  I haven't done it, but I may in the future.