This is an archived Horseadvice.com Discussion. The parent article and menus are available on the navigation menu below:
HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Urinary System » Kidney Stones »
  Discussion on Recurring Kidney Stones
Author Message

Posted on Saturday, Apr 13, 2002 - 10:45 pm:

We took in a rescue/retiree this winter who was in extreme distress from a urinary blockage. W/out going into every detail, he spent two weeks at the veterinary clinic where he underwent a penile bisection due to the heavy necrotic condition of the organ resulting from the blockage and a p.u. Remarkably, he has thrived in many ways since the surgery - very happy, gained all his weight back, etc. He is an aged gelding for which this was the second bout w/stones. Recently, we noticed that his urine was streaming out uncontrolled and was dark. The vet came and lavaged him (2d time in 2 months) - he had more stones - the lavage got out the smaller ones but one large one remains - the horse is not in distress. Since another procedure is not possible financially and also we think this may just keep recurring, we will continue to lavage him every few weeks. But is there anything else we can do to try and avoid recurrence?

Also, his hind legs are in rough shape from scalding despite our efforts to keep him clean. Would be great if we could close the p.u. site but due to the continuing problem of the stones, we can't. his penis has healed and the vet says if the recurring problem was not an issue he would recommend going back to the normal route!

We would really like to make this guy more comfortable if possible - any advice? Thank you, Helene

Posted on Monday, Apr 15, 2002 - 4:48 am:

Have you looked into lithotripsy for treating the remaining stones? Virginia Veterinary School has done some of this (see the article). Also you might try the acidification routine in the article after discussing it with your vet. The best thing you can do for the scalding is keeping the legs clean and applying Desitin or vaseline to protect the areas.
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Apr 17, 2002 - 8:41 am:

I may be remembering things wrong and as it is early morning I will just shoot from the cuff and trust any errors will be promptly corrected.

UC Davis suspects high magnesium levels to contribute to the formation of stones. Diets high in Alfalfa (such as is common in California) increase ph levels. I forget the link that was drawn between ph levels and magnesium, but it would seem sensible to reduce magnesium and to reduce alfalfa levels if high (such as greater than 50% of the diet by weight).

Also administering vinegar into the diet (I think a cup a day for a thousand lb horse) also reduces the formation of stones (presumably by lowering ph levels). I don't recall that any of these actions can reduce an already formed stone. I believe they are all preventative in nature.

I will try to find the series of articles from which I got this information and post links. This site has a very good article on enteroliths (stones) also.

Dennis

Posted on Thursday, Apr 18, 2002 - 7:08 am:

The only correction I can see is that I cannot find any proof that vinegar is a urinary acidfier in the horse. We have a regimen in the article that does acidify the urine however.
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Apr 18, 2002 - 9:52 pm:

Dr. O:
Concerning the vinegar: my source is Jack Snyder, DVM, PhD, chief of equine surgery and lameness at UC Davis from a presentation in Feb. 2002 at the AAEP convention. I actually think I read it first at the UC Davis Equine Site but I can't find the article. A lot of my links to articles are now outdated and I had not printed them. I am also searching my library, but I am sure the info came from the web as I don't have very many health/nutrition specific books.

Have you heard of sonic treatments for stones? I'm looking for an article on that also.

Thanks,

Dennis

Posted on Friday, Apr 19, 2002 - 7:23 am:

Hello Dennis,
I found your reference and the vinegar recommendation there was for intestinal stones (eneroliths) and not kidney or bladder stones. Though I believe the use for enteroliths is currently unproven also. However anecdotal evidence of a decrease in recurrence of intestinal stones with the use of vinegar (2 cups per day) has led to its wide spread recommendation.

EWSW therapy is a form of lithotripsy that is referenced above and also in the article on kidney and dladder stones.
DrO

Posted on Friday, Apr 19, 2002 - 3:22 am:

The treatment I was recalling is ESWT (Electro-- ShockWave Therapy). Apparently originally developed to treat kidney stones in humans but now being used and studied for treatment of bone and tissue ailments in horses. The article (actually only one of several) can be found at www.thehorse.com article #3053. Are you familiar with this sort of therapy? Has it been used to treat enteroliths?

Dennis

Posted on Friday, Apr 19, 2002 - 3:36 am:

Dr. O:

I forgot the first rule of HA: search the discussions. There is a discussion on ESWT that started with a post "How long can you feasibly inject joints?" where Kathryn Engler had the treatment for her nearly crippled horse. Anyway, the article I cited in the previous post was written by Dr. McClure who had treated Kathryn's horse.

Thanks so much for your patience with obtuse members such as myself.

Dennis
Home Page | Top of Page | Join Us!
Horseadvice.com is a BBB Accredited Business. Click for the BBB Business Review of this Horse Training in Stokesdale NC