Archie, a nine year old male Lhasa Apso, had been straining every time he passed urine for the last couple of weeks. His owner also noticed that occasionally there were small spots of fresh blood in his urine. He didn't seem depressed or out of sorts and was definitely not off his food. When Archie was in the consulting room it was clear that something was causing an obstruction to him passing urine normally. When we tried to pass a catheter (thin plastic tube) into his bladder through his urethra it would get stopped by something after only an inch or two. Archie was anaesthetised and his urethra was flushed which cleared the blockage and allowed us to pass the catheter into his bladder. His bladder was filled with air (which allows us to see its contents more easily) and an x ray taken. 

The x ray showed a small stone present near the neck of the bladder. Archie underwent major surgery to remove the stone from his bladder which was sent away to Minnesota, U.S.A. for special analysis.

When the results came back they told us what kind of minerals were present in the stone and Archie's diet was changed to prevent the problem from re-occurring.

Bladder stones can cause complete blockage of the urinary tract if they are passed out of the bladder and into the urethra where they become trapped. Complete blockage is a medical and surgical emergency which can result in kidney failure and death if left untreated for as little as 24 hours. Archie was lucky in that his stone, 5mm in diameter, caused only a partial blockage and his owner brought him in before things became completely blocked.  He recovered well after surgery and has had no further problems to date.

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