Katie is an 8 year old black Collie who came to us in February this year.
Katie was off colour when she first came in to our Balmoral Clinic. She was straining to urinate, her urine was pungent and dark, and she was in obvious discomfort and pain.
Tests on her urine and her blood revealed that she had concentrated urine with blood present, a bacterial infection in her bladder and Struvite crystals.
The large crystals could also be felt in the bladder upon physical examination.
Struvite crystals form in the bladder from mineral deposits in the kidneys and urethra creating “bladder stones”.
The reasons for the formation of such stones may be diet, genetics or caused by the presence of a bacterial infection.
Katie required surgery to remove the struvite crystals last Friday.
We were all shocked to find that Katie had eight very large struvite crystals in her bladder which we surgically removed (see picture above).
Within 2 days of surgery Katie was virtually back to normal, and was urinating as normal.
To prevent this from reoccurring Katie will be fed a special prescription diet to reduce the likelihood of the crystals forming as well as antibiotics to reduce the infection.
We are delighted to report that Katie is well on her way to making a full recovery!
