Nemo’s bladder procedure

We arrived earlier this week to find Nemo in la-la land, with trainer Patty holding him steady and giving him some love. It was odd, and kinda sad to see Mr. Personality all doped up. Brad relieved Patty, and took over care of his sweet sleepy boy. Vet Dave was able to make it earlier then expected, and we had just missed his procedure. We were however able to see the end result, and talk about the procedure with him.

They sedated Nemo in order to be able to insert a catheter to flush what I believe was a sterile saline solution through his bladder. They used a clear bag of sorts, at the end of a clear tube to pump it in. What came out was an entire bucket full of watered down urine, and at the bottom was an unbelievable amount of thick butter colored calcium slurry. The calcium was a consistency similar to very fine sand, that clung to the bottom of the pail. We were all in awe not only at the amount, but how it sunk and hung to the bottom of the bucket. No wonder Nemo had trouble pushing it out. Poor guy.

Dave had manually worked Nemo’s bladder to push the calcium out, and said his bladder felt much smaller without all that stuff in there. He did another ultrasound, things looked good. Dave finished up by giving him a preventive shot of penicillin, and told us to watch him for an infection from the catheter. I asked what to look for. He said constant short bursts of urine, and that if Nemo was to get an infection it would show up within the next couple days. He also suggested when we take him home and put him back in the pasture, to put small salt shavings in his grain during the summer to keep him drinking water. His hope is now that the calcium build-up has been removed, it will be easier for Nemo to push out a regular amount. In our vet’s 25 years of active practice, Nemo is only his third case. With all the bajillion horses in and out of Patty's training facility (also in the past 25 years) she had never heard of, or seen, calcium build-up. It is that rare.

Brad put Nemo back in his stall to finish waking up, while Patty & I tacked up and went out to an open field to ride. Altho I felt bad Brad couldn’t join us, we had an awesome ride – just the two of us (well four, including our mounts). She has such a pretty farm, and with all the rain we’ve had – it felt so good to be outside. After our field ride, we went on a short trail ride on her property, and then headed inside so she could work with her next appointment while I did some arena work. I asked Brad if he wanted to ride Koda, and he did for a little bit. Not sure if it was my saddle, or my pooped pony, or combination there of - but he wasn’t too thrilled.

Nemo had started to lie down in his stall, and we all got a little concerned. I suggested Brad walk him now that he was awake, while Patty called vet Dave. He wasn’t rolling, but kept lying down. She thought he was just uncomfortable, and needed some bute. She was right, that’s exactly what vet Dave said. So Patty gave him some, as well as a block of salt to push around. Nemo seemed better, and started to eat. I think she could tell we didn’t want to leave, and assured us she would check on him. It was SO hard to leave Nemo…if he was home, we would have slept by his side and never left. In Patty we trust, so we headed home. Brad drove up the next morning to see Nemo, and said he was his old self. They were getting ready to work him. It was business as usual.

what’s going on back there?

Before we rode last night, our vet Dave did an ultrasound of Nemo’s bladder to check things out. The ultrasound is done rectally. He wasn’t sure how Nemo would deal with the procedure. Amazingly he stood for the whole exam without fussing. Altho you could tell by the look on Nemo’s face he really wanted to see what was going on behind him. I think he found out, without looking.

We watched the ultrasound screen with Dave, and learned that Nemo doesn’t have any stones. It’s a good thing. Stones must be removed surgically. However he does have a build-up of crystals in his bladder. He shared every horse forms calcium carbonate crystals, but they usually go unnoticed and are deposited naturally. In Nemo’s case they are building up, and may have been for a while. As you can imagine complications can occur if the crystals are left to continue to build up. We didn’t get into those details, not sure I want to know. Dave recommended a funnel procedure to try and flush the crystals out. Hopefully it will work, and they won’t reoccur. Unfortunately the reality is that Nemo will be more susceptible to a reoccurrence. There is medicine to help control the build up, but we’ll stay away from that unless needed. It’s hard to pick up on the problem, and we are thankful to the Farrier at Iron Horse, and Assistant Trainer Shauna who noticed Nemo’s odd tinkling behavior on separate occasions.

It doesn’t seem to bother him, and he rode fine. Patty couldn’t be available for our ride, so Shauna took her place. She did a nice job. Brad got a few new pointers on working with Nemo, and helped me with my lope too. She’s awesome. At one point I was on the wrong lead. I couldn’t tell. If that was Koda’s wrong lead I’m in trouble, it was pretty smooth. Other then that, it went even better then last time. I think Fern Valley was right, perhaps we turned a corner.