Kidney Stones And House Broke Issues

[2greyhoundMINI]

Well our poor Sidney ended up having emergency surgery a few weeks ago for struvite kidney stones (the vet was worried about a blockage). He pulled through the surgery fine, and actually just got his staples out last night. He is now on prescription kibble for urinary health from this point forward.

 

Here's the issue:

It's been over 2 weeks since his surgery. He is getting WORSE at having accidents in the house.

 

Basically, if he needs to go, he literally just gets up from laying down and just urinates wherever he's at. IF you catch him as he's getting up and ask him to go out IMMEDIATELY, he will follow you outside and go outside. Otherwise, he will just go where he is.

 

My husband feels like this is due to still being uncomfortable from the kidney stones and surgery and "can't hold it right now", but I feel like he can.

 

Is there anything I can do to help him get back into being house trained? Even if we put him in his crate he will have an accident in it. He's never done that before this. The vet gave him a clean bill of health, so I'm not sure if there is still a health issue here? Otherwise he is behaving normal.

 

Thx for any suggestions.

Edited February 26, 2015 by 2greyhoundMINI

[Feisty49]

No suggestions or advice but wondering what the vet said about post-surgery issues such as this. If you don't think it's normal, a call to the vet would be a good idea.

[schultzlc]

Disclaimer: I am not sure if this is the case for your poor Sidney, nor do I know if kidney stones feel the same for dogs as they do humans. What I can tell you is that, when I have had kidney stones, in addition to the pain from the stones, I always felt like I needed to urgently urinate. All the time. I would literally walk out of the bathroom feeling like my teeth were floating, even though I just went. This was particularly true when I would change positions from sitting to standing, from standing to laying down, etc. I wonder if this is the case for Sidney too. Perhaps his body is telling him it is urgent and that is why he isn't asking to go out. Would it be worth trying a belly band for a while? I hope you can find a solution that works for all of you!

[2greyhoundMINI]

Disclaimer: I am not sure if this is the case for your poor Sidney, nor do I know if kidney stones feel the same for dogs as they do humans. What I can tell you is that, when I have had kidney stones, in addition to the pain from the stones, I always felt like I needed to urgently urinate. All the time. I would literally walk out of the bathroom feeling like my teeth were floating, even though I just went. This was particularly true when I would change positions from sitting to standing, from standing to laying down, etc. I wonder if this is the case for Sidney too. Perhaps his body is telling him it is urgent and that is why he isn't asking to go out. Would it be worth trying a belly band for a while? I hope you can find a solution that works for all of you!

Yeah, my husband JUST had kidney stone surgery himself! And he has said the same thing, so I'm wondering if this is true. Since Sidney is not human (at least not that I know of LOL) he can't really know what is going on or explain the urgency to us.

I'm not sure if the belly band would work, but I wouldn't mind trying one.

No suggestions or advice but wondering what the vet said about post-surgery issues such as this. If you don't think it's normal, a call to the vet would be a good idea.

I did leave a message for the vet to see if they had any insight. Thx!

[MaryJane]

I just had a bout of kidney stones and I'm thinking that he still might have some smaller ones that need to pass. As already noted, it's really tough to control because the urge comes on so suddenly with shifts of weight. Might I suggest that instead of waiting for him to get up, wake him up and take him out at preset times (every 2 hours or so) in addition to the normal times. This might help a bit until the healing process completes.

 

I agree that the belly band won't stop the peeing if it is from the stones but, it will make sure that your floors and rugs don't take the brunt of this.

 

Also, it might be worth your while to get a clean-catch urine and get a culture done to check for a UTI. Because of the irritation, stones can eventually cause an infection and this behavior could also be from that.

[tbhounds]

I believe you meant to say -bladder stones-not kidney stones. Often after a cystotomy the bladder remains inflamed-making your hound feel urgent. They will often drip urine. They can and often will pass blood post operatively for a few days. Struvites are developed from an untreated bacterial infection. I assume your vet cultured the urine??

Recheck exam should scheduled with your veterinarian-they will palpate his abdomen and perhaps re-radiograph his bladder.

[2greyhoundMINI]

I just had a bout of kidney stones and I'm thinking that he still might have some smaller ones that need to pass. As already noted, it's really tough to control because the urge comes on so suddenly with shifts of weight. Might I suggest that instead of waiting for him to get up, wake him up and take him out at preset times (every 2 hours or so) in addition to the normal times. This might help a bit until the healing process completes.

 

I agree that the belly band won't stop the peeing if it is from the stones but, it will make sure that your floors and rugs don't take the brunt of this.

 

Also, it might be worth your while to get a clean-catch urine and get a culture done to check for a UTI. Because of the irritation, stones can eventually cause an infection and this behavior could also be from that.

 

As far as I know, they flushed them all. But you could be right.

 

We've been taking him out every hour, so, yup, way more frequent then his normal let-out intervals.

 

The belly band would only be a temporary help... and yes, I didn't think it would stop him.

 

I believe the struvite stones are also called "infection stones" possibly caused by a UTI. He is still on antibiotics for it all.

[2greyhoundMINI]

I believe you meant to say -bladder stones-not kidney stones. Often after a cystotomy the bladder remains inflamed-making your hound feel urgent. They will often drip urine. They can and often will pass blood post operatively for a few days. Struvites are developed from an untreated bacterial infection. I assume your vet cultured the urine??

Recheck exam should scheduled with your veterinarian-they will palpate his abdomen and perhaps re-radiograph his bladder.

Excellent points.... I'm going to ask these questions to the vet when they call me back.

Thank you for the information.

[2greyhoundMINI]

Just want to give you all an update after the vet returned our call...

 

They were in fact bladder stones (my husband thought they were kidney- probably because he just had kidney stones!) and they did culture the urine.

The urinary food is a safety precaution to help with making sure the infection is cleared up. And they do want us to bring him back in to be tested in a few months.

 

They did say for now the pee'ing is something we will have to deal with sue to the stones and surgery, but it should stop once he's feeling better.

 

That's all I got for now!

 

I did get a belly band for him to ear when we are at work. He already seems to not like it LOL

Edited March 2, 2015 by 2greyhoundMINI

[schultzlc]

I was just wondering how your Sidney was faring. Hopefully he'll be on the mend soon!