Max is spending a few days at the vet school

My dear partner Max is currently at the NCSU Veterinary School recovering from a painful condition. Over the weekend we noticed that he was dribbling a little urine just a drip, drip, drip type of thing but all the same not normal. Monday morning his urethra was swollen and extended. Veterinary investigation revealed a stone the size of a grape which had travelled down his urethra and was blocking the normal flow of urine. Once this was extracted (poor Max he was a superstar throughout this whole episode) they were able to drain his bladder with a stallion catheter.


Max was referred to the Vet school for further diagnostics to establish if this stone was the lone ranger or if there were others. The Vets and students at NCSU were fabulous and very efficient. They scoped his urethra and bladder using a color camera which was pretty cool to see. The procedure took quite a long time as they wanted to flush some of the accumulated “sludge” out of his bladder as well as evaluate if the flow of urine into the bladder was normal. Although there was significant swelling and trauma the general consensus was that things were relatively normal. They did however find a second stone which looks pretty sizable on the scope. They said it was difficult to attain an accurate measurement of its size.

The Vets followed up with kidney ultrasounds and blood work looking for abnormalities. Although, there were a few abnormal indicators they felt that these were likely caused by the stress of the day. Having listened to the options I decided that Max should remain at the Vet school and provided today’s blood work comes back normal (they are primarily concerned with kidney damage) he will have a standing procedure on Friday to remove that second stone and clean/flush his bladder. The Doctor assured me that the surgery is pretty easy on horses with of course the usual risks associated with this type of medical procedure. At 27 years of age I wanted to be sure that Max does not have to endure too much to fix the problem.

He was on fluids last night and was urinating during the night, which is a good sign. His appetite is good and he appears to be in good shape considering what he has been through.

So keep Max in your thoughts, although he is 27 years old he is in great physical shape and my hope is that he will be able to return to a normal horse life once he recovers.