Kidney stones
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Discussion

freecar

Original Poster:

4,249 posts

203 months

Wednesday 5th October 2011
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Hi all,
This afternoon my dog Murphy (a 9 yr old Shih Tzu) didn't look his best and when he turned his nose up at his usual bite of my lunch I knew something was up, he also was dripping urine when he stood.

So a quick phone call to the vets and a trip there and it turns out he has kidney stones, had a blocked peepee so needed it flushed back up to relieve the pressure to allow for xray, he goes under the knife tomorrow to remove the collection that are in his bladder (he passed three when they were flushing them back up!) and return him to us in tip top health!

Questions are;

What sort of recovery times shoule we be looking at for him?

What sort of thing causes this, not enough water? Too much naan bread (he's a weird one, if you give him scraps he'll always take bread or potatoes instead of meat!)

deeen

6,189 posts

261 months

Wednesday 5th October 2011
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With humans, they can analyse one of the kidney stones to find out which of 6 or 7 things is causing it.

No idea if they will do that for dogs, though.

freecar

Original Poster:

4,249 posts

203 months

Wednesday 5th October 2011
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I can say now that they wont, we are not insured!

We decided to balance the risk ourselves and it looks as though this little episode will make us break even for the time we've been doing it so far, so they can't get sick again for a good year or so!

bexVN

14,690 posts

227 months

Thursday 6th October 2011
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Please get them tested. It makes it harder to know which diet your dog will need without knowinhg. Some stones grow in acidic urine some in alkaline etc. They could guess at looking and breed disposition but if they can't be certain having them properly tested is better.

Your dog is likely to need a special diet for the rest of his life to prevent them reforming. They are usually bladder not kidney stones, flushed back up is probably flushed back up the urethra into the bladder not the ureter to the kidney.

Ask them if they can see if the food company Hills Science diet will test the stones. They used to do it for free (haven't used them for this for quite a while), it takes a few weeks rather than days if you were to pay for it but at least you'll know for certain what your dog has got for his future welfare (and you don't have to buy their food to use it!)

Time to start saving a bit more, there is a chance of it happening again. Hope little one is feeling better soon. PM me if you want anymore info that I may be able to help with, I am not really visiting this site much at the mo, just happened to catch this thread.

freecar

Original Poster:

4,249 posts

203 months

Thursday 6th October 2011
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Thanks Bex,

he's back with us now and £850 in debt for cuddles! The stones are going off (three of them) to a food company (she didn't say which) for testing but there's nothing really wrong with his diet as it is so chances are that they've been growing in there for a long time and although there is a special diet that we could put him on, there is minimal risk of it happening again any time soon. So I expect we're going to stick with his regular diet.

It put the scare into me that's for sure, I'm glad for once that I'm not working and that the dogs stick to me like glue all day!