Canine Transitional Cell Carcinoma

Hello,

We just learned today, our beloved 11 year old english springer spaniel Abby has TCC. We have all the same questions & feel so overwhelmed. How long does she have? What can we do to keep her comfortable? Will treatment work? We started her on Piroxocam today & she is on a sulfa drug to help stave off any infection until we can get a better idea of her prognosis.

It all started when we noticed she was having trouble urinating. She always seemed to have to urinate a couple times while she was out but, then it was more frequent, almost like she couldn't get the task completed. Then she had some accidents in the house which didn't happen before. And yes, she sometimes seemed to barely be able to go (a few drops) & then other times the spurts of being able to urinate without any trouble. 

The first trips to the vet, it was passed off to a possible infection in her leg (it was very swollen although there were no wounds) with the diagnosis that she was having trouble bearing down due to the swelling in her leg. Blood tests (for infection, etc), Xrays (for any possible breaks or fractures or osteosarcoma for her leg, & her tummy for any obstructions), turned up nothing, all normal. After the leg healed & those drugs were done she was no better when it came to urniating.

Then last week... she passed some white mucous while urniating. This time @ the vet, a urine speciman & test revealed a large amount of whitish unusual cells in her urine. An abdominal Xray also revealed a mass. I cried my tears on Saturday when the vet hinted @ cancer. Today when my husband got the diagnosis, he was devasted. This dog bonded with him & claimed him from the moment we brought her home. To look @ her @ this moment you would never know she has TCC. She is bright, alert, territorial, sweet, adoarable, loving, sniffing around the whole yard, running around like a pup. 

We have 2 springers Abby, & Molly (12), & 2 cats that are younger (4 & 6). This will be hard for all. I appreciate all that everyone here has shared so that I know what the future holds. My heart goes out to each & everyone of you, I've shed more tears reading your stories.

Thanks for any support you can offer.

- Petra

My cocker spaniel Rachael is a 2 year tcc survivor. Her tcc fell into the lucky 10 percent that is not in the trigone area and 50 % of her bladder was surgically removed. She also did 5 treatments of the chemo drug mitoxantrone and holistic treatments. After 2 years she is still cancer free. I will try to offer helpful advice.

Since you are starting piroxicam and do not mention surgery, I assume that the tumor is in the trigone area. Fyi there is a possibility of a laser reduction of the tumor even if in the trigone area. This would relieve symptoms until the tcc metastastised to the lymph system, which could be quite a while. Our dog had her surgery at UFlorida and they do this procedure there often and sometimes repeatedly.

Without surgery, the primary treatment is piroxicam. If piroxicam can not be tolerated, Deramaxx can be used as a substitute. Our dog's tcc was discovered very early, which I am sure is a large reason for our success, and the drs feel that being on Deramaxx already for arthritis may have controlled the growth of the tcc for her so that we found it at a very early stage.

You ask about what to expect going forward. I don't mean to sound blunt, but you asked what outcome to expect. Without surgical removal, the life expectancy on piroxicam is about a year. In that time either the tumor will grow enough to block the opening of the bladder and your dog will develop uremic poisoning, or the tcc will metastasize to the lymph nodes and the lungs, or the incontinence will become constant and unmanageable.

There are some holistic treatments that we used that you should investigate. We are using frankincense oil, a product called Bladder Strength which is manufactured by Vetriscience, a cottage cheese/ flaxseed addition to her diet, and both cod liver and salmon oil.
There are some studies in people that suggest that frankincense oil will prevent the recurrence of tcc. Whether it will slow it down if it hasn't been removed I don't know. I highly recommend the Bladder Strength. Even though Rachael's tumors were removed, her bladder and urinary habits did not recover after the surgery. She still strained, had some incontinence, etc. A month on Bladder Strength and all of those symptoms disappearred. It did take twice the recommended dose to turn things around for her, but a holistic vet can guide you in this. I don't know if the flaxseed/ cottage cheese helped or not, but it didn't hurt and she seemed to improve more after we started it. Google 'Budwig flaxseed cottage cheese' to learn more about the diet and the specific preparation which is important.

I've poured out pretty much all of what I have learned by trial and error over two years. I hope that it helps you. Good luck.