#uroliths

Stones can be located anywhere along the urinary tract - nephrolith, ureterolith, urocystolith, urethrolith.

Signs of urolithiasis may include: - Abdominal pain - Abnormalities of urination (difficulty, frequency, blood) - Straining with the absence of urine (this is an emergency - obstruction)  - Anorexia - Vomiting - Depression - Palpation of stone in empty bladder or urethra per rectum

Back to reality! One of my dogs hasn't been her usual self for days. Due to exhaustion, I shrugged it off and thought little of it. To justify that, I can’t really squeeze her in my frantic schedule. So, after dropping my aunt off at the airport, I fetched my dog and brought her in the vet. I didn't think much of it. I was thinking she’ll be checked, lab works and what-nots buy her prescriptions and off we go.

The lab work was remarkably fast. It shows her white blood cells were high which can indicate infection.  As I described her condition, the vet alleged pyometra, so she ordered an X-ray. An incidental findings was caught, my poor dog is suffering from urinary bladder stones. From the x-ray film shown, it was quite huge. She then told me that the uroliths need to be surgically removed. I was distressed my brain was in fast paced, I started thinking pessimistically. Add to the injury the doctor told me she needed to be confined. I remember asking her, do we really need to? Like a hearing-impaired idiot.

Just like any other people these days, I went to Facebook to vent out! the modern way

Without hyperbole I fight off tearing up when I was lead to the room where she’ll stay for a night or two. She obliged when I placed her at a metal crate with a thin cloth lining. When the cage was closed and had to move away that’s when she realize what was going on and started to bark furiously. The doctor barked off instructions to what I assume is an intern, relaying computations/drips of her IV fluids, her meds. I started fiddling with my phone, dialed my brother’s number and can’t seem to reach him, I probably looked calm on the exterior, but I was dying to cry inside, I wiped a tear on a short hallway. I can still hear her bark on the closed door. On the way home, I was inconsolable. But I had to weep quietly. It’s no big deal, she’ll be fine. I feigned being concerned about the bills. I was concerned about that ofcourse, but, moreover I was sad that I had to leave her there, I mean she’s not used at being caged, there were a couple of dogs barking. How could she sleep, she’s scared, sick and had to cope up with being separated from her usual environment.

The next day, with my concerned siblings behind me, we went to her room. She was sleeping face away from the cage opening, we started calling her name, she didn’t respond. I thought Oh God! Is this one of those things that I hear about dogs becoming worse when they’ve been left off at the vet? After a couple of calls, she finally realized our existence, her tail wagged frantically, started moaning, scratching her cage, my grandmother said her IV might come off if she keeps stirring. So we calmed her down.

We then heard what sounded like a child’s whimper, a child who’s in pain, the sound was indescribable and it was bloodcurdling. Looking at the sound’s direction we saw a white Labrador being carried just infront of my dog’s cage. The Labrador’s tongue sticking out, from what we’ve eavesdropped, the dog just came out of operation and the anesthesia’s started to worn down and was in tremendous pain.

On Saturday, I received a text from the hospital saying that my dog was ready to be discharged. I was relieved. Upon arrival the RN gave me the vet’s instructions and prescriptions, I was thrilled to get her home. I was about to pay the remaining bills, when the vet halted us and told us to wait. I overheard her telling the nurse that she requested a transfer/forward for my dog, meaning we still had to transfer her to another animal clinic. (As they don’t have confinement on Sundays)  My mood shifted quickly, but I don’t have the degree she does, so off we go to that animal hospital. As we arrived I told my brother what if I enlisted the help of my friend’s father, a seasoned veterinarian instead of having her confined again. I was at wits end. So, we decided to go inside the clinic, showed the one in charge the referral letter of the doctor, and weaved an elaborate thespian story of financial constraint, which was a semi true story though. My funds were starting to deplete. Moreover, my true intention is that I can’t bare another day away from my dog, not now that she won’t stop acting weird and overly attached (I know, who’s overly attached again?) As I told him that he kindly gave me the information of what treatments they’d be giving her, he said it was ok to get her home, since it’s just medications that she needs, but he told us that she needs IV fluid to help her flush out toxins in preparation for her uroliths removal surgery. So I told him about our veterinary friend, he told us its fine then. I thanked him.

When we came home, IV fluid was saturated in my dog’s veins. I was quite happy and confident that she’s responding positively, we didn't had a hard time feeding her, and we kept shoving water bowls in her so she would drink, hydrating is very important in her condition. I even found out through research reading that dogs gets encouraged to drink when they hear pouring water, my sister even concocted a shtick where she gradually pours water in her bowl and like magic it worked.

And because I refuse to cage her, as she rarely roams around and prefers to sleep. It was up to me to look after her IV. On the second day, she was acting normal, back to her usual laid-back-but-tends-to-get-excited self, she would look forward to feeding session, it was easy putting the small tablet prescription in her food, minus the 7.4 ml Doxycycline that I had to gradually give her, everything went smoothly, well except for me being sleep deprived, a little price to pay for her wellness