Canine Bladder Cancer

Hi Jackie,
My Scotty is almost 15 years old and was diagnosed in August of 2005. At that time the vet gave her about 6 months - she is still hanging in there. So do not give up hope. Give her all the love and kisses you can and don't let her see that you are sad. Our babies don't know they are sick, but they will pick up on our moods. If you go to the Cancer Message Boards, then to Bladder, then to page 4 - go down a ways, and you will see Canine Bladder Cancer (tcc) with over 400 messages. There is a wealth of information and great supportive folks. Hope to see you there soon! Good luck.
Karen

Thanks for that.
She is doing well, so am trying to make her life the happiest doggy life on earth!
Will look at the links
Jackie

Hi- I have a 12 year old fox terrier (Ginger) who was diagnosed last October with TCC.  She is on piroxicame and seems to be doing well.  I want to know what to expect as her disease progresses.  I am terribly afraid I will keep her alive past reasonable expectations or not recognize when she needs to be euthanized.  Can someone tell me what to expect at this point?  I actually took her to her Vet in to put her to sleep because she was having low urine output and seemed very quiet.  My Vet told me that I was premature and actually put her in Xanex to help her be less restless at night.  Can someone share their experience?  My husband and I had vacation plans for May which I have canceled because I just can't leave my dog at this time.  Am I over-reacting? 

 

On 4/3/2007 Jfitz wrote:

Hi- I have a 12 year old fox terrier (Ginger) who was diagnosed last October with TCC.  She is on piroxicame and seems to be doing well.  I want to know what to expect as her disease progresses.  I am terribly afraid I will keep her alive past reasonable expectations or not recognize when she needs to be euthanized.  Can someone tell me what to expect at this point?  I actually took her to her Vet in to put her to sleep because she was having low urine output and seemed very quiet.  My Vet told me that I was premature and actually put her in Xanex to help her be less restless at night.  Can someone share their experience?  My husband and I had vacation plans for May which I have canceled because I just can't leave my dog at this time.  Am I over-reacting? 

I know exactly how you feel! My dog Annie was diagnosed in March of 2005 and I canceled all travel plans, turned down every invitation and worried. Annie was put on piroxicam, but her tumor remained.

Well it is now 2007 and Annie's symptoms are getting worse and some days she seems very agitated.  The vet put her on a medicine--tramadol-- that I have seen on this board.  It is supposed to be for pain, but I am not sure that Annie's agitation is from pain.  Anyway, it makes her sleep, so one way or another it resolves things.

It is getting harder for her to urinate and she has more accidents in the house, but otherwise seems happy. (She eats too much and is gaining weight which probably isn't good either, but everyone seems to agree that this is the time to spoil her)

My vet says she is doing well; so as long as both Annie and he think that, I'll believe them.  I did finally just go on a week's vacation and nearly came home twice as I was so worried about Annie, but she was fine.

I wish you and your dog the best.

Marty 

 

 

On 7/21/2007 Gentleannie wrote:

 

On 4/3/2007 Jfitz wrote:

Hi- I have a 12 year old fox terrier (Ginger) who was diagnosed last October with TCC.  She is on piroxicame and seems to be doing well.  I want to know what to expect as her disease progresses.  I am terribly afraid I will keep her alive past reasonable expectations or not recognize when she needs to be euthanized.  Can someone tell me what to expect at this point?  I actually took her to her Vet in to put her to sleep because she was having low urine output and seemed very quiet.  My Vet told me that I was premature and actually put her in Xanex to help her be less restless at night.  Can someone share their experience?  My husband and I had vacation plans for May which I have canceled because I just can't leave my dog at this time.  Am I over-reacting? 

I know exactly how you feel! My dog Annie was diagnosed in March of 2005 and I canceled all travel plans, turned down every invitation and worried. Annie was put on piroxicam, but her tumor remained.

Well it is now 2007 and Annie's symptoms are getting worse and some days she seems very agitated.  The vet put her on a medicine--tramadol-- that I have seen on this board.  It is supposed to be for pain, but I am not sure that Annie's agitation is from pain.  Anyway, it makes her sleep, so one way or another it resolves things.

It is getting harder for her to urinate and she has more accidents in the house, but otherwise seems happy. (She eats too much and is gaining weight which probably isn't good either, but everyone seems to agree that this is the time to spoil her)

My vet says she is doing well; so as long as both Annie and he think that, I'll believe them.  I did finally just go on a week's vacation and nearly came home twice as I was so worried about Annie, but she was fine.

I wish you and your dog the best.

Marty 

Hi Marty -my name is Ron, I have a 7 year old Scottie Winnie who was diagnosed in Nov 07 withj TCC. I was wondering the following:

 

where was the tumor located when your dog was originally diagnosed, what did you do for treatment and how is the dog doing now?

THX,

Ron

 

 

Hi Ron!

I'm so sorry to hear about your Winnie--7 years old is SO young.

To answer your question, I pulled Annie's records.  The pathology report is gobligook to me, but the tumor was on the bladder wall and urethra in the area of the trigone.  I remember her oncologist drawing pictures of it growing along the side of the bladder as opposed to into it.

Once I knew that we were unable to get rid of the tumor, I have had no more ultrasounds done (I am crazy enough with this as it is) The last was in May of 2006.

Up until last week, Annie was doing so well that I really was wondering why we were so lucky.  Her urinating was, if anything, getting better.  I had only seen blood in her urine a very few times and I think that was in the first half of 2007. (Her initial diagnosis came in February 2005!!!)

Last Tuesday, Annie developed horrible horrible diarrhea and  started to lose her appetite.  I, of course, assumed the worst.  I called the oncologist and the nurse there said to take her off the piroxicam (which is the only treatment she has been on these three years--5mg. I have considered it her salvation and it KILLED me to stop it).  We went to see her regular vet who treated her for worms, a microorganism and gave her anti-diarrhea medicine. That was Wednesday. I think it is working. Her diarrhea has improved greatly, her appetite is somewhat returning. I am thinking perhaps we will be okay--we will see over the next few days.  Meanwhile, she is showing all the classic symptoms of the TCC--she is going out every 15 minutes to attempt to pee (mostly unsuccessfully) and has had a few accidents in the house.

I have found over the past years, that when she is under duress, the symptoms are much worse. (Like 4th of July fireworks time)

I am sorry if I went on and on--usually I am more to the point. It's just been a bad week. I usually try to be optimistic and upbeat for everyone on this board. No matter what else happens, Annie has already lived a very very good three years with this cancer.  I know we are a lucky pair, but if we can have this luck someone else out there will as well.

I hope it is you and Winnie.  Please write again if I can give you some more info.

Marty 

 

Hi Marty:  Thanks very much for responding. Iti s such great news to hear how you and Anne are doing.  You both have clearly beat the odds!

Winnie's TCC was not operable and one kidney was not functioning-so the vet suggested Piroxicam. It is only available in 10 mg.  The vet ordered 2.5 mg. I open the 10 mg capule and sprinkle 1/4 capsule on her food daily (use Hills N/D diet).  On top of that I place about 1/3 of a cup of steamed vegetables (served cold) containing broccolli, cauliflower and carrotts-she loves it!

I also give her cranberry tablets ( 2 x daily) to keep down urinary infection, Ginsing (Korean red), garlic tablet X 1, vitamin c 500mg X 1, fish oil tablet x 1, milk thistle and dandelion root (liver protection) 1 each daily cytotec 1/2 tablet twice day and CoQ10 x 1 daily.  I have been doing this for about 8 weeks and Winnie seems good.  She has to be taken out about every 2 hours or she has an accident.  If she is crated she can maybe go to 3.5 hours.

I realize you have been very lucky with Anne and wish you both well. Was wondering if you knew of anyone who used prednisone to help dogs with TCC to urinate easier.

THX

Ron and Winnie 

 

On 1/16/2008 ScottishTerriers wrote:

Hi Marty:  Thanks very much for responding. Iti s such great news to hear how you and Anne are doing.  You both have clearly beat the odds!

Winnie's TCC was not operable and one kidney was not functioning-so the vet suggested Piroxicam. It is only available in 10 mg.  The vet ordered 2.5 mg. I open the 10 mg capule and sprinkle 1/4 capsule on her food daily (use Hills N/D diet).  On top of that I place about 1/3 of a cup of steamed vegetables (served cold) containing broccolli, cauliflower and carrotts-she loves it!

I also give her cranberry tablets ( 2 x daily) to keep down urinary infection, Ginsing (Korean red), garlic tablet X 1, vitamin c 500mg X 1, fish oil tablet x 1, milk thistle and dandelion root (liver protection) 1 each daily cytotec 1/2 tablet twice day and CoQ10 x 1 daily.  I have been doing this for about 8 weeks and Winnie seems good.  She has to be taken out about every 2 hours or she has an accident.  If she is crated she can maybe go to 3.5 hours.

I realize you have been very lucky with Anne and wish you both well. Was wondering if you knew of anyone who used prednisone to help dogs with TCC to urinate easier.

THX

Ron and Winnie 

Hi Ron! 

We haven't beaten the odds, but we're given the cancer a good run for its money! Annie is feeling well again, although as of today the diarrhea persists and she has been off the piroxicam for a week.  I am so hoping I can get her back on it tomorrow or Friday

You will have to listen to your vet and weigh what he tells you, but I have not heard of anyone giving their dog prednisone.  To me, it does not sound like a good idea.  Winnie is fine with that one kidney functioning, but she needs it to work. As a steroid, prednisone can be hard on a dog's kidneys (I know, I had to give one of mine it for an extended period of time and he eventually died of kidney failure--it was dreadful)  Also, one of the side effects of prednisone is that it can increase urination--and I am not sure if that is because of increased water intake or not.

At any rate, as I understand it, it's not that our babies  simply can't urinate--sometimes the tumor is putting pressure on the bladder and they just feel the need to urinate, but don't really have to, other times it is blocking their ability to pass the urine--increasing the DESIRE to urinate won't help either of those situations.

For Annie, she can usually sleep through the night, but she's awake now and just put herself out twice in the past 15 minutes--she doesn't really need to go--she just thinks she does. When she wakes up tomorrow, having slept through the night she'll pee a lot!

Annie weighs around 37 pounds give or take and she has been on 5mg. of piroxicam.  Is Winnie that much smaller than Annie that her dosage would be half?   You might want to check on that.

Good luck Ron, you are doing everything you can for your girl--she's lucky to have a dad such as yourself. Annie and I wish you both the best.

Marty