Brave Cat of the Month
Archie came in to see us as his owners noticed he had some blood in his litter tray and kept on going back to the litter tray passing only small or no urine at all.
Archie’s bladder was very painful and felt much harder and thicker than normal. Dr Jeremy kept Archie with us so he could examine the bladder more closely and obtain a urine sample. We often use ultrasound guidance to do this particularly when the bladder is very painful and/or empty as not only does it guide our needle but it also shows us things that could be causing a problem. In Archie’s case there was a very high suspicion for multiple bladder stones which were confirmed definitively with x-ray. We also use x-ray and ultrasound to check the kidneys and the ureters for any stones that may have formed higher up the urinary tract.
The x-ray showed 4-5 well-formed bladder stones and the rest of the urinary tract was clear. Due to the size of these stones the only realistic option would be surgery. The type of surgery needed is called a Cystotomy.
The crystallised stones may not look huge but considering a cats bladder is the size of a nectarine you can see just how brave Archie was as he must have been extremely uncomfortable.
Unfortunately this problem may occur and a lot of what we do post-operatively is working on Archie’s diet to dilute his urine and reduce the exposure to the minerals that form these types of stones