Struvite penile urethrolithiasis in a pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps)

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 x 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 urease-positive 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.