# yay!!! bladder stones are GONE!



## marcy4hope (Feb 4, 2013)

well, last november, i posted this thread:
previous thread on my sulcatas condition
i had found out that my 1 year old sulcata had 4 bladder stones. since november, i've soaked him a minimum of 45 minutes a day, but usually more like an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. i also removed the cuttlebone from his enclosure. (i know some say that this is not a source of bladder stones, but i did it anyway.) i have given him a varied diet and added miner-all and tnt with probiotics. and i also cut way back on the mazuri diet. he'd been eating a little every day with his greens, but i cut him back to about once a week. (i'd read some ideas about protein possibly having a play in bladder stones, but that was up for debate. to be on the safe side i cut the protein way back anyway.)

when we went back to the vet today for the follow up 2 month xray, the vet came into the exam room in shock. he'd previously told me that the only way to get rid of the bladder stones was expensive surgery, which he'd never performed. i told him to give me a couple months and see what i could resolve by soaking. after 2 months - he's stone free. the vet held up both xrays and said, "whatever you are doing ... keep it up." he was stunned.

a week ago, i posted about my sulcata passing what i thought might be a stone. the vet said it was for sure a bladder stone.

i was extremely excited about the xrays!! i'm so happy my sulcata, louis, is stone free!!


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## wellington (Feb 4, 2013)

Ya, congrats. I bet you both feel really good about the results.


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## RedfootsRule (Feb 4, 2013)

Thats great news for you, and your tort! Just something I'd like to explore though....If anything, I know some believe that stones can be caused by to MANY greens..(This is because of to many salts, and salts cause urates, urates contribute to stones...you get the idea). Mazuri, when soaked, offers even more hydration, which seems to be the fix-it solution....I'm not saying it couldn't, but I can't possibly fathom why protein would cause stones.
Obviously, whatever you did worked, it just seemed to me like less greens might have been a solution also...Just a thought I had.
Keep up the good work !


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## parrotlady (Feb 4, 2013)

It is nice to hear that all is well!


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## Baoh (Feb 5, 2013)

1) Congratulations.

2) Salts do not "cause" urates.


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## marcy4hope (Feb 5, 2013)

RedfootsRule said:


> Thats great news for you, and your tort! Just something I'd like to explore though....If anything, I know some believe that stones can be caused by to MANY greens..(This is because of to many salts, and salts cause urates, urates contribute to stones...you get the idea). Mazuri, when soaked, offers even more hydration, which seems to be the fix-it solution....I'm not saying it couldn't, but I can't possibly fathom why protein would cause stones.
> Obviously, whatever you did worked, it just seemed to me like less greens might have been a solution also...Just a thought I had.
> Keep up the good work !



all i know is i fed way more greens than i had prior to this knowledge and less mazuri. this could be a coincidence that it helped, i don't know. in all the research i did i kept seeing 3 common things pop up - which 2 were heavily disagreed upon. 1 was protein, the 2nd was calcium, and the 3rd was hydration. like i said, it was highly disagreed upon as to whether the protein or the calcium had anything to do with forming stones, but since they were mentioned, regardless, i cut back on both of them. both were things that my tort was eating a LOT of. if i leave a cuttlebone in the enclosure for him, he eats a lot of it. so, i switched to minerall so he'd still get calcium, but i can control how much he gets. he was also eating his substrate, so this helped with that too. and i cut back on the mazuri just in case the protein was a factor. i figured better safe than sorry.

the one thing that was always agreed upon was hydration. my tort was 5 months old when i got him and he was raised in a completely dry environment on sand before that. so, i imagine this problem started before i got him. when i got him, i piped a humidifier into his enclosed enclosure and soaked him a couple of times a week. i upped the soaking to every day, sometimes twice a day. i still soak him every day. he also has water in his enclosure and sometimes soaks himself.


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## Tom (Feb 5, 2013)

I love a happy ending!  Nice work.


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## diaboliqueturtle (Feb 5, 2013)

What a relief! Love happy news


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## Shannon and Jason (Feb 5, 2013)

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad your lil one is better! Bet both of you are glad they are gone


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## AZtortMom (Feb 6, 2013)

Yippee!


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## sibi (Feb 6, 2013)

I glad you had the present of mind to try the soaks for a couple of months. I did the same with my sully, but his stone was 1" in diameter...far too large for his 8 month old body to pass w/o surgery. This is a success story and one that members can try if their tort has a stone. Surgery is not the only solution. You proved that! Congrats.


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## mctlong (Feb 6, 2013)

Yaaaayyyy!!! Great job! That tort is very lucky to have you!


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## Baoh (Feb 6, 2013)

sibi said:


> I glad you had the present of mind to try the soaks for a couple of months. I did the same with my sully, but his stone was 1" in diameter...far too large for his 8 month old body to pass w/o surgery. This is a success story and one that members can try if their tort has a stone. Surgery is not the only solution. You proved that! Congrats.



Try asking your vet about ultrasound options to possibly fracture larger stones. I do not know what the state of this is in terms of applicability to tortoises, but it is something to consider. The ultrasound administrator must be well versed, though, or there can be scorching of the tissue if the focal point is not correct.


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## RedfootsRule (Feb 6, 2013)

Baoh said:


> sibi said:
> 
> 
> > I glad you had the present of mind to try the soaks for a couple of months. I did the same with my sully, but his stone was 1" in diameter...far too large for his 8 month old body to pass w/o surgery. This is a success story and one that members can try if their tort has a stone. Surgery is not the only solution. You proved that! Congrats.
> ...



That is an interesting idea, but sounds horribly dangerous to me...Tiniest error would be very bad.


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