Good News!

We have finished Aussie's bladder infusions and the results were positive. We saw an ultrasound and the tumor is definitely much smaller and the vet said just a "nubbin" appears to be left. Aussie has been taking an oral version of the medicine for the past 4 weeks. It started out twice a day and now we are giving it to her every 8 hours. She is still peeing more frequently than she did pre-tumor, but it seems to be less than when we first started treatment.

During the bladder infusions, she was definitely a little sore the day of the treatment, so we would give her Tramadol to help with the pain for that day. It seemed to lessen the pain, but she would still moan sometimes when she got up. The treatments were on Mondays and Thursdays. By Tuesday night she was back to normal.

Throughout the treatment, her appetite has remained very healthy and we still call her a "good eater." She has lost weight, but we aren't sure if that's from the fact she's not eating carbs at all. She started at 41 lbs and now fluctuates between 36 and 37.5 lbs. We are trying to fatten her up a bit, but it's a bit of a battle right now. We are just trying to provide as much protein to help her build herself back up.

The downside of the treatment was the bloody urine and carpet destruction, but that's a price we're willing to pay to help Aussie get better. By the end of the infusions, we were shampooing our carpets at least once and sometimes twice a week. If anyone is considering this treatment and you have brand new carpet, seriously think about diapers! Our carpet is 10 years old and needs to be replaced anyway, but along the way we did discover some great cleaning products. Nature's Miracle is exactly what it claims to be. We have doused our carpets with it and it has indeed worked a miracle. It is a bit pricey, but is the one product we've found that truly does get rid of the urine smell. We also just got a Bissell Spot Bot. This thing is amazing and is making our lives much, much easier. Now when there's an accident, we sop it up, put the Spot Bot down, press a button and it cleans the carpet for us. Then we douse the spot with Nature's Miracle at the end. It seems to be a good system and our house definitely smells fresher these days. It was rough there for awhile.

We get an ultrasound done tomorrow to see how the tumor is doing. Hopefully we will get more good news. Aussie definitely seems to be doing well. She has had a couple of urinary tract infections, but that's to be expected as the tumor continues to die off. We just watch for the tell-tale signs --- more accidents and licking, and then we get the antibiotics and she gets better.

We found out she had TCC on September 5th, and it's now December 29th. Aussie looks great and if I had to do it over again, we would choose the same path. We're glad we didn't do chemo because the vet said that would age her a lot. She doesn't look a day over 7 if you ask us and she's 14 and still going strong. She is one tough puppy!

Day 16

Aussie had a slightly rough night last night. She definitely seemed to be in more pain than usual and she went out in the middle of the night and kept squatting for 30 minutes. It was cold outside, so we had to carry her in. With as thin as she is, we definitely didn't want her staying outside too long.

When we woke up, our carpet and tile looked like a Hitchcock film! This sounds awful, but in our case, this is exactly what we're hoping for. This means the bad tissue is being eaten away. Aussie still seemed sore and wouldn't eat her breakfast. This had us concerned for the first part of the day.

We took her in for acupuncture today to help maintain her arthritis care. Our vet noted that this was the saddest she had ever seen Aussie. She did seem very low key and had to be picked up so she could stand while the needles were put in. Once the 17 needles were in, she went to sleep and rested comfortably. She was notably more alert after the 20 minute acupuncture session. The vet seemed concerned that she hadn't eaten and asked if there was something we could tempt her with. Aussie loves a cheeseburger from Burger King, without the bread, of course. After her appointment, we got her a bacon double cheeseburger. She gobbled it up. It was nice to see her appetite was back. We went for a short walk and when she got home, she seemed to be resting much more comfortably than she had been.

We forgot to mention that she did throw up yesterday after her procedure. We are no longer going to feed her the morning of the treatments. Our vet has also asked us to document the blood in urine and rate it on a scale of 1-4. 1 is not very red, and 4 is bright red. We brought in the paper towels to show her what we were experiencing. She said it looked like it was about a 2. She has continued bleeding throughout the day. It appears to be at a 3 right now.

BREAKFAST
Refused to eat

LUNCH
Bacon double cheeseburger with no bun

DINNER
Burger on the George Forman grill with roasted broccoli

EXERCISE
10 minute walk

Day 15 - Treatment 4

Aussie went in this morning for her 4th treatment. They were able to get the catheter in and she spent all day in the office. This is standard. We drop her off in the morning between 7:30 and 8am and pick up after 4:30pm. We got her home and she went outside. When she came inside, we noticed drops of blood on the floor. We got her to roll over and sure enough, there were signs of blood. We never thought we'd be this happy to see our dog peeing blood!

We called the vet immediately just to make sure this was as expected and to make sure we hadn't misheard earlier. She sounded as elated as we were. This is a sign that the tumor is dying off! Aussie's tumor is in the upper right portion of the bladder, so the vet said she increased the volume of the dosage to make sure it got all the way up to the top of the bladder. This is definitely a good sign!

The only downisde is that Aussie does seem uncomfortable this evening. She's moaning a bit and needing to go outside more frequently. We are contemplating giving her tramadol. We need to check how old our prescription is. We fear it's too old. She goes in tomorrow for acupuncture, so we can restock tomorrow.

BREAKFAST
Tuna, butternut squash, cabbage and yellow squash

DINNER
Aussie wouldn't eat dinner tonight. She ate a small piece of cheese, but didn't seem to interested in it.

EXERCISE
None. She seems uncomfortable tonight and we are going to let her rest

Day 12-14

Aussie had a great weekend. She bounced back quickly after her procedure on Thursday, and had a nice pep in her step when we went for walks and off-leash outings in a field. She hasn't had an accident since Thursday night, so we are hoping this is a good sign. We haven't been counting the number of times she pees outside as much, but she seems to be coming in more quickly than before.

BREAKFAST
Turkey and Tuna, butternut squash, broccoli

DINNER
Tuna, butternut squash, yellow sqash and cabbage

EXERCISE
15-20 minute walks each day

Day 11 - Treatment 3

Aussie had her third treatment this morning. We've found it's critical for her to have some urine in her bladder to help facilitate getting the catheter in. The vet assistants watch out for our car in the morning. We don't let Aussie's feet hit the ground and carry her into the office and go straight to the cage. This prevents her from peeing. The staff has been great working with us on this.

It still took some time to get the catheter in, but not quite as long this time. Our vet has asked for assistance from an emergency vet who catheterizes dogs more frequently. On his way home from the graveyard shift, he will stop by and get the catheter inserted. We are grateful our vet is reaching out and doing whatever she can to make this happen and cause Aussie the least amount of stress and pain. That's one of the many things we like about her.

An ultrasound was done today and the tumor has not decreased in size, but this is only the third treatment. The vet didn't say it had increased either. The case study we read showed a reduction after 5 treatments, so we'll stay positive.

Aussie is whining a little tonight, but seems to be doing pretty well. She had a small accident earlier.

BREAKFAST/DINNER
Beef with broccoli and yellow squash

WEIGHT
38lbs. Vet said she was a little skinny and that we need to add more meat protein into the diet.

EXERCISE
15 minute walk

MEDICINE
Her usuals, plus heartworm and flea and tick meds.

Day 10

Aussie had a good day and wasn't whining like she was the other day. She didn't have any accidents, so we couldn't tell if there was any discoloration happening. She seemed to be sitting down a little more easily and didn't seem quite as sore. She had good energy.

BREAKFAST/DINNER
Turkey and tuna with zucchini and yellow squash and broccoli.

EXERCISE
Weather was nasty, so unfortunately we didn't get a walk.

Day 9

Aussie is still sitting down a bit gingerly, but she hasn't been moaning or whining otday or tonight. This is uplifting. She was excited to eat both of her meals and demanded a walk when we got home tonight. She hasn't had any accidents today, so that is good news as well.

While working on this blog post, I had to go get her veggies out of the steamer and I put the laptop on the couch. When I came back, she had jumped up on the couch and fell asleep with her head on the laptop. It was adorable. I have updated the profile with that picture. She is definitely resting comfortably!

BREAKFAST/DINNER
Turkey, cauliflower, green beans

EXERCISE
15 minute walk