My cat's x-ray shows bladder stones, but I don't see them. Are they?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. It is very hard to see on the attached x-ray if there is any problem with the urinary tract or. Some of the bladder stones come up on a plain x-ray and can be easily seen. I cannot see any obvious stone obstructing the bladder / urethra. However, some stones are radiolucent (do not come up on x-rays) and the cat would need a constrast x-ray or ultrsound of the bladder to detect them. In general, urethral blockage in young female cats are very uncommon. If Marshy is able to pass urine, other urinary tract diseases should be investigated. Urine analysis should be the next step of investigation (to rule in/out infection or bladder crystals) followed by an ultrasound of the abdomen and a blood test.

You are referring to the shape of the building blocks of the stones, these are indeed their shape but these can only be seen under high magnification with the microscope. the actual stone that is seen on the xray contains hundreds of thousands of these building blocks and the shape is usually round it being urate, struvite or any other type of stone, the shape will not help diagnosing the type of stone i'm afraid.

I'm so sorry but the x-rays are too grainy and blurry when we try to enlarge them. We cannot tell anything from these. Can you please post again with clearer photos? Also, the positioning of your cat in the x-rays is not good. The back legs need to pulled completely backwards so we can see the entire urethra. I agree with your vet and just based on the clinical signs I would say a urethra partial obstruction is likely (crystals or a stone). I would suggest the following: 1. Blood testing to check kidney function 2. Urine test to look for crystals, infection, etc. 3. Sandy should be sedated and a urethral catheter passed. Often times if there are crystals and/or a small stone blocking the urethra they can be flushed backwards into the bladder. Then a special diet can be prescribed to help dissolve the crystals/stones.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. There are definitely radiopaque dense gravel-like objects near the bladder and cranial to it as well. It would help to provide the x-ray where she is laying on her back as well. Multiple views on x-rays help pinpoint locations of objects if there is doubt as to where they are located. I would say that this looks to be near the bladder but not within the actual bladder itself because the same dense material can be found forward to the bladder on this x-ray, so it is likely GI tract. If you can provide a second view that would be great. It also appears that she has quite a bit of fecal material in her intestines. Is she constipated right now? If so, she may need an enema and stool softener. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Yes urinary stones can be present even though there are no signs at the moment, as antibiotics could possibly mask the signs. I would suggest either to stop antibiotics and see if the signs reoccur or to take an x-ray and rule out radiopaque stones. Alternatively ultrasound can be performed to rule out ALL type of stones (some of them cannot be seen with x rays). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

An ultrasound of the whole urinary tract can be helpful for patients with unexplained blood in the urine. This would be of the kidneys and bladder as blood can come from anywhere along the urinary system. X-rays of the abdomen, after a pet has been fasted for at least 12 hours, can also be helpful. This can be important in some cases as not all problems can be identified with an ultrasound, such as stones in the tubes that lead from the kidney to the urinary bladder (ureter). Additionally a urine culture may be helpful to make sure that there is no underlying infection that is causing the blood. And, it is important to know how the sample was obtained. If it was freely collected from the patient or in the litter box then it is more concerning. If the sample is obtained as a sterile sample directly from the urinary bladder with a needle, then sometimes the blood in the urine is from the sampling (best sample for culture though). I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Yes you should still switch him to the prescription diet, in an xray crystals cannot be seen unless they already formed a stone, so it does not mean that he doesn't have crystals in his bladder, it just means that the crystals have not formed bladder stones just yet. the prescription diet will prevent crystal formation as well as bladder stones.