Episode 5: Managing Urinary Tract Tears Without Surgery
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Welcome to The VetEmCrit Podcast — where we break down complex veterinary emergency and critical care topics into clear, evidence-based insights you can apply right away in practice. Each episode is the audio companion to our YouTube videos, created so you can keep learning emergency and critical care medicine wherever you are — in the car, between cases, or on your way home from the ER.
If you’re new here, I’m Dr. Igor Yankin, DACVECC, a small animal emergency and critical care specialist and founder of VetEmCrit.com.
In this episode, we explore one of the most common — and misunderstood — surgical emergencies in small animal practice: urinary tract rupture. Does every tear really need surgery? Or can some of these cases safely heal on their own with careful drainage and monitoring?
We’ll unpack the latest evidence on conservative, non-surgical management of urinary tract tears in dogs and cats, including insights from the 2025 RVC study and earlier work by Hornsey and Grimes.
You’ll learn:
Which cases may actually be better suited for non-surgical management
A step-by-step clinical algorithm to guide your decision-making
How to choose between a urinary catheter, cystostomy tube, or peritoneal drain
The most important complications to watch for — like infection and urethral stricture — and how to detect them early
Whether you’re managing iatrogenic bladder tears, urethral trauma, or uncertain leak locations, this episode will help you make more confident, physiology-based decisions that prioritize patient outcomes over reflex surgery.
Free resources to help you level up:
Free Acid-Base Analysis Workshop
Free Emergency Tools, Protocols, and Articles
