My senior dog leaks urine after bladder stone surgery. What's wrong?

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Louis. The leaking of urine should resolve with time and is typically the result of residual inflammation within his urinary tract. It is a good sign that he is eating, drinking and acting normally. However, I recommend contacting his veterinarian tomorrow to alert them of the problem. I hope this information helps!

It sounds like Blacky had a urinary tract infection, which sometimes can become recurrent or resistant and difficult to treat. His urine may need to be cultured again to see if the infection has resolved. Sometimes bladder stones or polyps, or diseases like Cushing's or kidney disease could also cause urine leakage. Finally, he may have urinary incontinence due to a neurologic issue and require medication to help stop the leakage. I would recommend talking to your veterinarian to see if there are any additional tests they would recommend.

It isn't normal for a pet to leak this long post surgery, so there was likely a complication during the surgery. I would inform your vet about the symptoms and see if this can be resolved with medication (i.e. Prazosin) first and go from there. Hopefully this can be resolved and doesn't indicate a permanent issue for Hades. I wish you all the best moving forward. Take care!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The urinary tract symptoms you describe could be due to a urinary tract infection, urinary stones, a tumor, among other possibilities. I recommend that you have him evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Further diagnostics would include abdominal imaging and lab work. Treatment would be based on findings. Good luck and have a good night!

That's a tough case. If the ultrasound did not include evaluation of the kidneys and ureters (tubes leading from kidney to bladder), it may be worthwhile to have this evaluated using ultrasound or CT. Some patients have ureters that are implanted abnormally in the bladder wall leading to urinary accidents. The second question would be whether or not he has crystals in the urine which may lead to irritation and accidents. The third question is the thickening in the bladder wall...what is it? Can it be aspirated? You need to discuss these questions with your veterinarian or possibly a veterinary internal medicine specialist.

Hi and thanks for posting! It can take anywhere from 10-14 days or sometimes a little longer before the bladder can heal after surgery and regain normal stream of urine. It is not uncommon for there to be a shorter urine stream or for patients that have had bladder surgery to urinate more frequently than usual. This should subside in about 1-2 weeks.

I'm happy to hear that Lill's tumor was benign. There are a couple of possibilities going on, but having a splenectomy should not result in urinary incontinence. Sometimes we will see dogs have to urinate more after surgery due to the amount of fluids that we give them during surgery, but this commonly passes after a couple of days. Since Lill is also drinking more water, I would make sure that her bloodwork was normal after surgery (as well as before). If that is the case, then I would have your vet check a urine sample. If surgery was 3 weeks ago and this is continuing, I doubt it will pass on its own, so I would take her to the vet again to investigate the problem. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.