tcc

I am writing hopping someone can help me. My 10 year old collie cross cookie. Has been a happy healthy dog all her life. Up until 3weeks ago when we thought she had a urine infection. I found a small amount of blood in her bed and she had been licking her self.

We took her to the vets and he gave her antibiotics. Because there was blood in her urine, it hadn't cleared up.He changed her antibiotics to noroclav and he took her in and did some x rays, we then found out she had polyps in her bladder. Which cannot be operated on, he put her 5mg of piroxicam and kept her on the noroclav. She then had sever diarrhoea so was taken of the piroxicam and given pills to stop the diarrhoea. (Think its the noroclav rather than the piroxicam as she still has diarrhoea)

Two days later she wasn't drinking and hadn't peed. The vet said her bladder was full and he would have to catheterize her and take the urine out. The vet had a hard time trying to get the tube into her urethra. He thought there was a small lump in the way.

We got her home two days ago. After she had managed to do a few pees at the vets. She was to stay on the noroclav and she was put on meta calm 7.5mls. Cookie didn't pee all day or yesterday morning. So I phoned the vet and he took her back in. He couldn't get the catheter in at all this time.And he would have to put a needle in her bladder today and get the urine out that way.He put a scope in to see what was going on and said he couldn't see the lump. And is thinking that her bladder is shutting down.

Can someone please give me advise, cookie is still very bright energetic and happy. And I don't want to give up on her before I have to. I am so upset and don't know what to do.

 

On 11/16/2008 cookie.25 wrote:

I am writing living in hope someone can help me. My 10 year old collie cross cookie. Has been a happy healthy dog all her life. Up until 3weeks ago when we thought she had a urine infection. I found a small amount of blood in her bed and she had been licking her self.

We took her to the vets and he gave her antibiotics. Because there was blood in her urine, it hadn't cleared up.He changed her antibiotics to noroclav and he took her in and did some x rays, we then found out she had polyps in her bladder. Which cannot be operated on, he put her 5mg of piroxicam and kept her on the noroclav. She then had sever diarrhoea so was taken of the piroxicam and given pills to stop the diarrhoea. (Think its the noroclav rather than the piroxicam as she still has diarrhoea)

Two days later she wasn't drinking and hadn't peed. The vet said her bladder was full and he would have to catheterize her and take the urine out. The vet had a hard time trying to get the tube into her urethra. He thought there was a small lump in the way.

We got her home two days ago. After she had managed to do a few pees at the vets. She was to stay on the noroclav and she was put on meta calm 7.5mls. Cookie didn't pee all day or yesterday morning. So I phoned the vet and he took her back in. He couldn't get the catheter in at all this time.And he would have to put a needle in her bladder today and get the urine out that way.He put a scope in to see what was going on and said he couldn't see the lump. And is thinking that her bladder is shutting down.

Can someone please give me advise, cookie is still very bright energetic and happy. And I don't want to give up on her before I have to. I am so upset and don't know what to do.

 

I am so sorry to hear about your Cookie's struggle with TCC.  My Westie, Willie, is battling it, too.  From what I've heard from my vet and read on this board and other places, the piroxicam is the key to shrinking bladder tumors.  Several posts on other threads have mentioned Flomax as a possible help when dogs are having trouble emptying their bladders.  Luckily Willie hasn't reached that point yet.  I will be thinking of you as you try everything (I know the feeling) to help your sweet dog.

Sue

My dog is a 9 month tcc survivor. I have a few thoughts for you. Based on your explanation, I assume that you are at a general vet. I would go to a teaching hospital at a vet school. Since they deal with these issues daily they will know of possibly other things that can be done. One that I can think of is laser surgery to debulk the tumor. At UFl where our dog was treated, they can do laser debulking until the cancer has metastasized.