Cystotomy homecare

Your pet just had a surgery to remove uroliths (stones) or take a sample of its bladder. Therefore, we had to open the bladder. The most common complication that can result after that kind of surgical procedure is urine leaking into the abdomen. This urine leak can come from the incision site of the bladder or from another place if the bladder wall is inflamed and fragile during surgery. There will be development of peritonitis, resulting with these symptoms: loos of appetite, lethargy, vomiting, dehydration, abdominal distention with pain, and unfortunately possibly death .Even though your pet may urine normally. If any of those symptoms appear (usually in the first days following surgery), please contact us immediately.

Your pet is now ready to return home. From the moment your pet leaves the hospital, you become entirely responsible for its welfare. In order to insure healing without complications, we suggest you to follow these recommendations:

- To control and prevent infection, we prescribed antibiotics.

- To control post-surgical pain, we prescribed pain-killer.

- Once we’ve receive d the uroliths analysis results (in about 1 month), we will contact you to discuss about the appropriate diet that you must offer to your pet, in order to prevent recurrences. We will also give you some recommendations about the monitoring of its condition short and long term. In the mean time, we suggest you to feed your pet with a special diet. It’s always preferable to give wet food, at least during the first month, due to the high water content.

- The stitches or surgical staples must be removed within 10-14 days. Make sure you pet always wears its Elizabethan collar until they’ve been removed.

- It’s important that you keep your pet at rest at least the stitches have been removed. If your pet is a cat and it normally goes outside, it would be best to keep it inside during the recovery period.

- Keep an eye on the wound for any signs of redness, swelling, seeping and appearance of pain.

Do not worry if your pet doesn’t pass a stool during the first few days, it often happens after general anesthesia. However if your pet has difficulty to pass a stool , or if it doesn’t pass any at all after 3 days, please contact us. Also, it’s normal to see some blood in the urine during the first days. However, the quantity should progressively decrease.