I had a Yorkie that had chronic Struvite stones, in fact he had to have 4 surgeries and they started when he was age 4.
I am not trying to scare you but dont play around with this, I think the vets I took him too treated the symptoms and not the actual problem. After the 3rd surgery we all thought Chip we be ok but nope, he had another stone to develope a 4th time and the vet didnt know what to do so he tried something pretty radical. Chip was a boy dog and the vet thought it would help if he totally re-routed his internal plumbing the way a male dog urinates. The short of it was, Chip no longer had any use for his penis and the vet created an opening as if he was a girl dog to urinate that way. The reason the vet did this was to see if the stone would pass easier if it had a straight shot rather than the going thru a curve (cant remember the medical term) of the penis. Shortly after that surgery, during a check up about a month later the vet could tell it wasnt working, Chip was already accumulating sand like crystals around the new opening. I was sent to Texas A&M to see if they could help save my little Chip. Two days later I had to say a final goodbye to Chip because there was nothing that could be done for him even though he was a happy, playful dog until the very end - it ripped my heart out.
Here is the part that makes me too mad to think about. The Tx A&M vet did a test and could tell right away the stones were developing because the liver wasnt doing its job - his liver was shot all to he!!. I have no idea why the other vets never thought to check his liver and I even suggested it could be ther results of a shunt but because Chip didnt show any of the classic shunt signs, the vet totally disregarded it.
My point to this long message - ask the vet to run a test on her liver as well to make sure the enzyme levels are normal, Please save your self the grief on any possible stones later down the road again. |