help with struvite stones

905 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by lzrddr, Feb 20, 2016

vontan

Discussion Starter · Feb 15, 2016

My toy poodle Ripley is around 17, blind and deaf (age related). around 6 years ago he had struvite stones which blocked his urethra and he had to have emergency surgery. He's always had urinary problems, constant dripping so he always needs to wear a belly band. Had him checked when he had a painful episode and sure enough he has them back, there are a few small ones in his urethra and a few big ones in the bladder. However this time due to his health, surgery is not an option. He has a grade 4 heart murmur with a very enlarged heart. DR says he wouldn't survive the surgery and at his age I don't know that I would want to put him through that pain. This time it isn't blocked but it's a slow drip, so he is urinating, and it doesn't appear that he is straining at all. He is on Baytril and S/D food. We contemplated trying to flush his bladder or urethra but the DR was hesitant given his health. I was thinking as long as he was continuing to urinate and on the meds and special food over time they could dissolve or reduce in size so they could be passed. However I've read that stones in the urethra will not dissolve. I don't know if there is a solution or something else we can do?

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lzrddr

· #2 · Feb 20, 2016

I must be missing something... why is your vet reluctant to flush the stones back into the bladder? That is normally a fairly routine procedure though sometimes the stones can be severely lodged in the urethra and it may take some forceful flushing.

And, 2, how does your vet know he would not survive a surgery? Heart murmurs rarely affect how a dog does during an anesthetic procedure, though it does make the whole process slightly more risky (I have done many hundreds of anesthetic procedures on dogs with severe heart murmurs and have yet to lose any... it is always nice having a cardiologist examine the dog prior to surgery to give the surgeon the 'OK' to proceed, but have yet had a single one say no to surgery).

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