Xelahu

‘Tis the season to revisit my favorite quote

Hello all! Good-morning, I decided to do my post a bit early since I have to take my little one to the hospital for an exam. But for today we have, Uroliths! 

Ur/o-Urine or Urinary Tract  Lith/o-Stone or Calculus

A Urolith is a urinary calculus (stone). They are composed of aggregated crystals and an organic matrix. It can form in any part of the urinary tract! Ways to remove them depend on the patient, the situation and the size of the stone itself. If they are small enough they can be voided out (passed through excretion of urine), but if they are on a much larger scale surgery is necessary! So a Cystotomy is needed. (Cystotomy: Cyst/o-Urinary Bladder Tomy-Cuting or Incision). Some symptoms of patients who have this would be Hematuria (blood in urine) and Stranguira (difficult urination), So they would posture to urinate but only a few drops or nothing at all would come out. If surgery is not prompt possible conditions may cause Acute Renal Failure, HyperKalemia, Septicemia and even death within a few days. Poster child for these bad boys would be male cats. But any animal is capable of getting these stones. Not all stones are smooth, each crystal that builds up has its own personality to say. Some have some sharp fenestration, and others can look very smooth with no abnormal bumps, something similar to an egg! With any stone it can be uncomfortable but if the stones have some jagged fenestration’s then you will definitely know if the patient is painful or not. Sometimes if the stone is large enough you can palpate it from the abdomen and feel it like in the video! But majority of the time X-Rays are needed to see these stones and have an accurate diagnosis. I have seen an X-Ray of stones in one of the patients we got in the hospital but did not see them remove the tiny stones. I provided this cool quick video from Vet Ranch of a patient with a huge stone and the outcome of the surgery! Hope you enjoy! Till next week, L.

I love cats too but…

oh my god

NOOOOOOO

they all gasped like OHHH