It's been a whirlwind of a week in my home. Among a few other things, my pup, Teddy Bear vomited one day and did not eat that afternoon. The next morning (Wed.) he turned his nose up to food and then I noticed he was a bit hunched over. I took him to my vet and after labs were drawn and he had an elevated WBC and Lipase and Amylase he started out with a presumptive diagnosis of pancreatitis and was on IV fluids all day. That night he had some rectal bleeding and I took him to the EC. Poor Teddy's bladder was distended and full of bloody urine. They did xrays and and ultrasound and found that he had bladder stones. He was treated with IV fluids and monitored all night and then transferred to my vet early that morning and then she referred him to Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists, the specialists I use in Houston. They found many stones AND urine in his abdominal cavity. The specialist was very concerned and advised me that his prognosis was guarded.
The next day (Friday), I had to go there for one of my fosters, Sunny D, and the specialist who was taking care of Teddy Bear came over to the surgical side to advise me that he felt we needed to do surgery to remove the stones right away. Teddy was catheterized..when they had straight cath'd him during the night, the stones kept going right back to block the urethra. During the night they had done a scan to view the urinary system because of the urine that had been in his abdomen...they had not found any leaks. There was a clot in his bladder, so they thought perhaps there was a small tear. I gave the ok for surgery and went out to have lunch. While out, I received a phone call advising me that when they saw the stones, they felt strongly that Teddy must have a shunt and sure enough they found one and I gave the ok to do that repair. Thankfully, the surgery went very well. Gosh, I am just so unbelievably thankful for the way things turned out. They don't think he had pancreatitis at all ... and honestly if he had not had that rectal bleeding, his bladder probably would have ruptured. It was midnight when I took him in and I imagine I would not have noticed he was not voiding until the next morning. I shudder to think what might have happened.
I went to see Teddy today and he looked so well...I had expected him to be really out of it. I was amazed. He will probably be coming home on Monday. Below are some pics of him that my son took today...you can see that he is still dribbling some bloody urine. That is to be expected because one of the stones was in his urethra, so it is a bit irritated. They expect that to clear up.
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