bladder stones - need jingles and feedback

[marta]

my 7 1/2 year old bull terrier was diagnosed today with a bladder stone.
the stone blocked her urethra and she was not able to pass anything but few drops of urine since yesterday. incredibly my vet was able to push the stone back into her bladder. he explained the ‘design’ of dog’s urinary tract system and how the stone will stay at the bottom away from urethra as long as the bladder isn’t completely emptied out and shrank. he gave us some meds/supplements to try and get the acidity of her urine up in hopes that it’ll decrease the size of the stone making it possible for her to pass it. if that doesn’t work, he said surgery is the only option.

so first, we need jingles. it was a truly awful 24 hours, especially the last few waiting to see the vet (both she and i were shaking in the waiting room this time).

second, anyone deal with this issue? what was your treatment? outcome? anyone have to go the surgery option? what was that like? costs?

[Laurierace]

No experience but lots of jingles.

[CdnRider]

As a vet tech, if your dog was my dog, I’d surgically remove the stone. If its big enough to block the urethra once chances are it will do it again. Have you had her xrayed? Does he know if its just one stone or multiples? Did he do a urinalysis? (They NEED to know if the pH is high or low, because that will determine the type of food needed to dissolve the stone). Not that I’ve personally been blocked but seeing a number of animals blocked, it is horribly painful and potentially life-threatening if not treated in time.

He is right though, there are foods that can help dissolve the stone, but these take time and the ONLY way to be absolutely sure it is working would be to get an xray now and then repeat in 4-6 weeks to see if it has shrunk (or potentially gone). Once it does get small enough she will urinate it out - you are lucky in this respect that she is a female. I’ve seen male dogs urinate out stones only to have them stuck part way through the urethra. Typically this doesn’t happen in females because their urethra is so short.

I hope he put her on antibiotics at the very least and for a long time.

Goodluck!!

PS I don’t know how much he quoted for surgery but prices vary WIDELY. At my old clinic it would have costed for one stone (the more stones the longer it takes and therefore the more money) 800-1000. At the place Im at now it would be at least 1800. If you know its one stone only, you can shop around, but if it becomes an emergency again and they CANT get the stone back into the bladder then you are S-O-L.

[marta]

He didnt Xray. He gave us a powder additive which is supposed to change the acidity (it was neutral not acid). Also a strong antibiotics for the infection.

[lovey1121]

Jingles to your Bullygirl. Hugs to you!

[CdnRider]

did he send you home with any special food? and out of curiousities sake what is the powder additive? what are you feeding?

[Leprechaun]

Jingles from Massachusetts!

[threedogpack]

I had a Corgi with bladder stones. If this were my dog, I’d want the surgery and then have the stones analyzed for type. If they are struvite, they can have sharp edges which can irritate the bladder and cause more issues. The surgery for my dog was a complete success, she felt better and never had any more problems.

I also agree with Cnd Rider, that if it was big enough to block once, it will happen again.

[marta]

Im going to discuss this with my vet again but those of you who had the surgery done, how serious is the surgery? How hard is the recovery ?

[marta]

Sorry, duplicate post

[li_l_bit]

My 7 1/2 yr old (at the time ) Fox Terrier had to have the surgery twice, about a year apart, the first time she had several small stones about the size of small peanuts and the medication they gave her did not dissolve them. The second time it was one stone about the size of a large walnut.:eek: I would compare it to spay surgery as far as how serious it was and the recovery was about the same. She did not have to stay overnight. Cost about $500.00 each time. Since then, I soak her kibble overnight so it has absorbed as much water as it can, give her vitamin C, and feed grain free. No recurrance so far, it’s been about 2 yrs.

Some people suggest giving distilled water if you live in the country and have a well. I have 4 dogs and change the water about 4-5 times a day, so I don’t use the distilled water. Would have to throw too much of it away.

Jingling for your BT, hope you can get it resolved without surgery.

Just wanted to add a link to this article. You have probably read it already but it is the advice that I found to be the most accurate with the experiences we had.

http://vettechs.blogspot.com/2005/05/so-your-dog-has-struvites.html

[Tegan]

Here’s a blog post that has a quick overview of the surgery (with cool pictures)! The pictures of the big stones gets me every time. I can’t imagine how much that would hurt.

http://www.drdolen.com/2010/10/im-gonna-rock-this-bladder.html#more

As far as your dog, it’s hard to know how bad the stones are without doing an x-ray, but if it were me, I’d probably want to go ahead with the surgery.

[Tornado_Run_Farm]

Don’t have experience, but jingles for your girl AND for you… How stressful!

[Outfxed]

I had a Corgi who developed bladder stones. Opted for the surgery route as the xrays revealed a whole handful of them from the size of peas to the size of almonds. The surgery cost about $600.00, her recovery was nothing worst than a spay.

I put her on a special diet for a while with distilled water. She lived to be the ripe old age of 15 and never had a reoccurance.

Jingles for your girl.

[threedogpack]

[QUOTE=marta;5889479]
Im going to discuss this with my vet again but those of you who had the surgery done, how serious is the surgery? How hard is the recovery ?[/QUOTE]

The surgery itself was not high risk I don’t think and recovery was the same as her spay. I know she felt better immediately, I could see it on her face & she quit needing out to pee as often.

I asked the vet to save a few of the “stone” for me to see, and they were very pointy and sharp (they were also struvite). The real $$ was not for the surgery but rather the analysis of the stones, which I feel is critical and well worth the money. Struvite (most common) is handled in a very different manner from oxilate (?sp) stones.

[CdnRider]

The surgery is called a cystotomy. It is a low risk surgery, especially with her unblocked - if she became blocked again and for a longer period of time it becomes more serious. We often sent our dogs (and cats too!) home the next day as long as they were urinating with no problems.

Stone analysis is critical. Certain stones form in certain pH (one of the reasons to do a urinalysis). But you can get 1 stone with different cyrstals components - the analysis breaks it up into the shell and the nidus. Most food companies will analyze the stones for free. That said there is sometimes a shipping and interpretation fee. Anyways (my prev vet didn’t charge extra for the stone analysis, but most do) I don’t think the charges should be extraordinary for stone analysis.

Get an xray first!! see what you are dealing with!!

[marta]

thanks everyone for your input!
and thanks for the jingles!!!

[Auventera_Two]

I can’t believe they didn’t do surgery. My cat had 6 large stones removed with surgery. The recovery was slick and easy, no problems. The stones were analyzed to determine their makeup and a diet suggested accordingly. Granted it was Science Diet, which I detest, but I did try it. The cat couldn’t tolerate it so I had to switch to something else. But determining the stone type and then changing the diet is critical for dissolution of crystals and prevention of reocurrance.

If the stone has already blocked the urethra, I would be darned sure to get that stone out ASAP. What kind of a vet pushes a stone back in, and does not do any radiographs? What if there are more stones, and not just the one?

Also with my cat, she was put on 30 days of antibiotics. The vet said that bladder stones are rarely, if ever, found without infection also. Granted that might be different for dogs, I do not know.

[marta]

A2

it’s very different with cats. that difference has been explained to me. so your experience, while appreciated, is irrelevant.

[lovey1121]

Marta, how is Mizz Bully doing? Ima jinglin’…