I've read your posts about your experiences with bladder cancer and your sweet boy Mike and I'm taking notes. My sweet boy Gus (10.5 year old retriever mix) had blood in his urine so we took him to the vet. They ran blood work and it came back perfect. I was temporarily releaved. He wasn't anemic, no infection and no elevated white blood cell count (not even elevated unmatured white blood cell count). However this did nothing to help our diagnosis so we proceeded with an ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed that he had a mass on his bladder as they suspected. According to the specialist we saw, "greater than 90% of bladder masses appearing as we observe this one are indeed transitional cell carcinoma". My heart sank. My heart sank because while he is his normal jovial self with the exception of blood in his urine, he now has a "life expectancy". I knew he wouldn't live forever however I didn't want to hear that he had a timetable. We are treating him with piroxicam and ciprofloxacin (an antibiotic). The vet warned about ulcers as a sideaffect so they recommended we administer pepcid AC once a day. I was reading that you gave Mike "sucrafate" and that you had him on a special diet. I'm wondering what type of diet you put him on. I'm so afraid that this medication is going to hurt more than help due to these possible side affects. Right now, my Gus eats normally, drinks normally, sleeps normally and plays normally. He's not lethargic or anything. I'm fearful that will change. Any advise you could give would be so helpful. Thank you so much for your help.