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Bladder Stone

5K views 22 replies 9 participants last post by  egrogan 
#1 ·
I really hate that my first post here is under these circumstances. I have a 14 year old QH Gelding that's been having issues urinating. Based on some searches here and other sites I knew right away it was something serious and that I needed to take him to our vet ASAP.

The earliest appointment I could get was today and long story longer - - my boy has a baseball sized stone in his bladder that's making it difficult for him to pee. I live close to the University of Georgia and my vet is going to call and find out what type of surgery he will need. According to my Vet, it maybe possible to only have to make a small incision on his flank and remove the stone. Or, due to its size, they may have to preform surgery similar to Colic surgery with an incision through his belly.

Of course the costs depends on the surgery and while he's a great horse, I can't really justify spending a very large sum of money so, once I have all the info, I will be faced with a difficult decision either way.

My vet said it's very rare especially for a horse in his teens. In fact in 30 plus years of practice, she said this was the first time she has seen this in a gelding this age. My question, has anyone had any experience with this? If so what type of surgery did your horse require? What was the recovery time? And, if you don't mind, what was the total cost including post op care etc.

Thanks in advance for any input/advice you can give.
 
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#3 ·
Update

Quick update, I will be taking my horse Sully to the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine on Monday morning May 1st and he will have the surgery to remove the bladder stone around noon. I spoke with the surgeon about a couple different methods and weighing cost with risk have decided that the best option would be to put him under, make a 6 inch incision next to his man parts to access just enough of the the bladder to remove the stone. If all goes well I should be able to pick him up Wednesday morning then 2 to 3 weeks stall rest and another 30 days before I can start riding him again. The doctor said that while its rare for a gelding to have such a large stone, he expects a full recovery.

This is my first horse and and I've had him almost two years. Both my vet and the surgeon think the stone was there before I got him and has increased in size over many months to the point where I started to notice something was wrong. When I first got him he was very slow to move forward and wouldn't even canter. After working with him he has improved greatly and I can get him to WTC on queue.. After seeing him be such a willing horse while having a baseball size stone in his bladder this whole time, I'm amazed at how willing this horse is. I can't wait to see how he will be without this large stone bouncing around his bladder.

I will post updates after the surgery and would appreciate prayers for Sully.
 

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#6 ·
So I wanted to give a quick update. We made the almost 4 hour trip to Auburn this morning and Sully had his surgery this afternoon. Got a call this evening from the Resident assigned to his case and she said the surgery went well and he was up and back in the stall but still very groggy. She said the stone was the size of a tennis ball and also prickly which was causing irritation inside his bladder so he should feel much better after having it removed. Will get an update in the morning and I should be able to pick him up Wednesday morning and then stall rest for a few weeks and probably a little over a month before I can start slowly working with him again. I asked if they would keep the stone as I wanted to take it with me, if they did I will post a picture Wednesday.

MLT
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the well wishes. Sully is kept on our own property and he and my other horse Jack are outside 24x7 unless the weather is really bad. Post op Sully has to be on strict stall rest for 2 weeks, then another 2 weeks with only 2x10 minute walks a day and the second month light turn out which we will put him in our round pen. So after 2 months recovery he should be able to return to his normal routine which is trail rides and general horsing around.

While he isnt happy at all being in a stall 24x7, he is drinking a a lot, eating a little but peeing and pooping so all the important stuff is working.

Like I posted above, he has come so far in the past two years in his willingness to take on trails and to WTC just off verbal queues all while having this monster of a stone in his bladder. Makes me have so much respect for him and I can't wait to see how far he will go once he is healed up.

MLT
 
#15 ·
I first noticed something was different when he would stop to pee on short 4 and 6 mile trails because he would never do that before since I've owned him. Next his pee spots in the stall went from one large spot to a couple small spots which again was not the norm for him. Then it progressed to his urine being dark brown, almost like coffee color after a 4 to 6 mile trail ride with a mixture of WTC. Once this started I knew something wasn't right so I knew a trip to the vet was in order. My vets first thought was a UTI so we put him on a course of antibiotics and I noticed his pee spots in the stall got bigger and thought maybe that was it. However, the dark urine right after a 4 mile trail ride continued so I grabbed a urine sample and took to the vet. No infections, not really any blood in the sample so the vet thought Equine Exertional Rhabdomyolysis since he only had dark urine after a trail ride with some trotting and cantering.

Then it got worse and I noticed that he would struggle to urinate when just in the pasture, he would actually grunt when trying to pee and would continue to struggle even after nothing was coming out. He was doing this without exercise and every time he would urinate. I noticed that he would remain partially dropped most of the day and he would also have dribbles of urine on the tip of his man part so my gut told me that something else was wrong.

I did some research regarding his symptoms and came up with bladder stone. I took video of him struggling and grunting and made another trip to the vet. The vet immediately thought something else was going on also so we put him in the breeding stocks and she did a rectal exam and palpitated the bladder and sure enough she immediately felt the stone. She then did an ultrasound through the rectum and confirmed it to be a stone, measured it and the next day started calling surgeons so we could find the best procedure and a price I could afford.

The good news is that while Exertional Rhabdomyolysis is not curable, a bladder stone is. I had come to terms that Sully would be retired as a buddy/pasture mate and had saved up to buy another horse. I love my vet and she has many years of experience. However, while she was 70% sure Sully had Exertional Rhabdomyolysis my gut was telling me something else was going on. Vets have experience but no one knows my horse like I do - I can tell if he doesn't want to work because it's his feed time and I can tell when he is unsure of something he sees on the trail - I know my horse. So as I said before, I went with my gut and started researching and didn't stop till I was satisfied.

What I hope people take from my story is this, you have to advocate for your horse. You have to listen to them and you have to push and not give up till you have the answer your gut agrees with.

MLT
 
#16 ·
I wanted to post an update on Sully's recovery. He is almost through week 6 of his 8 week recovery and is no longer on stall rest and we are able to turn him out during the day. However has to be separated from our other horse Jack because Jack likes to push him around and Sully is not supposed to have any forced exercise until the 8 weeks are up. During the 4 weeks stall rest Sully has lost weight and muscle tone on his top line which I'm told is normal and he should bounce back once I can start exercising him again.

Any advice on how to build back muscle would be appreciated. I've heard good things about the Parelli hill therapy and would welcome any feedback you might have.
 

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#22 ·
Sully is finally off restriction this week and I've been slowing easing him back with ground work. But today I finally tacked him up and went for a short 30 min ride just around our property... Taking it slow but it's good to be back in the saddle with him for the first time in 3 months.
 

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