“Ellie” is a sweet and friendly 4 ½ year old Shih Tzu mix who arrived at Manchaca Road Animal Hospital on Friday, January 23rd in severe distress.
The owners thought she might be constipated or having diarrhea. They had seen her straining in the yard and brought her in for an examination. The examination combined with her symptoms and a radiograph revealed the reason for her extreme discomfort. Ellie had bladder stones. Even worse, the grit and crystals were blocking her urethra. She was very sick and in a great deal of pain. She could not urinate because of the blockage. We rushed Ellie into emergency exploratory surgery. Upon making an incision into her abdomen, a large amount of fluid was found that turned out to be her urine. The blockage in her urethra had caused a tear and due to the location of the tear it could not be repaired surgically. Instead we placed a urinary catheter bypassing the urethral tear. This catheter had to remain in place for 2 weeks until the urethra healed by itself. Ellie wasn’t out of the woods yet! She still had elevated kidney values and peritonitis to deal with. Time and intensive care would tell if she could pull through. We hospitalized Ellie and treated her with intravenous fluids, antibiotics, pain medication and a special diet. On February 6, 1 week post-surgery, Ellie was doing great. Except for the urethral catheter to void urine, she was free of other devices and maintaining food and water intake on her own. She was feeling good, very happy and loving. On February 13, Ellie’s urinary catheter was removed. This was exactly 2 weeks after her surgery. She had healed completely and was able to urinate normally. Ellie was finally able to go home to her happy owners. Ellie was an ideal patient and we all fell in love with her while she spent two weeks at Manchaca Road Animal Hospital.