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!
1 comment:
Since this was your last post, I am curious as to how Aussie is doing at this time?
My 13 year old Terrier Mix was diagnosed on 5/26 with TCC urethral cancer. I've gone through all the testing with the Oncologist Vet and it's contained just in the urethra.
Since Neoplasene is so relatively new and not as documented as other TCC cancer treatments, I'm researching for any information I can on patients that have used it for bladder or urethra and their results. I've spoken with Dr. Fox and he sounded positive that my little one would benefit greatly from it but it's good to get feedback from actual cases. My Vet is with a top clinic in Houston but do not have any knowledge of. They are willing to try it but also would like to have a better understanding before going there.
Sounds like you've been through so much to give Aussie the best care possible. I hope she is doing well.
Thanks,
Charlien
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