During my recent food animal lectures about urinary diseases, I came to learn that cats and goats have more in common than I would have thought. There aren’t too many parallels between ruminants and feline carnivores aside from the fact that they both fall victim to urinary stones!
Urolithiasis is a commonly occurring and life-threatening disease in cats and goats. This condition occurs for many of the same reasons as well; neutering, diet, water intake, etc. They even get similar types of stones (struvite commonly). The main difference in the condition between animals is where the stones lodge and how obstruction is acutely treated.
You see, goats have a very different penile anatomy than cats. Their fibroelastic penis forms a sigmoid flexure which is a sharp bend where stones can lodge. But, the most common place for the stone obstruction to occur is the urethral process. For this reason, after obstruction, the process is typically amputated to allow a larger opening for the urethra, allowing stones to pass more easily.
Unfortunately, even after management changes, most goats will often obstruct again. Owners of pet goats or economically valuable animals may then opt for more invasive, long-term management options such as surgery.
When there is not significant penile damage or urethral rupture, veterinarians can perform a urethrotomy to create a temporary or permanent opening in the urethra. Temporary openings are ideal for breeding bucks because the penis is left intact. Similarly to cats, a urethrostomy can also be performed. This requires amputation of the distal penis and is not ideal for reproductively valuable animals. Even with this procedure, the prognosis is still guarded.
I was interested to see that the surgical treatment for both animals is surprisingly similar. Plus, it’s not every day that I get to draw parallels between two of my favorite animals.
