For video: Maltese haematuria, Poodle has left hip and medial patellar luxation

July 10, 2014


CASE 1.

A young female spayed Maltese passed blood in the urine. The owner was worried about bladder stones.
What is the cause of haematuria?


Vulval examination. No vaginal discharge but the vulval lips were red and slightly swollen.

Urinalysis and Survey Radiography are done. X-rays did not show radio-dense urinary stones in the kidneys or bladder. However, the dog did not poop and so the faeces hide any stones to be seen in the bladder. The dog had peed before X-ray at around 9.30 am and so the bladder is empty. There appears to be a "radio-dense" stone in the bladder area but it could be a small radio-dense bladder stone.

On urinalysis, triple phosphate crystals 2+ were present and probably the one seen on the X-ray (arrow). The owner is advised to use an acidifying diet to dissolve the crystals. Urinalysis after one month. and X-ray on 3rd month is advised. 

CASE 2.
A 7-year-old male poodle had been having a stiff straightened left hind leg since adoption 3 years ago. "It is medial patellar luxation," I explained that this condition sometimes resolve after the dog is able to bend his left knee after some time. But yesterday, the dog whined in pain. "Left hip subluxation," I showed the X-ray to the owner. "Has he been jumping up and down the sofa?"
"No more jumping nowadays," the owner said.
"How about running up and down steps?" I presumed he lived in a maisonette where there are steps up and down the rooms.
"Yes," the gentlemen said.
"So he must have had slipped on his weak left hind and dislocated his left hip. That is why it is so painful!"

You can compare, in the X-rays,  the normal non-luxated patellas of the Maltese in Case 1. In the Maltese, both normal patellas are in front of the knee. In this poodle, only the right knee has a normal positioned right patella.