I spoke to the owner of A dog I have bred this morning. He is a Beardie and is 18 months old. A couple of days ago, after his usual walk he came home and was out of sorts and not looking too well. Owner noticed he hadn't urinated very much while out and so  (being a nurse) she examined his penis. The inside of shaft was red and inflamed and had some crystallization inside. Dog was taken to vet immediately where he was sedated and a full examination was carried out, a full blood and urinary count was done. The only thing which showed up was a high alkaline level. Today the crystallization is also external on the penis and looks angry. He is eating a little and drinking with encouragement. Vet has given the usual.. Synolox, metacam, cream for soreness, and steroid injection. Poor boy is down in the dumps and not hims usual self
Having bred this beautiful boy and loving all animals anyway, I am distraught and ask if anyone out there has any suggestions or thought as to what this could be . Vet doesn't really know what the problem is !

Have they checked for bladder sand? Was the bladder checked to see whether it was full?

This can cause a blockage at worst, or intermittent difficulty in urinating. It can also cause incomplete emtying of the bladder, which can result infections. If the ureter is blocked and the bladder full, it's an emergency and it needs emptying by catheter. A chronically overfull bladder can affect kidney function too.

http://www.2ndchance.info/calculi.htm

There are treatments available, but a proper diagnosis is needed first.

I would have gone to the possibility of bladder stones, or as you say, just 'sand'/gravel right now too.   This can be identified by inserting a catheter, which might be advised if the poor boy has a full bladder and isn't able to produce a good flow at the moment!!   If there is gravel in there, it will be felt when inserting the catheter.   With any luck, he might be able to be back flushed, but if not, then it's open him up and flush it all out.

Apart from GDV (Bloat) this is one of the next real emergency situations as far as I'm concerned.    We had one who on a walk, clearly wasn't able to pee as he should.   He was very poorly and running a fever.   I took him straight into my vet who did as above, and then opened him up and found nunerous small bits of gravel, if not an actual large stone yet.

If not emptied a full bladder is really painful, and very dangerous.   Can cause kidney damage etc.

And it's not nice seeing a dog in a uraemic fit! 

We eventually lost a dog to kidney failure because of this problem.    Cost thousands in todays money, but eventually his kidneys gave out.  

Hope they get to the bottom of this quickly.