kidney stones

Tornado is an 11 year old male long hair. He has a UTI and is on antibiotics. I took him back to the vet today as he is still peeing and pooping outside the litter box.

He was xrayed and has at least one stone in his bladder. The vet wants to operate to avoid problems. I trust the vet, but I am not thrilled with spending $1000 on surgery.

I know as a male cat we could have more problems if he tries to pass the stone, and there is a possibility that there may be more stones.

Would love to hear pros and cons on doing the surgery which I have scheduled for Tuesday.

If the stone is "struvite", yes there's a good chance it could be dissolved with diet and or medicine. Problem is, he will be passing little bits of it for awhile. Those crystals can easily block his urethra over and over, which is a painful, potentially life threatening and expensive situation each time it happens. A large struvite stone, yes I think I would opt for surgery. He will likely need a special diet after the surgery, to avoid a new stone.

If the stone is "calcium oxalate" there is no way to dissolve it...it has to be removed manually by operating.

What are they doing in the operation, just removing the stone(s)?

Yes, she will remove the stone/stones and flush out the kidneys. Tornado will be on a special diet which I am not thrilled with, but we will do what we need to do. I just recently switch Tornado and Phoebe to Innova Senior to add more fiber to their diet. I am not fond of the RX foods!

He also had an elevated calcium level which is somewhat of a concern. About 6 years ago Tornado had an elevated calcium level while we were with another vet and went through many tests, ultrasounds and x-rays; everything looked good. It was decided that the elevated levels were just his normal as no cancer or any other problems were found. If his level has remained elevated for the past 6 years with no problems, I am not real worried about that.