Vick634
New User
Thought I would share with everyone and those who have some concerns about bladders stones in horses. I lost my beloved 25 year old TB gelding yesterday following surgery due to a bladder stone and my heart is breaking. I have owned him for 22 years and in January this year he stared really struggling passing urine. He passed a small stone which was sent off and came back as a calcium stone so we put him on cider apple vinegar to try and acidify his urine to prevent this. He seemed to be doing ok and then last week started displaying the same signs, struggling to urine, passing very small amounts 3 time in half hour it also had blood in it. He was taken to an Equine Hospital Friday where he was scanned and checked, bloods, rectal the whole works. The scan showed he had a bladder stone approx. 8cm diameter and the only way it was coming out was via a full anaesthetic. They can remove them standing sedation if they are 5cm or less.
I was dreading him having surgery and thought he wouldn't survive that. The surgery he had should have been an hour but turned into 4 hrs due to the position of the bladder and at 6.30pm I received the call saying he was standing and had recovered well but was not out the woods just yet. He was monitored every 10 mins and all his parameters were good. I was so excited to go and see him at 10am yesterday but I received a call at 3.30am saying he had sadly passed away. He decided to lie down and then put his head down and fell asleep. I am beyond consolation and can't see past the next 5 mins I just can't imagine my life without him. He saw my through my teenager years, marriage and my children and now gone.
The vet stated the stone is years old possibly up to 10 years and he was such a trooper as never showed any other signs other than the ones we noticed when he was struggling to pass urine. I worry that his diet was too high in calcium as he was such a poor doer so was on every fattening food going inc milk pellets but how was I to know I just wanted him to look and feel his best.
I wanted to share this with you as not a lot is known about stones and how/why they form and I just wished I had him routinely scanned years ago as I wouldn't possibly be writing this thread now. I am also sorry but I couldn't let them do a PM on him, I think the vet would have liked to as future research for others but he had been through enough I just
couldn't face it. The pet crem came to take him to Rainbow Bridge :-(
I was dreading him having surgery and thought he wouldn't survive that. The surgery he had should have been an hour but turned into 4 hrs due to the position of the bladder and at 6.30pm I received the call saying he was standing and had recovered well but was not out the woods just yet. He was monitored every 10 mins and all his parameters were good. I was so excited to go and see him at 10am yesterday but I received a call at 3.30am saying he had sadly passed away. He decided to lie down and then put his head down and fell asleep. I am beyond consolation and can't see past the next 5 mins I just can't imagine my life without him. He saw my through my teenager years, marriage and my children and now gone.
The vet stated the stone is years old possibly up to 10 years and he was such a trooper as never showed any other signs other than the ones we noticed when he was struggling to pass urine. I worry that his diet was too high in calcium as he was such a poor doer so was on every fattening food going inc milk pellets but how was I to know I just wanted him to look and feel his best.
I wanted to share this with you as not a lot is known about stones and how/why they form and I just wished I had him routinely scanned years ago as I wouldn't possibly be writing this thread now. I am also sorry but I couldn't let them do a PM on him, I think the vet would have liked to as future research for others but he had been through enough I just
Big hugs.