Canine Bladder Cancer (tcc)

Hi,

I am sorry to hear about Dov. I know it is so hard when one of your "babies" is sick.

I have a 16 1/2 year old pitbull, Porky, who was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer. It started with blood in the urine and steadily got worse to where he was straining so much and had major incontinence. Being a much older dog, doing addiitonal testing or doing any kind of surgery wasnt really an option. I started him on the piraxicam with not much success. He was straining soo much to pee and there was always blood. As a last ditch effort, really a shot in the dark more than anything, Porkys vet decided to prescribe Flomax (The human male drug for prostate and urinary problems). anyway, within 2 days Porky was peeing like normal (no more straining, much less incontenence, and no more blood!!!). He has been on the Flomax for over two weeks and we have started the piraxicam again at a smaller dose. Porky is doing suprisingly well for an old dog (105 in people years). I am not saying the flomax is a cure, but I know it sure has helped Porky with his some of his symptoms. If you find your self with no other conventional options, you might want to ask your vet about considering flomax or at least mention it to see what they think about it.  

I hope you and Dov are hanging in there.

Teresa

Porkys mom

On 8/23/2008 Porkys mom wrote:

Hi,

I am sorry to hear about Dov. I know it is so hard when one of your "babies" is sick.

I have a 16 1/2 year old pitbull, Porky, who was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer. It started with blood in the urine and steadily got worse to where he was straining so much and had major incontinence. Being a much older dog, doing addiitonal testing or doing any kind of surgery wasnt really an option. I started him on the piraxicam with not much success. He was straining soo much to pee and there was always blood. As a last ditch effort, really a shot in the dark more than anything, Porkys vet decided to prescribe Flomax (The human male drug for prostate and urinary problems). anyway, within 2 days Porky was peeing like normal (no more straining, much less incontenence, and no more blood!!!). He has been on the Flomax for over two weeks and we have started the piraxicam again at a smaller dose. Porky is doing suprisingly well for an old dog (105 in people years). I am not saying the flomax is a cure, but I know it sure has helped Porky with his some of his symptoms. If you find your self with no other conventional options, you might want to ask your vet about considering flomax or at least mention it to see what they think about it.  

I hope you and Dov are hanging in there.

Teresa

Porkys mom

Thank you for the information about the Flomax. I just printed out your message to show to our vet.  I'm sorry to hear about Porky.  You know intellectually that they won't be here as long as us but the heart feels differently.  I hope that the Floxmax continues to work for him.   Please keep me updated on how he is doing.

We picked up the prescription for Piraxicam yesterday.  Does anyone on this message board have information about using Pepcid AC for stomach upset?  I need to know how much to give a 65 pound dog.  Also with secondary urinary tract infection - does anyone have any experience using cranberry or other remedies to supplement the antibiotics and the Piraxicam?  I appreciate any insight/advice that might be out there.   We currently have him on rimadyl and Cosequin for his arthritis.  Vet is checking to see if we can keep Dov on Rimadyl.  May not need to since the Piraxicam is also for arthritis.

Thanks,

Elaine 

Sorry to hear about Diva. Our 50 pound pitbull mix, Snoopy, was diagnosed with TCC 19 months ago.  He was asymptomatic, expect for bloody urine, too.  We were told he had 3 - 6 months.  And that we shoudl consider the expersive western vet meds like peroxicam and possile radiation.  We did not use western veternarian medications, as it may help with the tumor, but its hard on other organs. We've been giving him Graviola since the beginning.  It took a few weeks, but then the bloddy urinse stopped.  And now he has bloody urine once every few months, if that.  We give him 1 pill for every ten pounds.  So 2 in the morning and 2 - 3 at night.  So far so good.  He's still got pep and attitude, but he has slown down a bit, but he'll be 10 in October so age may be a reason, too.

Good luck!

Hi Elaine,

Porky takes the famotidine 20mg (pepcid ac) 20 minutes before I give him the peroxicam. Porkys is just over 55 pounds and he takes 1/2 tablet.

Hope this helps,

Teresa

Porkys mom

On 8/24/2008 DovsMom wrote:

 

On 8/23/2008 Porkys mom wrote:

Hi,

I am sorry to hear about Dov. I know it is so hard when one of your "babies" is sick.

I have a 16 1/2 year old pitbull, Porky, who was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer. It started with blood in the urine and steadily got worse to where he was straining so much and had major incontinence. Being a much older dog, doing addiitonal testing or doing any kind of surgery wasnt really an option. I started him on the piraxicam with not much success. He was straining soo much to pee and there was always blood. As a last ditch effort, really a shot in the dark more than anything, Porkys vet decided to prescribe Flomax (The human male drug for prostate and urinary problems). anyway, within 2 days Porky was peeing like normal (no more straining, much less incontenence, and no more blood!!!). He has been on the Flomax for over two weeks and we have started the piraxicam again at a smaller dose. Porky is doing suprisingly well for an old dog (105 in people years). I am not saying the flomax is a cure, but I know it sure has helped Porky with his some of his symptoms. If you find your self with no other conventional options, you might want to ask your vet about considering flomax or at least mention it to see what they think about it.  

I hope you and Dov are hanging in there.

Teresa

Porkys mom

Thank you for the information about the Flomax. I just printed out your message to show to our vet.  I'm sorry to hear about Porky.  You know intellectually that they won't be here as long as us but the heart feels differently.  I hope that the Floxmax continues to work for him.   Please keep me updated on how he is doing.

We picked up the prescription for Piraxicam yesterday.  Does anyone on this message board have information about using Pepcid AC for stomach upset?  I need to know how much to give a 65 pound dog.  Also with secondary urinary tract infection - does anyone have any experience using cranberry or other remedies to supplement the antibiotics and the Piraxicam?  I appreciate any insight/advice that might be out there.   We currently have him on rimadyl and Cosequin for his arthritis.  Vet is checking to see if we can keep Dov on Rimadyl.  May not need to since the Piraxicam is also for arthritis.

Thanks,

Elaine 

 

Hi Elaine -

Our old Cocker (not sure how old as he is a Katrina survivor and we know nothing about him prior) began having serious arthritis problems last year.  He got so bad that he would hobble around with one leg up and wait for us to carry him up and down our six stairs to go outside.  He tore a tendon in one of his hind legs just as I was to go into treatment last year and required surgery.  His arthritis of course got even worse.  We had him on injections every week and would try to wean him to every 2-3 weeks but when we tried he would start hobbling around again.  The vet finally put him on a new med and it has been a miracle drug for him - he is like a puppy again with just 1/2 pill a day.  We are out of town for a couple of days and our boys have their sitter come in while we are gone so I can't give you the name but if you like, just let me know and I will email you the name as soon as I get back home.  I am going to write the company and let them know how much good this med has done for our Dusty.  If your med is working I always say if it works don't fix it - but enough let me know.  Hope everyone is doing great - I know our boys were so much comfort for me when going through chemo and radiation.  Dusty followed me everywhere - sitting in the bathroom forever waiting for my throwing up to end.  You can't buy that kind of loyalty. 

Diana

Teresa,

Just to confirm - 1/2 of a 20 mg Pepcid AC?  I picked up some 10 mg tablets.  My vet wasn't sure of how much when I talked with her today.

Thanks,

Elaine 

Diana,

Thanks for the reply and information.  Dov gets a monthly shot of Adequan (I think I spelled it correctly) for his arthritis along with Cosequin, Duralactin and the Rimadyl.  This combination has been working really well for him.  I hate to change but we need to deal with the tumor.  Heard back from the vet today and the Piraxocam should be as good as the Rimadyl except harder on his stomach.  The benefit of the Piraxocam is for the TCC.  Hopefully your cocker spaniel continues to do well on the new medication.  Dov was also a rescue.  Someone dumped him by the side of the road as a puppy.  I think that the rescue dogs are certainly some of the most loyal and special dogs that there are.  I hope that your dog continues to do well and I'm glad he is such a comfort to you. I'm sorry that you've gone through cancer yourself.  I hope that you are doing well.  After I wrote my previous message, the place that I used to board my dogs (we've gone to a petsitter due to some behavior issues) came through for me even though they were full up for Labor Day and they will watch him while we are gone.  Both are vet techs so I feel confident in their abilities to help him if necessary.  God bless all the special people in this world.

Wow - 3 to 6 months and now it has been 19 months.  Age may be slowing Snoopy down some but 10 is still a good age.  I have been seeing a lot about the graviola so I'm going to check on it along with the EVO Natura diet that I'm reading in these posts.  I wish we had a holistic vet in the area but it is a minimum of 5 hours to one.  Still - my vet is very open to alternative treatments and she is wonderful.  She has done research and consulations for me.  Right now we'll take day by day.

Elaine

We just lost our 12 1/2 year old to bladder cancer.  It all happened so quickly.  Her urine was bloody and then only blood would come out.  Did anyone else experience just blood?  I regret not trying the medications that are mentioned, but my vet didn't say it was an option.  She was still happy and eating, but the vet said she was in pain and the cancer was aggressive.  I'm devasted and even more so now that I found this site and the success some of you have had.  I wish I would have brought her home even if it were for just one more day.

We are also going through this evil disease with our 10 year old springer spaniel, Missy.  It is heartbreaking to see my beloved girl, who has never been sick, now being given 2-3 months or at the very most, 12 months.  My vet said that nothing I could do will help.  I don't accept that.  I am hearing alot of you talk about Graviola. Where do you get it?  Also, I have seen a good bit the last couple of days about K-9 Immunity.  Does any one know anything about that?  I have been on the Internet constantly trying to find something that might help.

It is so strange, I don't think Missy even knows she is sick.  She still carries her food bowl around wanting to be fed and follows me everywhere. I feel so bad for everyone having to go through this.  It's horrible!