Hi. This is my first post here. My 11 yr old male scottie JJ has been diagnosed with TCC after positive bladder cancer screening test & ultrasound showing suspicious areas in bladder wall. I read thru some of the postings on the tcc thread going back to 2005, & just want to really thank all of you who took the time to share your story. Like all of you, I have been devastated by the news. JJ is my best friend & I cannot imagine him not being by my side 24/7. It has taken over 3 months to get a correct diagnosis, & I am sharing our journey to hopefully help others who are struggling thru the same thing.
We were on vacation out of state when I noticed JJ straining to urinate on his potty breaks. We went to a local vet & he anesthetized JJ & catheterized him to empty the bladder, as he said the bladder felt greatly enlarged & needed to be emptied. He thought there was probably a stone blockage. Upon emptying the bladder, he found that it wasn't a full bladder he was palpating, but instead a huge mass. JJ had a very hard time coming out of the anesthesia & we almost lost him right then. The vet said to get JJ to his vet as soon as we got home & gave us antibiotics for bladder infection that JJ also had. He also said to be sure & let our vet know that JJ had a hard time coming out of anesthesia. We started for home the next day & I cried the whole way home. JJ's vet examined him & found hugely enlarged prostate (that was the mass the first vet felt--as it had completely displaced the bladder.) A contrast xray showed normal bladder & urethra & no evidence of stones. JJ was anesthetized by mask & nuetered which caused his prostate to shrink down to 1/8 the size it had been. This, however, had no effect at all on the straining to urinate. After another urinalysis showed a new bladder infection, JJ was treated with antibiotics which cleared the infection. The next followup urinalysis showed what my vet said were clearly waxy renal casts which indicated end stage renal disease. He said the bladder infection must have progressed into a kidney infection & damaged JJ's kidneys. After a month on hill's k/d food with no improvement, my vet did an ERD which showed high positive for protein in the urine, but the blood test showed normal BUN & Creatine, so kidney disease was not the issue. JJ also was not drinking a lot of water which is the common symptom of kidney failure. Vet referred JJ for an ultrasound, & that vet recommended the bladder cancer screening test, which was positive. Although protein in the urine can cause false positive on the screening test, vet says that the positive result combined with abnormal findings on the ultrasound (& JJ being 11 yrs old & a scottie, a high risk breed), leads him to believe tcc is the correct diagnosis. He says since the kidneys are fine, the protein in the urine is probably coming from the TCC. JJ has been taking piroxicam for 4 days & is bouncing around like a puppy. At this point we're considering whether to do a biopsy or not. We're getting a 2nd opinion to help us with the biopsy decision. Sorry for the length of this posting. Hope it helps someone else.