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Kidney Stones

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:42 pm
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
I took Lucy into our Vet's office this morning for a urine test. The Vet was surprised by how clean her urine was. There was no blood or crystals, it looked really good.

So he did an Xray and found that she has kidney stones in the renal pelvis area of her kidney where it joins to the ureter.

He's waiting for the labs to come back from her urine.

He told me that he's seen one other cat with kidney stones like Lucy's. He referred the cat to specialists, but the cat wasn't a good candidate for surgery.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:52 pm
by kayrharris
So, you're waiting to see what treatment he thinks would be best?
How long until the test is back?

Can you tell patience is not one of my strong suits??

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:56 pm
by Ritterskoop
They get both kidney stones and bladder stones. The bladder stones they remove, if they aren't going to remove themselves.

Dub has kidney stones but they are leaving them in there. They say sometimes they do more damage digging them out, depending on where they are, so they just leave them alone if they're not causing trouble.

If Lucy is losing weight, these may need to be dug out. But still, this is relatively easy surgery, so it is much better news than it could have been.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:17 pm
by Estonut
There have been lots of mentions of stones here lately, of the gall, kidney and bladder variety. I haven's seen anyone mention lithotripsy as a solution. Don't they use sound waves to break these suckers up, any more? I thought this was the non-invasive (sound) wave of the future for such conditions.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:21 pm
by ulysses5019
Estonut wrote:There have been lots of mentions of stones here lately, of the gall, kidney and bladder variety. I haven's seen anyone mention lithotripsy as a solution. Don't they use sound waves to break these suckers up, any more? I thought this was the non-invasive (sound) wave of the future for such conditions.
What about the Rolling Stones? Or was that Bianca who tried to break them up?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:47 pm
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
Ritterskoop wrote:They get both kidney stones and bladder stones. The bladder stones they remove, if they aren't going to remove themselves.

Dub has kidney stones but they are leaving them in there. They say sometimes they do more damage digging them out, depending on where they are, so they just leave them alone if they're not causing trouble.

If Lucy is losing weight, these may need to be dug out. But still, this is relatively easy surgery, so it is much better news than it could have been.
As I understand things, they can't really do anything for the stones because they are concentrated in the area where her kidney joins the ureter. The stones are going to get bigger and kill off more good kidney tissue.

I bought some of the special food, he said that it wouldn't hurt.

Since we have really hard water, I have been using bottled water in their drinking fountain, but not in the water downstairs. As of today, it's all bottled water. We are also doing to start closing the toilets so that she can't drink that water.

In the meantime, I have to wait for the test results to come back.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 6:54 pm
by frogman042
ulysses5019 wrote:
Estonut wrote:There have been lots of mentions of stones here lately, of the gall, kidney and bladder variety. I haven's seen anyone mention lithotripsy as a solution. Don't they use sound waves to break these suckers up, any more? I thought this was the non-invasive (sound) wave of the future for such conditions.
What about the Rolling Stones? Or was that Bianca who tried to break them up?
Blame it on Bob Dylan's 'Rain Day Women No. 12 & 35' - he said everyone must get stones. When I had my kidney stone - I found that listening to George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' very comforting.

---Jay (# of days == # of wanderer's that the ancients thought existed)

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:15 pm
by silvercamaro
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
I bought some of the special food, he said that it wouldn't hurt.

Since we have really hard water, I have been using bottled water in their drinking fountain, but not in the water downstairs. As of today, it's all bottled water. We are also doing to start closing the toilets so that she can't drink that water.

In the meantime, I have to wait for the test results to come back.
It's good that you are doing what you can do. For any of us, that's all we can do.

The girls and I send special get-better wishes to Lucy.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:23 pm
by TheConfessor
Good luck with the vet and the pet. Watch Duel tonight for a related question.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:58 pm
by SportsFan68
Good luck, Lucy!

Hope everything turns out all right.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:02 pm
by T_Bone0806
Hoping Lucy will get better and not be in pain.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:10 pm
by 65.ErmineN8rH8r.500
T_Bone0806 wrote:Hoping Lucy will get better and not be in pain.

That is a very nice sentiment, and I wholeheartedly agree.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:51 pm
by ontellen
So sorry to hear about this. My daughter's cat had to be put down last week with kidney stones. They had also gotten into his urethra and they would have had to rebuild his penis and even then couldn't guarantee any results. Poor Philly was only 9 - rather young for a cat.

Philly was the only male cat I know who had tried to be spayed. My son-in-law was told he was a she and had him sent in to be spayed. They shaved him, cut him open, and the vet said where's the uterus?

Poor Phil was named after Phil Mickelson so it was great that he really was a guy. He was a beautiful white fluffy guy and will be missed.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:04 am
by PlacentiaSoccerMom
ontellen wrote:So sorry to hear about this. My daughter's cat had to be put down last week with kidney stones. They had also gotten into his urethra and they would have had to rebuild his penis and even then couldn't guarantee any results. Poor Philly was only 9 - rather young for a cat.
Lucy is 9 years old too.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:10 am
by hermillion
Poor Lucy, and poor Suchard clan! I wish you all the best -- even herjosie sends kitty snuggles, cause she loves kitties!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:46 am
by peacock2121
I'm not sure if this is good news or not. I think it is. Stones are better than failure, yes?

May she be able to live many more years with those pesky stones.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:19 am
by mrkelley23
Having heard about how painful kidney stones are for 200 pound humans, I can't imagine what they must be for cat-sized critters.

Hugs and a warm place in the Sun for Lucy.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:47 am
by littlebeast13
As one who got stoned almost 5 years ago, I have to say with surprise that I had no idea cats got kidney stones.....

lb13

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:27 pm
by ghostjmf
Good luck, Cat Lucy.

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:14 pm
by a1mamacat
Hugs for Lucy, and hopes that the water change will work