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1 July 2004 Struvite Penile Urethrolithiasis in a Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps)
Craig A. Harms, Rachel Lo Piccolo, David S. Rotstein, Aleta A. Hohn
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Abstract

Massive urolithiasis of the penile urethra was observed in an adult pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) stranded on Topsail Island, North Carolina, USA. Calculi occupied the urethra from just distal to the sigmoid flexure to the tip of the penis for a length of 43 cm. A urethral diverticulum was present proximal to the calculi. The major portion of the multinodular urolith weighed 208 g and was 16 cm long × 3.7 cm diameter at the widest point. The urolith was composed of 100% struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate) and on culture yielded Klebsiella oxytoca, a ureasepositive bacterium occasionally associated with struvite urolith formation in domestic animals. Reaction to the calculi was characterized histologically by moderate multifocal to coalescing plasmacytic balanitis and penile urethritis. Role of the urethrolithiasis in the whale's stranding is speculative but could have involved pain or metabolic perturbations such as uremia or hyperammonemia.

Harms, Piccolo, Rotstein, and Hohn: Struvite Penile Urethrolithiasis in a Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps)
Craig A. Harms, Rachel Lo Piccolo, David S. Rotstein, and Aleta A. Hohn "Struvite Penile Urethrolithiasis in a Pygmy Sperm Whale (Kogia breviceps)," Journal of Wildlife Diseases 40(3), 588-593, (1 July 2004). https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-40.3.588
Received: 23 January 2003; Published: 1 July 2004
KEYWORDS
Kogia breviceps
pygmy sperm whale
struvite
urethrolith
urinary calculi
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