Bladder cancer (tcc)

Hi all,

My Akita Twiggy started urinating fresh blood with a lot of clots, which brought her to the emergency. Now she has been diagnosed with tcc, after cytology and tumor antigen test. Her ultra sound did not show any growth but her bladder is thickened. The specialist suggests biopsy to confirm tcc, but my own vet said 95% it is tcc-being the most common. He is against doing the biopsy as it means surgery. Cytoscope (sp??) will not help much because there is no lump seen, he will have to look around the bladder to find the location. Twiggy is 11-1/2 yrs and I dont want to put her through this, however my husband leans towards biopsy (he is still in denial). Is it worth doing that to confirm exactly the type of cancer?

Yesterday I decided to start her on piroxicam - at 78 lbs she is given 10mg. over the past year she had lost 10 lbs which I contributed to age. she just ate less, could it be that she started that long ago but asymptomatic?  Any input is appreciated as I am between husband and Twiggy right now. Poor baby, she was attacked by a St. Bernard yesterday at the vet and I was bitten on my right hand. Very irresponsible owner who cannot control her dog. I also started her on k-9 immunity and transfer factor plus.

Thank you,

Christine

My dog just had her 6 month post-op ultrasound and is still cancer free from tcc. I am happy to share our experience. Your dogs presentation of evidence of tcc but no tumor is confusing. I have never heard of this. Maybe the tcc is so small that the ultrasound does not pick it up. When my dog had surgery, they found an extra tumor that did not show on ultrasound so maybe that is the case for you also. Ithink that it is critical to know what the tumor type is. There are 4 types of tcc and there is one type that is completely resistant to chemo and piroxicam. My dog had this type, which made the decision to operate much easier knowing that it was the only option. It sounds like you need more information to make a good decision. I would get a second opinion from an oncologist, preferably a surgical oncologist at a teaching hospital. If you are anywhere nearFL or CO university of co is no 1 and univ of fl no 2 in surgical oncology. If not see a private facility that has a surgeon trained at one of these hospitals. As far as diet go immediately to carb free. Supplements that I think made the most difference for us were k9 immunity and transfer, nordic naturals cod liver oil, young living frankincense. We use innova evo kibble and primal raw plus steamed brocc cauli carrot sweet pot mix. Good luck.

Thank you for your input..I am happy for you that your dog is cancer free.. Twiggy started Peroxicam 6 days ago, as our vet said we should do that right away and not waste time. However I am still waiting to talk to her specialist to see if we can have needle biopsy done. Surgery may be a bit much for her body right now. Today for the first time she refused to eat..eventually she ate a little bit though. It may be side effect of Peroxicam? Do you know if reactions show up a fewd days later or kind of right away?  I have eliminated carbs, glucosamine from her diet and she only eats chicken, fish, a bit of beef - she does not like fruits or veggies.

If her loss of appetite is caused by peroxicam, what alternative do i have? She still goes for walks in  the park every day, does not indicate pain in every way. sleeps well and is willing to drink.

Her vet suggests a double contrast xray, but what does it do?

Thanks again.

Christine

SpanielMom, sorry I forgot to ask, how old is your dog?  We dont have vet oncologist around here, I realize maybe we should not have started Peroxicam until biopsy...Tomorrow I will talk to her Internist and surgeon.

Thanks again

Christine

Hi Christine!

I'm sorry to here about your pup; I know this is a very difficult time for you.

My Annie has been living with TCC for nearly 3 1/2 years now.  She just recently had her first bladder infection that caused her to urinate blood and I was very very disturbed by it, so I can really sympathize with you.

Annie was treated with an antibiotic and that cleared up the infection and THAT cleared up the blood.  All this time Annie has been treated only with piroxicam and it has served her well.

Spanielmom seems to know more about TCC than anyone I have ever read on this board, so I would take her counsel to heart. I also believe it is VERY important that you see an oncologist to figure out your course of action.  I think if you read through the many postings, there is one that mentions an oncologist who your vet can contact--you might want to try that.

Stay strong, Christine, and enjoy every second you have with your baby.

Good luck

Marty 

 

 

 

 

Hi Marty & Annie,

Thank you for writing, wow it is incredible that it has been 31/2 yrs since Annie was diagnosed.  I am so happy for you both and at the same time it gives me hope. How old is Annie? Does she have any side effect at all with Piroxicam?  What food do you put her on? Twiggy lost her appetite since 2 days ago, I tried to give her anything she likes, chicken, salmon even cheese and she refused. She is still on Orbax antibiotic also. I will go through the posts more to find out about that oncologist. Thanks again!

Christine

Piroxicam is notorious for stomach upset. The piroxicam is probably causing the eating problem if you did not have one before. Administer both omeprazole (Prilosec) and Pepcid which you can get at the drug store OTC. Give these coating agents, then food, then piroxicam. My oncologist had me try each seperately and then both together (they each have a different mechanism of action) so I would try both since you are obviously having a problem. After you get the eating straightened out you can try to figure out by trial and error if you can eliminate one. My dog weighs 26 lbs and she takes 10 mg each of pepcid and prilosec. You will have to adjust dosage according to weight.

I forgot that you asked about Rachael's age. She is a 14 year old cocker spaniel.

Another thought... If you have no success with coating agents switch from peroxicam to deramaxx. Both are cox-2 inhibitors, but peroxicam is both cox-1 & cox-2. It is this cox-2 effect that suppresses the tumor. Most cox1 expression is in the cells of the intestinal lining, thus peroxicam is destroying some intestinal cells and that is why so many have gi problems. Peroxicam is still the treatment of choice because it is the med that was successful in clinical studies against bladder cancer. It doesn't mean that deramaxx will not work, just that there are no studies on cancer using deramaxx. Deramaxx was developed after piroxicam for arthritis. My dog was already on deramaxx when the cancer was discovered and the oncologist thought it would be as effective as deramaxx and piroxicam is not as good for the arthritis.

Others here have recommended that you see an oncologist and I would like to emphasize that also even though you say there is not one close by. All of what I am telling you is onco 101 at any oncology practice and the fact that you need to rely on us here for this info instead of your vet tells me that you need a specialist or a general vet that has more oncology experience.