Bladder stone surgery

[Dee$kee]

Can anyone help me feel better about going about this surgery for my cat…any personal experiences you’d like to share, good or bad? I know it’s the best thing to do as she isn’t showing fast enough improvement in regards to dissolving the large stone she currently has. My cat has a scheduled xray appointment in a couple days to see the size from last time but I know surgery is the next option. My cat is so tiny I just don’t know if she’d be able to handle the traumatic surgery. I wanna cry just thinking about it. That, and I am also having a hard time going through with the $2,000+ surgery when I know the stones are very likely to reoccur.

 

[fionasmom]

Fiona herself had bladder stone surgery when she was about nine years old. We had had repeated urinary tract infections, leading up to a big one on Mother’s Day, at which point the vet recommended the surgery. She did absolutely fine with it and we had no more infections and no recurrences of the stones, and she lived to be 16. this was a few years ago but it was pricey, at least out here. I paid $1500 at the time.

I certainly understand your concerns about putting your cat through surgery.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Feeby had bladder surgery at the age of 5 for oxalate stones, which don't dissolve through dietary changes, so there were no other options. She did just fine, but we did put her on urinary care food to help prevent future stone formation. We stopped giving her those foods a number of years ago as she decided she no longer liked them. However, she also weaned herself off of any dry food, so she only gets regular commercial canned food. She is 19+yo and, knock-on-wood, has not had any issues with stones since. Her surgery was less than $1K, but that was also nearly 15 years ago.

 

[Dee$kee]

Thank you. Well, turns out it will be closer to $3000. Going to have it done next week..just hoping all goes well and the stones don’t come back!

 

[cejhome]

Our previous kitty, Nilla had to have surgery for calcium oxalate stones. It went well. I can't remember much - its been quite a while. She had two type of surgery closures - dissolvable stitches and surgical glue.

We kept her in a small spare bedroom for recovery. I made sure there was nothing she could jump on. She wore a soft cone to protect the surgery site from her licking it. She did very well. We hated her being in there, so we would go in there and sit with her as much as we could. I would take her cone off after the first week for a bit, so she could relax without it and groom - 100% under supervision. I think she had to be in that room for two weeks.

The cone was like a plastic one, except fabric with some sort of inter part that was partly stiff - enough to not fold easily but the edges weren't hard so that she would bonk it on things. It worked very well for her.

She was on the special food for a long time. She hated wet food, so I would add a one to two tablespoons of water to her dry food. She would drink down the water and then eat her crunchies. I fed her multiple small meals a day so I could get as much water in her as possible.

She never had a reoccurrence of the stones - she would have digital radiographs a couple times a year. She was about 5 years old when this occured.