OUCH!

Believe it or not, these are just some of the bladder stones from one dog. I've only seen 2 dogs in 20 years of practice with this particular type of stone. Most stones are made of calcium-oxalate, magnesium-ammonium-phosphate or urate. These unique stones are silica and have a "jackstone" appearance. Noone knows why some dogs get them. This patient had several lodged in his urethra and was quite painful. Fortunately, I was able to use a technique called urethrohydropulsion to flush them back into the bladder where they were easily removed. Without this technique, they have to be removed by an incision into the urethra with a resulting painful, complicated recovery. Few men wouild have trouble sympathizing with this dog, but the good news is that he was feeling great within a few days!