[Gpdd] HEALTH: Bladder Rupture - CAUTION: Long and sad...

[Stephen Bradley]

You may recall that we recently lost our dear Mr. Mike T. Pig; what we have since learned is that what he actually died of was a ruptured bladder.  We wanted to pass along some information about what happened, since this seems to be rare enough that neither we nor the vets were on guard for it.

 

He was having other health issues - loss of weight despite good food consumption, plus markedly increased drinking and urination  - and we decided, with the vet, that a urine sample would be a good idea.  What she apparently did was to try to "express" urine, basically by squeezing on his bladder.  This is apparently not uncommon, and the potential for the injury that did occur was not raised beforehand.  As far as we can tell, his bladder was ruptured during the process - although the vet didn't realize it at the time.

 

When he first came home, he seemed out-of-sorts; he went into hiding, and did not want to eat or drink.  He was on a critical care feeding schedule anyway; we gave him his critical care and some water, and noticed that he was passing stool but not urinating.  It was now evening, and we consulted a vet hospital by phone, and a vet friend of ours (bless her!) actually came over to our house to feel his belly, but the basic conclusion all around was:  his bladder doesn't feel distended, and he doesn't seem to be straining to urinate, so he doesn't have a blockage.  He's probably OK; keep an eye on him.  

 

By early morning, he was more obviously in distress - still not trying to urinate, but very lethargic, and still not passing urine.  We took him back to the vet, and they took X-rays and ultrasound and said that his bladder was not distended - in fact they were having trouble seeing it, which should have been a clue.  They also said that there had been some bacteria in his urine sample, and gave us Baytril to try him on to see if it would improve things.  We took him home, and gave him some of that; we were thinking that if that didn't have any positive effect, the only other option would be the local veterinary hospital.  Over the course of the next hour, he basically got weaker and weaker, and was gone.  In total, a bit less than 24 hours had passed since the attempt to collect the urine sample.


The vet discovered the ruptured bladder in post-mortem exam.  The urine he was generating was collecting in his body without filling his bladder, which is why it didn't show up on X-rays or feel distended.  The vet reported that his bladder wall was somewhat thickened, and felt that the rupture would not have happened if there hadn't been some underlying disease.

 

His usual vet (who had been away) later told us that she has never heard of this happening before, so it's perhaps not surprising that nobody thought of it or warned us about it - but she also said that she herself never tries to "express" urine this way.  She indicated that it might have been possible to repair surgically, if it had been diagnosed in time.  There were not many symptoms other than the failure to pass urine: there were a pair of small spots of blood on one of his towels, and we saw a little more blood on his penis.  His weight was rising, as would be expected, given that we were still putting some water into him.  (I can provide more details to anyone who wants them.)

 

We feel so awful, of course, but hopefully alerting you all may help somebody in the future avoid the same outcome.

 

 Rest in peace, little guy...



Steve and Ginger, slaves to

Bumper, Cuddles, and Brownie (hey, we didn't name them)

Remembering Niles, Clover, Butterscotch, and now Mr. Mike T. Pig, always...