JoAnn,
Ginger's main tumor is up at the top of the bladder and there's a smaller one next to it. Her uretha is clear (they did a cytology thing where they went up through the uretha into the bladder and took pictures). The only negative thing is that the tumor was where one of her kidneys connect to the bladder, so it was starting to block that ureter. The vet said as long as her other kidney was okay, one kidney can sustain her. Her urine flow is not obstructed at all. When she goes out, she immediately releases a large quantity of urine the first time. Then she'll sqaut a few more times when hardly anything comes out. She won't come back in the house until she's ready to. She's a stubborn little doggie with a mind of her own!!!! I don't force her to come back in, and I take her out usually every few hours. During the day when I'm at work, I have a dog walking service come by to take her out.
Until this week, she has been feeling really well. But this bladder infection has gotten her feeling down. She's not eating very much. I'm hoping it's just the infection, and not a downard trend. And she has a lesion on her tail that is infected. She won't let me touch it to put anything on it, but the vet said the antibiotic should help with that too. I'm taking her back on Thursday to doublecheck that. I've read about Glaviola. If the mitoxantrone doesn't seem to help, then I might look at trying that.
My focus right now is just getting her over this bladder infection and getting the tail lesion healed. She's been so friggin' healthy her whole life and then boom . . . .it all hits.
Since she is pretty old, I suspect that she's had the cancer for a good while, but just never had any symptoms. They say more than 50% of older dogs die of cancer. They just don't live long enough.
That's neat that you have more than 1 doggie. Since Lexie is so young, I hope the meds work well and slow the growth so she is around a long time. Being younger will hopefully help!
That's neat that you have Lexie's brother. Give them both a hug from Ginger and keep in touch. I'll write later this week on how Ginger is doing.
:-)
Frances