English Bulldog

Cysteine & Struvite has been diagnosed after u/s & X-ray. Castration has been recommended. Currently fed Hills CD for 4/52. Bulldog nearly 3yrs old, has no pain completely normal behaviour, eating etc. He can pee but dripping first & unable to empty bladder couple of occasions a little blood. Is this the best line of treatment as I’m concerned about how to treat the current stones as this procedure is not presumably curative? Is castration first line option? Thank you

Hello and thank you for this excellent question.  First-line treatment is "what the vet should try first" and given that this patient has little shard-like crystals in the urine, it can be safest to assume that this is painful even if the bulldog is not showing overt signs of pain.  Prescription anti-inflammatory can help to soothe bladders in the short term (important for life-preserving reasons as well as legal ones to get the vet to properly prescribe);  at best it usually takes a day or two's notice to book a castration and even in the cases where this helped in the long-term, it might not be immediately curative.  I feel that it would be unusual to see Cysteine and Struvite crystals occuring together.  The two can be surprisingly hard to tell apart though and it may be that your vet needs to send stones away for analysis in order to get a definitive answer.  Changing the food does, over a long time, affect crystal formation but in the short term, it sounds as if your dog might need more direct / urgent treatment.   There also sounds to be a conversation to have about which diet to start with; these are prescription diets and should be given directly with the support of your vet.   Struvite crystals are by far the most common, so it may be that they decide to try S/d first.    Please will you let us know how you get on?