I had a hard time finding information in a single place about what to expect when your dog needs a cystotomy (and Reddit users tend to forget to check back in after asking a similar question to your own).
And then add in an atypical recovery process.
🫠
So, join me as I detail the stressful misadventure from start to end.
What we’re covering:
Meet the bladder stone creator
Here’s Pepper, my (now very expensive) potato.
Adorable, I know.
How it started
On July 29, Pepper started showing symptoms of a UTI. Her vet couldn’t see her until August 1, so we took her to urgent care to get her checked out.
They ran a urine test and found an infection and crystals, and recommended x-rays to see if there were stones present.
Surprise, there were stones. 🫠
Given the bladder stone discovery, I opted to keep the August 1 appointment with our usual vet.
In the in-between
Sent home with antibiotics and anti-nausea medicine, we figured we’d have to deal with UTI symptoms for a bit longer. Still stressful, but at least we had an idea of what we were dealing with.
However, as the week went on, we noticed these after Pepper peed:
So here is where we start diverging from the usual vet blogs online about dog bladder stones. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything about whether it was typical for dogs with bladder stones to be expelling said stones when they pee. Especially stones that large.
The best I could find is that male dogs are prone to blockages, females less so, but nothing about whether it’s expected behavior for dogs with bladder stones to be passing stones. Yay.
(Pro tip: it’s not normal/expected.)
The vet appointment
August 1 finally arrived and, armed with a baggy of mystery stones, we took Pepper to her check up.
While the vet tech was checking us in, I handed her the bag of stones and told her I wasn’t sure what they were, but that we’d found four of them in places where Pepper had gone potty.
The vet tech was horrified and took the bag to show the rest of the team.
When the vet arrived, we discussed options for Pepper’s bladder stones, either trying to dissolve them with diet or surgery. She didn’t push for one option over the other, but did mention that diet may not work if they’re the wrong type of stone and that we could be dealing with recurring UTIs while the stones dissolved. I couldn’t put Pepper through the possibility of months of UTIs or antibiotics, so we opted for the cystotomy.
Luckily for us, the vet had an opening the next day for surgery.
Cystotomy day
Bright and early on August 2, we arrived at the vet for Pepper’s cystotomy. The vet tech doing intake let us know that Pepper would probably be the last surgery of the morning and they’d call when she was out.
The vet called around 2pm and once again Pepper diverged from the norm.
She explained that the surgery started later than they’d intended because Pepper declined to allow them to place the catheter. They ended up having to sedate her before they were able to put her under. 🙈
Once the vet opened up Pepper’s bladder, the stones weren’t there. She panicked a bit and realized that the stones had all emptied from the bladder and were in her urethra.
So the vet had to flush the stones back up into the bladder to remove them and the surgery proceeded as usual from there.
She let us know that Pepper was doing great and would be ready at 5pm. Sweet.
After the cystotomy
Armed with even more antibiotics and now some painkillers, it was recovery time. Here’s the details we were given:
- No jumping or running for two weeks
- Must wear e-collar to prevent Pepper from bothering her stitches
- Expect blood in urine while the bladder heals
- Possibility for increased urgency until the bladder inflammation goes down (7-10 days expected)
- Begin transition to prescription dog food to avoid future stones (😭)
All reasonable information, so we settled into the two week recovery.
Jack wanted to be sure Pepper stayed warm.
The first two weeks dragged on, but proceeded as expected. Pepper’s requests to go out to potty were decreasing and things were going smoothly.
However, once we ran out of painkillers, the urgency to urinate returned. And that’s where the information online ran out.
By the three week point, I called the vet to see if this was expected behavior. They said it could possibly be continued inflammation, but if we were worried about it being a UTI, they could run another pee test.
Pepper had finished her antibiotics the same day I called the vet, so a UTI was unlikely. I told the vet we’d keep an eye on her and wait it out.
Four weeks later
At the four week mark in the recovery, Pepper is still asking to pee constantly. Her stitches have largely finished healing and everything else seems fine.
But she still needs to go outside constantly. 😓
This is where the Reddit searches began and were largely fruitless. There were posts about how their dogs were still asking to go outside beyond the timeframes provided by the vet.
No follow-up responses, though. Understandable, but kind of frustrating regardless.
Pepper’s birthday landed this week, and her new RX diet means no extras outside of her RX food. Meaning, no birthday treats.
😭
We got Pepper a new ball instead of birthday treats.
Five weeks later
At the start of the fifth week after Pepper’s surgery, her incision was fully healed… for two days.
And then the suture reaction started. 😪
I’ll spare you the pictures, but a small blister formed on Pepper’s previously smooth incision. It was slightly red, but everything else around the blister was fine.
Again called the vet, they said that it’s rare, but not unusual. They advised keeping an eye on it and that it should go down in a week.
Great.
Six weeks later
The suture reaction did indeed go down after about a week, so Pepper opted for normalcy in this instance.
😒
The requests to go out to pee constantly have finally resolved at this point as well. 😮💨
And seven weeks later
Pepper is back to her usual self, but we’re in the midst of transitioning her from the original RX food (Hill’s Prescription Diet c/d Multicare + Metabolic, Urinary + Weight Care) to a different option (Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets UR Urinary Ox/St).
Pepper likes both, but the Hill’s option had a ton of fiber versus typical dry dog foods, which led to a lot of extra gas (and 💩). Gas wouldn’t usually be a problem, but Pepper is scared of her own farts.
🤦♀️
She’s back to flyball practice at full speed and the gas has abated, so all’s well for Pepper the princess.
Summing it up
This post was long, but hopefully it helps other dogs post-cystotomy. The last almost two months have felt like forever, but Pepper is happy and settled now, and we’re resigned to our post-RX food life.
All dogs are different and Pepper opted for hard-mode.
🫠
Until next time.
~Stacey
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