Advice On Treatment

I have a 2 year old Yorkie that has been dealing with the frequent urination, etc. We've been through UTI process and yesterday he got a sonagram that showed a growth in his bladder. He is on prednasone and antibiotics and the vet said to wait a week and see if the "growth" shrinks. Next Monday he will get another sonagram and if it has shrunk, great. If not he may biopsy or we have the option to have him go in and remove. Of course there may be complications with this approach. The growth is just under 1 cm. Does anyone have any advice/experience on this and any opinion regarding surgery? Thank you and good luck to everyone. Pat

Pat,

 I am so sorry you have to go through this.  If you go to the Bladder Cancer thread, jump to the very end, you will see a very large thread (702 messages at last count).  You will finds tons of information, lots of experiences and advice. 

Get loaded up with info before you make any decisions.  Some people have opted for surgery, many not.  There's alot to read through but it is all very helpful. 

Good luck.

 Connie

Pat,

I hope this information is of some use to you.  Please check all your alternatives first before making any hasty decisions.  The reason being is some vet's and or oncologist will take pure advantage of your pups situation when there really was no positive out come to begin with.  Have you been to the oncologist at this point?  See if he does alternative meds besides peroxicam, just because of the side effects it has on dogs.  Also even though sugery is costly, it has its benefits, once the cancer has been located is it at the throat of the bladder or the belly?  If it is at the belly the ycan remove and re-stitch the bladder anh hopefully remove it all together.  If it's position is in the throat area , it makes the fight that much harder, but sucess stories do have dogs going on for a couple of years at the same activity level prior to be diagnosed.  Unfortunately our pup of 11 yrs wasn't a good canidate for surgery and her treatments weren't going great, we had to.......put her to rest last friday almost one month after being diagnosed.  Her quality of life wasn't the same, so make sure you do all you can and don't give up because of a road block.

Sade's Dad

My dog is currently in her 5th month of treatment for tcc, so I can share plenty of experience. She had 3 tumors of 1/2 to 1 cm, had them removed at U of FL vet school and is just finishing mitoxantrone chemo at Southpaws in Fairfax VA. Several suggestions - First, move on to a oncologist/ internal medicine specialist for the biopsy. I didn't do this and had the biopsy done at a general vet and regretted it. When I got to UFL the complaint from the docs there was that the biopsy only sampled the tumor and not the surrounding areato test for extent of invasiveness. At that point they didn't recommend putting her back through the biopsy so we went to surgery for tumor removal with less info than we could have had. When you go to surgery get a surgeon that is a surgical oncologist specialist. Reseeding of cancer through surgery is a big issue with bladder cancer and surgical oncologists use special techniques to prevent this. We were very lucky that UFL had a great surgical oncologist. If your dogs tumor is surgically resectable it must not be in the trigone area, which is great. If you are told that it is unlikely to be tcc because it is not in the trigone area (statistically only 10 % of bladder cancer is not tcc and tcc almost always occurs in the trigone area), do not be comforted by this and not do the biopsy and if needed surgery. The general vet encouraged me with this line and all of Rachael's tumors were the worst type of tcc. They told me after biopsy there were 2 tumors (1 tcc, 1 benign), but at surgery 3 tumors were found and the follow-up pathology showed al were tcc. If your dog is eligible for surgery, absolutely do it, but recognize that it is a major surgery. I was somewhat shocked when I picked up my dog after surgery, but she recovered quickly. FYI after biopsy I was told by the regular vet that my dog had the worst kind of tcc , invasive/non-papillary, that the tumor was completely resistant to chemo, and that she had maybe 6 months and I should make her comfortable on piroxicam and wait for the end. After UFL specialists finished with Rachael, all tumors had been removed with clean margin and her 3 month post-op ultrasound shows she is still completely cancer free. Also, although chemo does not work onthe tumor is does work at the cellular level before the tumor is formed, which is why we did it as follow-up / insurance after surgery. Hope this helps and good luck.

Hi Pat--you were lucky to get that great advice from spaniel mom--it is probably the most knowledgeable posting I have seen on this board.

I would like to also encourage you to make sure that you are seeing an oncologist for your dog. Bladder cancer, should that really be the diagnosis, is a tough battle--you don't want to waste time with the wrong treatments.

I'd also like to give you some words of encouragement--my Annie was diagnosed in February of 2005--that's over three years ago.  At the time of her diagnosis, the median survival rate for dogs with TCC was 180 days.  I have only treated her with piroxicam during this time.  My oncologist did not think that surgery was an option for Annie and he also did not think that her cancer would respond well to chemo.  We have been lucky so far.  Annie's getting older and the past few weeks have not been great for her, but she's still happy and eating like a horse.  We'll be going in next week for a check up and I doubt that anything will change with her treatment.

Good luck to you, I know it's hard, but try to not worry.  I promise you that it does not help a bit.

Marty 

 

 

 

On 5/16/2008 Gentleannie wrote:

Hi Pat--you were lucky to get that great advice from spaniel mom--it is probably the most knowledgeable posting I have seen on this board.

I would like to also encourage you to make sure that you are seeing an oncologist for your dog. Bladder cancer, should that really be the diagnosis, is a tough battle--you don't want to waste time with the wrong treatments.

I'd also like to give you some words of encouragement--my Annie was diagnosed in February of 2005--that's over three years ago.  At the time of her diagnosis, the median survival rate for dogs with TCC was 180 days.  I have only treated her with piroxicam during this time.  My oncologist did not think that surgery was an option for Annie and he also did not think that her cancer would respond well to chemo.  We have been lucky so far.  Annie's getting older and the past few weeks have not been great for her, but she's still happy and eating like a horse.  We'll be going in next week for a check up and I doubt that anything will change with her treatment.

Good luck to you, I know it's hard, but try to not worry.  I promise you that it does not help a bit.

Marty 

 

 

Hello.I was just wondering????Have you ever thought why animals get cancer in the firts place?

FOOD/treats...whatever they eat is killing them and same goes for people.

My dog died of cancer too and I spent vast amount of time to research this everywhere. She was my darling.And talking to many  vets ONE only (Retired vet) told me that in the wild dogs NEVER get sick because they eat RAW meat not  dried or canned CRAP that has bunch of chemicals in it to fill them. No nutritional value whatsoever in dried/canned foods.Whatever they say on the package is BULL.Its laced with all kinds of chemicals and carcinogens.My dog started too with frequent bladder problems and died of a mamary gland cancer and the vet I went to regularly told me that this breed is prone to cancers.WHAT a bunch of lies???

No practicing vet will admit to it because they DO NOT WANT TO LOOSE PROFIT from medication  they are prescribing for pets and other unnecessary treatments. They make people believe that 's a 21 century sickness.

I have another dog  and I am NOT giving her any dried or canned food. I cook her different grains and mix with RAW meat or just give her chunk of a raw liver, kidneys and other organs plus human vitamins . It costs me LESS for a month supply than dried and canned CRAP.It is a little work but hey I have not needed vet for years......I don't even vaccinate my dog...I know what some people will say but I don't Care. My POOCH is HEALHY and it's same breed as my previous one.

Elisa.

Dear GentleAnnie please do comment negatively on any posts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every post has a point but you had to make this stupid remark on one of them !!!

Everybody is entitled to their opinions and sharing experiences. Do you have anything to say about my post??? Save it for yourself.

 

Elisa

Please see this website.. I know this is just a cartoon but oh BOY is it ever right on the nose!!!!!!!!!

http://www. naturalnews. com/022472.html

 

Read the info on this website too.