Preventative treatment for Urinary Calculi in all bucks.

 I can't begin to tell you the horror stories just from the past year that many of our close friends have experienced with urinary stones blocking their bucks from urinating. It is excruciating, highly lethal, and onset to death happens very quickly. It is something that most vets cannot help with. Emergency surgery can help sometimes, but even that is not certain, and it's nearly impossible to find a vet willing within a several hour drive, and a several thousand dollar bill for rolling the dice. 

AMMONIUM CHLORIDE. You can get it at Tractor Supply or order it online.

We pulse dose (Meaning periodically dose) all of our bucks the Ammonium Chloride (AC) for 5 days every single month. It is acidic and will help to break down any stones that are developing. You will get 100 different opinions on how to do this but this is the way we do it on our farm. For 5 days each month, I put 1TBS of AC into their drinking water bucket which is about 3 - 4 gallons of water. We replace fresh water 2x daily and add the AC to it each time during this period. Keep it clean so they will drink it. Sometimes we sprinkle it on a handful of Timothy pellets with some sort of binder added like "Healthy Coat" or whatever you have. Some people sprinkle it on a little apple sauce, or drench it added to something like gator aid or apple juice, so it doesn't burn, in the back of your buck's mouth with a large syringe. If feeding directly like this, the preventative dose is about 1tsp per each 50 lbs of body weight, 1x daily for 5 days in a row each month.

We follow this pulse dosing protocal each month along with keeping their food intake to a 2:1 Calcium:Phosphorus ratio. Read labels. Do more research. Timothy hay is perfect for bucks, it is right around 2:1 C:P ratio. Keep your bucks in good weight condition and on the thin athletic size, and along with proper loose minerals, offer them a salt stone to lick.... it will make them thirsty, and they will drink more water to help flush their bladders.