My Dog's Bladder Ruptured and We've Fallen on Hard Times

I need your help desperately… (updated July 3rd) Info on canine calcium oxalate bladder stones

Posted on April 3rd, 2010 @ 6:43 pm by Spamgirl

This post has been moved – canine calcium oxalate bladder stones.

Tags: bladder stones, bloody urine, calcium oxalate, pets, surgery
Posted in Other News | Comments (6)

Doris C commented on
April 10th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Spamgirl email me asap!! Read your post !!
Spamgirl commented on
April 10th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Thank you, Doris! I appreciate all your kind words.
Kay commented on
April 11th, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Hope the dog gets well and that things turn around for you.
Susie commented on
May 13th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
Our dog was hit by a motorcycle, which completely tore his leg out of the hip socket and ruptured his bladder.

We took him to the vet of course right away, it was after hours, but we have the luxury of living in a small town and you can just call the vet up and he’ll meet you at the office.
Copper was in too much shock to do much with him that night so they drugged him up for the pain and I brought him home, and would meet the doc back at the clinic in the early morning a.m. He peed some blood and yelped terribly at the time. We worried it was the bladder.
I took him in, they did an xray and an ultrasound. He couldn’t be sure from the ultrasound if the bladder was intact or not, but it appeared to be ok, there wasn’t any fluid in the abdomen at that time. They put him under, and with a lot of effort, finally got his leg back in the socket. I brought him home later in the day and we thought he just needed some time to heal.

Once home he drank a ton of water, and as the day wore on, he wasn’t peeing. By that evening his abdomen was swollen some and I thought he must have a ruptured bladder. By 3 am it was pretty obvious that was what was going on. I took him in to the vet at 7 am, and by 9 am they had opened him up, his bladder was in really bad shape, and they cleaned him out and repaired everything.

This afternoon he was looking great and we all (me, hubby and kids) went up to see him and he looked great and wagged his tail and was in much better shape. They had just drained his bladder with a catheter and he was able to pee around it some, so they think he may come home on Saturday.
Here it costs $10 per night for a dog to stay at the vet hospital on an IV.

The total bill? Including two surgeries, an after hours visit, a laundry list of drugs, xrays, ultrasounds, and meds? $235. I figure it’ll be another $100 or so by the time he comes home just because they will need to keep him and cath him, etc.

I thought I would share this because sometimes, when people read about the prices in urban areas, they just assume they can’t afford to save their dog. I know a lot of people who would have just watched their dog slowly die because they “think” it will be more than they could possibly give.
Susie commented on
May 13th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
PS- I meant to say that I was so happy your dog pulled through! I know how much mine mean to me.. they really are family.
Spamgirl commented on
May 13th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
I think that’s one of the great things about living in a small town – people care more about each other than money. In the big cities it’s not like that… obviously! The surgery alone was $1,600.

Had my own vet been available it would have been MUCH cheaper… has his bladder waited until Monday, or ruptured on Friday. I think vets in smaller towns *know* more, or are willing to *do* more procedures as well. Here most vets won’t even do surgery! They know they can get away with it because the vets who DO those things are close by – and another bill for us.

I’m glad you’re dog is doing well, too The poor things are so sweet and innocent, it’s hard to see them hurting when you know they don’t understand it. I’m glad to know there’s someone else out there (and through this post I know there are LOTS of other people out there) who care so much about their pets! The other day I was out and saw a german shepherd with a shaved spine and a wheeling contraption on his back end so he could walk. It warmed my heart to know his owners love him so much

Thanks for commenting! I’m so glad this post is going to have lots of information for people. When it happened to us there was nothing online to read except one site about kidney bladder stones that is very, very old. That’s why I posted so much stuff up there heh