Bella's Bladder Blockage

Late last year Bella, the Affenpinscher had surgery to remove several urinary stones. Her owner had noticed her struggling to urinate normally and an x-ray confirmed the stones. Initially, Bella was placed on a special diet to try to dissolve the stones. Unfortunately after a month on this diet, one of the larger stones had passed into her urethra where there was a danger of it causing a life threatening blockage.

Bella's vet Sarah, performed surgery to remove the stones. Most challenging was the removal of the urethral stone because of its hard to reach location. Fortunately, everything went well and after a short stay in hospital and plenty of TLC from her nurses, Bella has made a great recovery and is back to her normal spirited self.

Bella's stones were sent to America for analysis and the results showed that they were struvite stones. Struvite stones are the most common urinary stones seen in dogs, occurring as a consequence of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Bella has continued to do well and remains on a special diet with regular monitoring for UTIs to prevent the stones from re-occurring.