Westie's TCC: need help

Hi Everyone;
I posted recently a couple notes regarding Spike, our almost 13 yr old Westie, who was recently diagnosed with a 2.5 cm mass in his bladder-positive biopsy for TCC. He's been on peroxicam for 2 weeks along with meds for his stomach and glucosomine. For the third time since we started the meds, Spike threw up, had diarrhea followed by incontinence in the house. I want to change his kibble (he's been on Eukeneuba Skin Response since he's a puppy). Has anyone experienced this problem?

Spike has a soft scrambled egg in the a.m.  and a slice of veggie cheese prior to his meds . This seems to help, but I think his kibble is too harsh now on his tummy. Any recommendations are very welcome. thank you.

My Forrest has had similar issues, we mix hamburger or chicken breasts with brown rice in with his food and it seems to help. Unfortunately the incontinence worsens with the disease process, we have many "piddle accidents" daily, we put pads under him whenever he sleeps now. Good luck to you and your pup. Karen

Hi My name is Ron I have a 7 year old wheaten scottish terrier named Winnie. SHe was diagnosed with TCC in late November 2007. I reccommend you speak to your vet and change the medication. Piroxicam is a NSAID that has the ability to shrink tumors.  There are similar medications available that have this shrinking property and are less upsetting to the stomach.

 Also you can try Misoprostiol (not the best speller)-it is a prostaglandin that you give with meals and protects the stomach. You give it in addition to the piroxicam.  It is relatively inexpensive and easy to give.  The tablets are small and easy to break with a pill splitter. I give Winnie her daily dose 1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM. A less expensive alternative is to give your dog Pepcid (not the Complete). It is also called Famodidine (generic name)-it is availalble at a local pharmacy without a prescription.  Your vet can reccommend a dose over the telephone.

Also if you do a search on this web site for all messages for canine TCC and review the messages-it has more information about treatments, care etc.

Diet I would suggest you try a commercial cancer diet and suppliment it with vegetables-(carrotts, broccoli, cauliflower (spelling?).  As I have read these vegetables have antitumor activity. The diet is balanced and contains a lower amount of carbs. There is research to show that lower carbs "starve the cancer" and shrink it.  The vegetables are also an aid when defecating.

Hope this helps.

Ron and Winnie

On 1/13/2008 ScottishTerriers wrote:

Hi My name is Ron I have a 7 year old wheaten scottish terrier named Winnie. SHe was diagnosed with TCC in late November 2007. I reccommend you speak to your vet and change the medication. Piroxicam is a NSAID that has the ability to shrink tumors.  There are similar medications available that have this shrinking property and are less upsetting to the stomach.

 Also you can try Misoprostiol (not the best speller)-it is a prostaglandin that you give with meals and protects the stomach. You give it in addition to the piroxicam.  It is relatively inexpensive and easy to give.  The tablets are small and easy to break with a pill splitter. I give Winnie her daily dose 1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM. A less expensive alternative is to give your dog Pepcid (not the Complete). It is also called Famodidine (generic name)-it is availalble at a local pharmacy without a prescription.  Your vet can reccommend a dose over the telephone.

Also if you do a search on this web site for all messages for canine TCC and review the messages-it has more information about treatments, care etc.

Diet I would suggest you try a commercial cancer diet and suppliment it with vegetables-(carrotts, broccoli, cauliflower (spelling?).  As I have read these vegetables have antitumor activity. The diet is balanced and contains a lower amount of carbs. There is research to show that lower carbs "starve the cancer" and shrink it.  The vegetables are also an aid when defecating.

Hope this helps.

Ron and Winnie

 

Thank you, Ron and Winnie, and also Karen from the previous post. We have since switched Spike to Hill's i/o wet food for gastro issues and he was doing AMAZINGLY well for the past week and a half..and then...last nite began vomiting and diahrrea which continued this morning. He's supposed to increase his dosage of a reformulated peroxicam (up to 3 mg from 2.5mg) along with his stomach meds, very soon. The little guy has ALWAYS suffered from gastro issues all his life . My husband said we should expect this to happen from time to time now. Very frustrating and don't want to see him suffer but like I said he was doing great, lots of energy, barking at people again, being his old pup self for the past week and a half. I'll do some more investigating based on your advice. Thank you all for your support.

Hi,

I just posted a message in another area and then saw your message.  Jesse, our 16 yr. old mini dachshund was diagnosed with TCC on 12/26/07. His tummy has always been sensitive, so we are doing Meloxicam (Metacam) instead of the Piroxicam.  We initially tried the pepcid a/c, but that actually made him vomit.  Once we stopped the pepcid he did not vomit at all anymore. (Who would have thought??!!! - even our vet was amazed at that one!)   And just this weekend we bought a package of Pampers with the sticky tabs and put them on him when he's up and about in case of a pee pee accident.  We put the diaper side underneath him and wrap the diaper around him.  We punched a hole in each side of the diaper and tie it on with a shoe string.  Doesn't bother him a bit and it works, and it's easy to take on and off.

Doxy Deb - Madison, WI 

You said in a previous post that Spike was on glucosamine before he was diagnosed with the tcc. Not sure if you still have him on that, but you might try stopping it and seeing if it helps his stomach and bowels. My Sam who passed with tcc never could take glucosamine & chondroitin; it gave him diarrhea after only 10 days into the initial loading period. One of my girls (not a tcc patient) started glucosamine about 2 months ago but seemed to be getting numerous bouts of indigestion over the last few weeks, so we're stopping the glucosamine for a while. Five days after stopping I haven't seen her act queasy at all.

You also mention he's on Hill's i/o; did you mean i/d? If so, i/d contains corn which some dogs have a gastro reaction to (don't ask me why it's in a food that's supposed to help g/i issues then...)  In addition, a lot of the "cottage wisdom" about nutrition after cancer diagnosis suggests eliminating grain from the diet. Sam had g/i issues all his life too and did best on a fish and potato formula with no grain. You can get a Hill's canned product that conforms to this; I think it's d/d.

You might also try adding digestive enzymes (this comes in powder form that they willingly accept sprinkled on their food). The kind I use is called Prozyme; I buy it online from http://www.kvvet.com . It helps the bowel quality issues, I've found.

The best to Spike in his fight!

On 1/14/2008 westielove wrote:

 

On 1/13/2008 ScottishTerriers wrote:

Hi My name is Ron I have a 7 year old wheaten scottish terrier named Winnie. SHe was diagnosed with TCC in late November 2007. I reccommend you speak to your vet and change the medication. Piroxicam is a NSAID that has the ability to shrink tumors.  There are similar medications available that have this shrinking property and are less upsetting to the stomach.

 Also you can try Misoprostiol (not the best speller)-it is a prostaglandin that you give with meals and protects the stomach. You give it in addition to the piroxicam.  It is relatively inexpensive and easy to give.  The tablets are small and easy to break with a pill splitter. I give Winnie her daily dose 1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM. A less expensive alternative is to give your dog Pepcid (not the Complete). It is also called Famodidine (generic name)-it is availalble at a local pharmacy without a prescription.  Your vet can reccommend a dose over the telephone.

Also if you do a search on this web site for all messages for canine TCC and review the messages-it has more information about treatments, care etc.

Diet I would suggest you try a commercial cancer diet and suppliment it with vegetables-(carrotts, broccoli, cauliflower (spelling?).  As I have read these vegetables have antitumor activity. The diet is balanced and contains a lower amount of carbs. There is research to show that lower carbs "starve the cancer" and shrink it.  The vegetables are also an aid when defecating.

Hope this helps.

Ron and Winnie

 

Thank you, Ron and Winnie, and also Karen from the previous post. We have since switched Spike to Hill's i/o wet food for gastro issues and he was doing AMAZINGLY well for the past week and a half..and then...last nite began vomiting and diahrrea which continued this morning. He's supposed to increase his dosage of a reformulated peroxicam (up to 3 mg from 2.5mg) along with his stomach meds, very soon. The little guy has ALWAYS suffered from gastro issues all his life . My husband said we should expect this to happen from time to time now. Very frustrating and don't want to see him suffer but like I said he was doing great, lots of energy, barking at people again, being his old pup self for the past week and a half. I'll do some more investigating based on your advice. Thank you all for your support.

Please read my response to 1/24/08 about their dog.

Broccoli increases gas..and carrots are BAD for cancer (too much sugar)..trust me a one time visit of $1200 for a well known vet informed us.

We found Spinach mixed with turkey breast and chicken breast ..some raw meat is ok..get mre info on this..we are not completely convinced. if your dog doens't like it..go back to the cooked above.  For pills/meds..give with cream cheese..they love it.

Hoe this helps and OMAGE 3 fish oil is THE BEST for anti-cancer..take it from me..our dog DAISY is still going strong and it's been 1 year plus 2 months and our main vet now doesn't think she has cancer, especially tha she is not on PEROXICAM..People be pro-active like i DID ON the internet..let me know how things progress..all my best!

Sandra 

On 1/23/2008 Sams Mom wrote:

You said in a previous post that Spike was on glucosamine before he was diagnosed with the tcc. Not sure if you still have him on that, but you might try stopping it and seeing if it helps his stomach and bowels. My Sam who passed with tcc never could take glucosamine & chondroitin; it gave him diarrhea after only 10 days into the initial loading period. One of my girls (not a tcc patient) started glucosamine about 2 months ago but seemed to be getting numerous bouts of indigestion over the last few weeks, so we're stopping the glucosamine for a while. Five days after stopping I haven't seen her act queasy at all.

You also mention he's on Hill's i/o; did you mean i/d? If so, i/d contains corn which some dogs have a gastro reaction to (don't ask me why it's in a food that's supposed to help g/i issues then...)  In addition, a lot of the "cottage wisdom" about nutrition after cancer diagnosis suggests eliminating grain from the diet. Sam had g/i issues all his life too and did best on a fish and potato formula with no grain. You can get a Hill's canned product that conforms to this; I think it's d/d.

You might also try adding digestive enzymes (this comes in powder form that they willingly accept sprinkled on their food). The kind I use is called Prozyme; I buy it online from http://www.kvvet.com . It helps the bowel quality issues, I've found.

The best to Spike in his fight!

On 1/14/2008 westielove wrote:

 

On 1/13/2008 ScottishTerriers wrote:

Hi My name is Ron I have a 7 year old wheaten scottish terrier named Winnie. SHe was diagnosed with TCC in late November 2007. I reccommend you speak to your vet and change the medication. Piroxicam is a NSAID that has the ability to shrink tumors.  There are similar medications available that have this shrinking property and are less upsetting to the stomach.

 Also you can try Misoprostiol (not the best speller)-it is a prostaglandin that you give with meals and protects the stomach. You give it in addition to the piroxicam.  It is relatively inexpensive and easy to give.  The tablets are small and easy to break with a pill splitter. I give Winnie her daily dose 1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM. A less expensive alternative is to give your dog Pepcid (not the Complete). It is also called Famodidine (generic name)-it is availalble at a local pharmacy without a prescription.  Your vet can reccommend a dose over the telephone.

Also if you do a search on this web site for all messages for canine TCC and review the messages-it has more information about treatments, care etc.

Diet I would suggest you try a commercial cancer diet and suppliment it with vegetables-(carrotts, broccoli, cauliflower (spelling?).  As I have read these vegetables have antitumor activity. The diet is balanced and contains a lower amount of carbs. There is research to show that lower carbs "starve the cancer" and shrink it.  The vegetables are also an aid when defecating.

Hope this helps.

Ron and Winnie

 

Thank you, Ron and Winnie, and also Karen from the previous post. We have since switched Spike to Hill's i/o wet food for gastro issues and he was doing AMAZINGLY well for the past week and a half..and then...last nite began vomiting and diahrrea which continued this morning. He's supposed to increase his dosage of a reformulated peroxicam (up to 3 mg from 2.5mg) along with his stomach meds, very soon. The little guy has ALWAYS suffered from gastro issues all his life . My husband said we should expect this to happen from time to time now. Very frustrating and don't want to see him suffer but like I said he was doing great, lots of energy, barking at people again, being his old pup self for the past week and a half. I'll do some more investigating based on your advice. Thank you all for your support.