[Stones] Health: Stone-Free Brownie Bear!!!

[Leah McNeil]

Hello Slaves! 
Well, let me give you all the juicy details 
of yesterday's event. Well, I got up extra 
early and dropped off the Bear at the Vet's 
around 8:15am. Then, I went to work. Dr. 
Griffin's office and staff are just Wonderful 
people, so they had already set up BB's 
cage with Cavy Cuisine, and tim. hay and 
water bottle. And I had brought some green 
pepper and endive lettuce for her to eat 
after the procedure. 

I worried all day, but I tried not to. Because 
it was consuming me. I just kept thinking, 
"What if she doesn't wake up???" So, I tried 
to think Happy thoughts. 

Well, after I got the call from the Vet's, I was 
Ecstatic! 

Apparently, it wasn't just one stone, it was 
more like 5 bladder stones...Urrrrrrrrgh. And 
they were able to save 4 of them for me. 
The one BIG one was about 3-4 mm across 
and it had ragged edges. It was almost as 
wide as Lincoln's head on a US penny. Wow. 
The big stone wasn't that big a couple of 
weeks ago when I had x-rays done, but it 
grew in size pretty rapidly because I had 
gotten pretty agressive with her treatment 
(Lasix and 2 Shilintong tablets per day and I 
was syringing her tons of extra water during BBPH), 
so a lot more of the 'stuff' was being flushed out. 
And so those calcium deposits were sticking 
to that big stone and not getting through. I 
mean, I don't want to think that I was killing 
her, but well, you know we always blame 
ourselves. I'm just glad that Dr. G got the 
stones out of her... 

Oh, and that big stone was never going to pass. 
It was stuck at the end of her urethra. So, Dr. G 
went in through the urethra and removed it, as 
well as 4 smaller stones. Then, he put a catheter 
in her bladder through the urethra and drained 
a whole bunch of that yucky bladder sludge/crud 
out. They took digital pigtures of the procedure 
and showed them to me. I was amazed that so 
much gunk was up in there. They also told me 
that during the procedure, even though B-Bear 
was asleep, her bodily functions would still respond, 
and that after the Big stone was removed, her 
heart rate stabilized. So, her poor, little body has 
been under so much stress. :-( I feel so guilty. 
I should have had x-rays done sooner and not 
just assumed that that last stone would pass. 
I mean, it should have passed, it was definitely 
small enough on the x-rays from Dr. C (in Virginia). 
But, I guess something happened down there and 
it got stuck. 

Well, I'm not having the stones analyzed this time, 
because I already know that she has the Calcium 
Carbonate kind. But, Dr. G did take a urine culture 
and that will determine which antibiotic is best for 
her in the future. Also, I saw the follow-up x-rays 
and everything was clear...Whew! Oh, and I have 
BB on Baytril, Metacam, and Shlingtong. 

I am sooooooo Happy that my Brownie Bear is 
Stone-Free again...Woooooo Hooooooooooo! 
I feel like Celebrating. 

THANK YOU again for all of your Prayers and 
Concern. I don't know what I would do without you 
guys. Sorry this is so long, but you know me, I can't 
help it. :-) 

        Love 'n Wheeeeeeeeeps, 
            Leah...Slave to Brownie Bear 
                               & Butterscotch :-)

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