An 11-year-old Dachshund named Moxie, came into our hospital depressed, lethargic and not eating or drinking for several days. Along with being reluctant to walk, she was in pain when you touched her abdomen. On physical exam, her abdomen was tense, she appeared stiff while walking and had slight in-coordination of her hind limbs. Moxie exhibited no signs of pain or distress on palpation/manipulation of the spine.
The dog was overweight with a body condition score of 8/9. We use a nine-point scoring system to evaluate the body condition of Pets. In general, a score of five would be ideal. Blood work showed a mild elevation in her white blood count and neutrophils (white blood cells). The remaining blood work was otherwise within normal limits. A urinalysis revealed 2-3 RBC phpf (red blood cells per high powered field) and 1-2 WBC phpf (white blood cells per high powered field). Abdominal radiographs showed three large uroliths (stones) in her bladder. This was confirmed with a bladder ultrasound scan.
I discussed the findings with Moxie’s family and recommended that the best course of action was to remove the stones surgically. Our client agreed to this plan, and following the removal of three green lobulated (curved or round- shaped) stones, the Pet recovered uneventfully. Moxie was sent home with antibiotics and pain medication after being monitored in the hospital for 24 hours on IV fluids while being observed for normal urination.
Moxie’s family was instructed that she would need to be on a special urinary diet for the rest of her life to minimize the formation of bladder stones in the future. The bladder stones were sent off to the University of Minnesota Urolith Center at the University’s College of Veterinary Medicine for evaluation and came back as calcium oxalate monohydrate, a common urolith.
In addition to the special urinary diet, regular check-ups looking for bladder stones were recommended. When I last spoke to the family, they said that Moxie was acting like a puppy again with so much energy, that they have trouble keeping up with her.
My Shih Tzu, Rudy, also had bladder stones last year. We are feeding him Prescription UD and were told that it would be a permanent diet. His stones went into the urethra, and he wasn’t able to urinate. He had emergency surgery. A few days later, the threw a clot into the urethra and had additional surgery. So, We are keeping him on this diet as required. We don’t want him to have to go through that again.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:39 pm