Sunday, July 23, 2017

Rambo Undergoes Surgery!

It was a cold, snowy December day.   Rambo and I got up early and went through our usual morning routine.  That generally includes taking Rambo out to relieve himself and, weather permitting, we play fetch for a while.  He is always full of energy and eager to play when he first gets up.  He is as much a morning dog as I am not a morning person.  

After our morning play session, I usually clean up dishes and such then its time to feed the hound.  Once he's caught his breath he gets his breakfast.  Between coming in from playing and the additional water he drinks after chowing down means he has to go back out to pee within an hour or two.  

It was cold and snowy out so I got us both dressed for the cold and figured we might take a short walk.  As expected, the first thing Rambo does when he gets outside is to go to pee.  I always try to give his pee and poop a once over every time he goes.  It's a great 15 second health check.  On this particular morning, as I glanced down at Rambo peeing, I was horrified to see a bright red spot in the snow and a stream of blood coming out when there should have been urine!

I can't tell you that I was calm and cool when I saw this.  In fact, it scared the hell out of me and I was sent into an instant panic.  Ok, maybe panic isn't the right word.  It was more of a high state of alarm with my only goal of getting Rambo to the vet immediately and I pity the fool that gets in my way.

Rambo's vet is only a couple of miles away and traffic wasn't heavy so he was in the vet's office within 15 minutes of his bloody urination.  The vet took him in right away.  They ran several blood tests and got an abdominal x-ray.  The x-ray showed two very large bladder stones and the vet said they will have to be removed.  The vet put him on antibiotics, gave me instructions on what to watch for and I was told to come back with Rambo on Monday to consult with the surgeon.  Once the surgeon got to give him a once over she scheduled the surgery for the next day.

The next morning came and I dropped Rambo off at the vets.  I couldn't go home and I didn't want to wait in the vet's office so I planted myself at the breakfast joint around the corner and started my clock watching.

Following way too many cups of coffee, the vet finally called.  She said the surgery went well, Rambo is doing fine and I can come pick him up in a couple of hours.  So I paid my extended breakfast bill and went to a Mexican place across the street for "lunch."  Ninety minutes later, I couldn't take it anymore and I went into the vet's office just a little bit early.

The vet came out and talked to me about the surgery.  She showed me a picture of the two nasty stones they took out of my dog's bladder.  As you can see in the picture below, there are plenty of sharp, jagged edges to tear up his bladder.



The vet sent the stones off for a biopsy to determine what kind of stones they are.  Apparently bladder stones result from different types of imbalances so the stones can be formed from different substances.  In Rambo's case, the stones turned out to be Struvite stones.  Struvite stones are made up of "triple phosphate and magnesium ammonium phosphate."  They are usually formed when a diet rich in potatoes and grains is fed to a dog or cat.  Rambo was on a vegetarian diet because he has protein allergies.  The vet explained that a dog usually has to be genetically susceptible to forming struvite stones and crystals.

The vet gave me a prescription for a special dog food (read: more expensive) that is formulated to prevent struvite crystals from forming in the urine.  Rambo has had two follow-up urine tests to see if he still has crystals in his urine.  Fortunately both tests have come back negative.  I take him in for two more tests over the next six months.  If his urine is clear of crystals at the one year mark we can consider putting him back on regular (non-vegetarian/grain-free) food and monitor him for another year.

Finally they said they would bring Rambo out to me.  Oh boy, he came out dragging his feet and looking totally miserable.  He was also drugged up to the max for pain and could barely walk.  To his chagrin, he was given The Cone of Shame to wear.


All at once I was so happy to see him and so concerned about him at the same time I just sat on the floor with him and gave him some loving until the office staff insisted that I get up and sign their paperwork.  They gave me antibiotics and pain meds for my poor dog then set us up with a follow up appointment.

Once we got home, Rambo pretty much slept the entire first 24 hours that he was home.  If it wasn't for the fact that I had to get him up to pee and to drink water I would have just let him sleep it off.  But now drinking and peeing were a priority for my fuzzy buddy and that is exactly what I will help him do.


After a few day it was obvious he was feeling better but he sure was damn miserable up until then.  He would sit on the sofa and just look like he felt awful.  There was nothing I could do for him but be close and attend to his needs.  He wanted to get up and go play fetch so bad I felt really bad for the little guy.  He managed to make it a full two weeks with the cone.  After his follow up appointment the vet said his incision was healed enough that he wouldn't harm it so off came the cone.  But still no active play for a couple more weeks.
Have you ever tried to entertain a dog that can't get outside to burn off some energy?  I tried everything that I could to keep him engaged but he really just wanted to go outside and run. 

The day he hit the date the vet said it would be safe for him to play again, we got up early and I drove Rambo to the beach and let him loose.  There is nothing in this world that this dog enjoys more than running on the beach and splashing in the water.  He is in a seriously good mood all day long if he gets some beach time in.


In a total act of compassion, I ended up in the emergency room not long after Rambo's surgery with severe abdominal pain.  They discovered I had a diseased gall bladder with some fun looking stones of my own.  Surgery was scheduled not long after Rambo's so I got fixed up as well.  Thankfully, I didn't have to wear The Cone of Shame.