Thought our experience may be helpful to others. Refers to our terrier but the problem affects all breeds.
Some weeks ago he started passing blood in his urine -the day before we left on holiday so we went straight to own vet - antibiotics. Problem continued so we visited a French vet - amazing!-general examination; prostate check; straight to ultrasound room which showed up the stones. Antibiotics; antispasmodic pills; Struvite diet for one month and reassurance that if he struggled to pee they would operate immediately. All this was done by the vet himself and took approx 40 mins -Cost £80.
Update however; he had an op here one day after return home. Apparently his bladder lining was torn to shreds as the stones(20 of them) were hard and very jagged. Vet says this must have been building since he was born and he makes too many minerals -plus of course he has been getting minerals in his diet. She says it must have been painful for a long time yet he never gave any indication of discomfort until this last few weeks.
He then had an allergic reaction to the sutures and was all very swollen. Today at last he seems better and swelling we think is reducing so hopefully he will be Ok when we meet the vet again on Friday.
Point here really is that perhaps dogs should have urine tests every few years. If they do a centrifugal spin it shows crystals which indicate stones(my friend had this done when her her dog had difficulty passing urine and had to have an emergency op.) Seems to me it would be better to check this as routine, rather than have the poor dog in pain for so long, even if they show no outward sign of discomfort. Hope it helps someone else. Ailish

Your poor terrier He's been through so much. Passing blood in the urine is a big indication of bladder stones and as you say, it's not that uncommon. Actually some dogs have a genetic predisposition for it. I hope he feels much better soon. Please keep us posted Ailish.

I went through simler with my cat about 4 years ago, except he had a struvite blockage.

It started off he kept attacking his own tail, in the end it was that badley damaged and broken it had to be removed, we never thought the resion why he was doing it was because of pain, a few weeks later, he started peeing on beds and wouldnt go in his tray, never thought anything of it (kept him off beds) then he started screaming when he went, so it was off to the vets.

He was diagnosed with struvite and his bits had blocked, a week in the vets cathertrised and he was back home, only to have to be taken back a day later, they tried one more time, but it kept happening, so he was takin in for an op, after that he came home and was doing fine - untill he blocked again, i assisted the vet to catherise him, but it wouldnt go, so he stuck a needle in through his side and in to his bladder, they tried for a couple of days to get him right, but couldnt - so he came home over night and was rushed up to the vet collage the next day.
At the collage, they checked him over and told me they would try to re do the origanal op,
but there would be a chance they wouldnt be able to do it and would have to do a sub pubic insted, but there was the risk he would become incontant, the op went ahead an hour later i got a phone call, they could do nothing, so i gave the go a head to do the sub pubic, after that he did get better by the day, even the vets at the collage couldnt wait to get rid of him, as he kept attacking them every time they went past lol.

Anyway nealy 4 grand lighter he made it through everything and is fine now - but and its a big but, the one thing that ive been advised is never to feed dry, as it can be one of the cause's, so he can only have wet food, we did start off on the vets diet, but changed him over as soon as he was fine, another thing that can help is this stuff - shop.robbinspetcare.com/w...ioticphneg.html
you cant get it in the uk, i didnt try it, as kit kat was to far gone for it to be any use,
it was recomended to me by someone else that had used it.

Hello crackadog,

Poor terrier - hope the best for him for future.

Best regards
Joerg and Yoki

Hows the boy coming along now? I hope he is on the mend.

Thanks for asking. Murph finally gets his horrid collar off today and is allowed to do short walks. He can now go up/down stairs without being carried - we live in a split level house where the door is in the middle so to go anywhere there are stairs! He has started barking his protest at any noise from outside again so I think he is fine! Vet said his stones would account for his grumpiness - just him I think!