Canine Bladder Cancer (tcc)

I have a Sweet sweet sweet, ten year old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Diva. She is fighting the big fight right now, Tranitional cell carcinoma, in her bladder(4cm x5cm). She was diagnosed a month ago, and is asymtomatic except for bloody urine. She is in no apparent discomfort. I am giving her Piroxicam, an nsai, and have been for one month. Her regular Vet. insists it will see her through the major discomfort down the road...until she can no longer tolerate it. Without an operation, we want to shrink her tumor and slow it down, (irradicate would be BEST) with Graviola. Don't know how much to give a 75 pound girl. Does anyone out there have any experience with giving it to a dog? SO Gratefully Yours, Nannyno

Your message apparently stayed in my mind for a month, altho I had no information to share then, I did find a reference this morning, while browsing at www.wellmark.com, under myhealth@wellmark, searching bladder cancer, an article from 4/30/04 from Healthday News , connecting a higher incidence of bladder cancer in Scottish terriers and relating it to use of lawn chemicals. I did not read the whole article, was under a time constraint, but was glad to find something that you may want to follow up on.......good luck....hjtk (message: want to discuss/same diagnosis)

Susan, I hope that Diva is still with you. I'm sorry that I just found your email as I scour the internet for some help. My Westie - Maggie - was diagnosed with TCC in January and we did have a "debulking" performed. The cancer had spread to her urethra and starting to climb to one kidney so they weren't able to get it all. Maggie has been on and off Piroxicam for some time. At 20 pounds, her dose was 2.7mg. We had it specially formulated for her by VetCentric. It is hard on the stomach. Every morning Maggie receives a 10mg Pepcid to eliminate any stomach problems. Even so, she only takes the Piroxicam for two weeks at a time and then we switch to Metacam which is a milder form. We just started her on Prednisone to help with what appeared to be uncontrollable attempts to urinate. It has helped a great deal. She is also taking Tramadol - a mild non-narcotic pain reliever to help with the urge. It's been 4 months and every day is a guess. I don't put a lot of faith in the Piroxicam - as it wasn't made for this problem - but we give it to her with our fingers crossed. I wish you all the best.

Dear Hattie, How my heart aches for you and Maggi, It is such a difficult thing, trying to hit the nail on the head and FIND the right nail. After my last posting I did use Piroxocam on my RR for a period of 5 weeks, then sort of freaked out when I went online and read the studies of Bladder TCC using it, how they all reccomended it but said, as you did, it damages the intestines. Pretty much the studies predicted a six month battle, whether the people in the study allowed their dogs to die naturally or put them to sleep in the end. Sigh. I did investigate the Graviola some more and am VERY THRILLED with my dog's results!! These 50 drops/daily are the only medicine she takes!! I mix the drops in warm water and pour it over her(normal)evening meal of Senior Wellness kibble lamb and rice. She really LIKES the taste (but the smell is rather awful) Who cares! I give it to her once a day, in the evening. For beakfast she has her normal, 1/2 cup of kibble and about a cup of warm oatmeal and skim milk, cooked from scratch by my husband, her normal breafast after their 1/2 hour walk. Every two weeks, as is recommended with an herbal treatment, I give her a weeks' rest and don't use the drops that week. So it's 2 weeks on, one week off. Diva is doing very well! I'd say within 2 weeks her bloody urine completely disappeared from the naked eye. She appears still healthy and energetic and romps around the backyard playfully. We are SOO thankful.She shows no discomfort at this point, 18 weeks later. It was a real crap shoot, as I couln't find anyone out there doing this. Her TCC was not positioned where Maggie's was, I dare say. Her Dec. 20th 2004 ultra sound revealed a 4 cm tumor, long and narrow, cradled along her bladder rim, opposite the trigonal area (which is unusual) and it was spreading laterally in both directions.WE dicided agaist surgery, which was an option.("no garantees, lots of discomfort") Diva is now 7.5 years, and as a Ridgeback has a life expectancy of 8- 12 years. Sniff. Let's face it I'll never be ready to let my girl go, 12-15-or 20 years! This Graviola actually distroys the bad cells and spares the good! The Peruvians have been using it for eons, I guess. Chewing on the bark, smashing the leaves up for everything from tooth aches to tumors! The big pharmaceuticals haven't been able to synthecize it, YET, so it's still an herbal remedy, still available and AFFORDABLE to you and me. Google in "graviola". I found a woman online whose husband had been given very little hope, and after 18 months of graviola, he is quite enrgergtic and only a little tired! My new Vet is quite supportive here on the Cape, has encouraged me do this herbal thing and is ready to support when necessary, with Western medicine. At eighteen dollars a bottle I sure would reccomend this Graviola! I am still using my first bottle. I know you and Maggie traveled a different road, and we all want is for it to STOP, which ever road we try. Tell me how you and Maggie are progressing. Best wishes and many blessings, Susan

My Rhodesian Ridgeback is TEN, not 7. I don't know what I was thinking... she is 77 in doggy years, I guess. nannyo/susan

If anyone has the time to contact me personally regarding their results with graviola, I would greatly appreciate it. My 11 year old collie has been diagnosed with bladder cancer and I am looking for alternative treatments.

Lori, I am so very sorry to hear about your collie. Our sweet boy, almost 12 years old, was diagnosed with bladder cancer yesterday. He is a soft coated wheaten terrier X husky. We are heartbroken. He has three tumors that cannot be operated on. Have you had any sucess with graviola?

I'm sorry to hear about your dog too. It seems it's very common for dogs at this age to develop bladder cancer. I have not tried graviola as I have not been able to find anyone out there who has used it other than the one person who posted on this board. At this point, my collie is on Piroxicam, Echinacea, Goldenseal and Flaxseed Oil. It has been one month on Piroxicam. The vet gave her 3-5 months without it, so we shall see. If you find any one else who can give us more info on positive results with graviola, feel free to contact me.

We will be starting our dog on Piroxicam tomorrow. How much and how ofter do you give your dog Echinacea, Goldenseal and Flaxseed oil? Have you seen any side effects from the Piroxicam? Our specialist said to watch for vomiting and bloody stools. He had not heard of graviola and was reluctant to introduce any other kind of medication while using Piroxicam. Our dog is hyper-sensitive to almost any kind of drug, etc. I have to ask, was your dog ever exposed to any kind of yard chemicals (like fertilizer or weed control) or wood floor cleaner with petroleum distillants? Just curious. Could be Ryle's age too, but our specialist said Scottish Terriers when exposed to yard chemicals did get bladder cancer.

Hi Susan, Hopeing your baby is still with you. Tuesday, we found out our sweet boy, Ryle, who will be 12 in September has bladder cancer. We met with a specialist yesterday and we will be starting Piroxicam tomorrow (every other day). Can you only get Graviola online? Our little boy is so sensitive to any kind of medication, and our specialist didn't want to introduce anything else with Piroxicam. We are open to try anything that will make him more confortable and reduce the tumors (the ultrasound showed three). I had also read that giving them vegetable (green, orange and yellow) in their diet 3x a day also made a difference. We are so grieving and only want him to be comfortable. He's been our life and our baby. It's hard to see them in pain.