Our dog may require bladder surgery due to stones; need advice - alternatives?

Is the pain of hospitalisation and surgery worth the outcome?
Do you have personal experience with more difficult surgeries on your dog?

After going to 4 vets, we have learned that our little mix-breed rescue doggie has what is highly likely a bunch of stones rolling around (and also stuck) in his bladder that are making it hard for him to pee properly.
The vets think it's a genetic fault that is causing them and that they'll be hard to control with diet, but it may be possible. He is about 5 years old.
To make things harder, he appears to have blood pressure problems under anesthetic and sometimes in normal situations as well.

As retirees, we are not especially well-off, but have always put our rescue dogs and cats first. Thousands upon thousands were spent by us on trying to save our (older) dogs from cancer and other age-related diseases, but without any real success. This is the first time a younger dog is sick and we don't know if his emotional and physical pain will be worth the outcome, as he's got some deeply ingrained trauma and fear of being left alone.

The vet said there's a real chance we'll end up with a dead dog when we went to the (apparently) best hospital in the state.
Due to a bunch of factors, the thousands of dollars for the treatment/operation are going to hit extra hard and have long-term consequences, but we'll manage as we always have done before.

So, we don't know if the risks of the hospital surgery are worth him going through the ordeal of separation, tests and procedures. Before surgery, the vets want to try a 48 hour hospital stay with catheter and IV to flush out the stones.

Is there any medication available to reduce potassium levels in the blood (due to poor urine flow) and dissolve the stones?

Please share your advice or experience of similar situations. Thank you!

Hi, the first thing I would personally do in almost all cases of a poorly dog is put them on a species appropriate diet. The healing powers of proper nutrition as well as eradication of anti-nutrients/toxins etc is highly underrated imo.

In the case of dogs the RAW food diet (BARF) is commonly accepted as species appropriate.

With regards to bladder stones, some herbal teas are used to dissolve them - so this might be worth looking up too.

If I were you, I would try to find a holistic vet (the first article I linked to was written by a holistic vet here in the UK). Is this vet anywhere near you? http://www.holisticvetonline.com

Well Rio my Dobermann was raw fed and still developed crystals in her bladder, crystals are the forerunner of stones and easier to deal with. We managed to clear her up using Methionine tablets, they smell like yeast and are used to acidify the urine but it depends on what type of crystals or stones they are.

ETA Rio had struvite crystals.

My late Tweed started to pass crystals in her old age. She had very strong urine, so we encouraged her to drink more by giving additional drinks laced with a little milk or, (her favourite), tomato juice. The crystals were not apparent for the last couple of years of her life.
I don't know whether this would help with pre-existing stones, but I would certainly try the catheterisation method they have offered. General anaesthetics are very safe these days, even seriously ill dogs seem to cope with them.
Best wishes for your little fellow, I hope he does well.