Update on Butterscotch
Our white Scottie, Butterscotch, has been battling urinary problems for a year and a half. I posted on here earlier this year. This week she has been at Purdue getting scoped, prodded, xrayed and ultrasounded by the chief researcher for TCC (transitional cell carcinoma aka bladder cancer) in Scotties.
The news is not good. She was officially diagnosed. True we have to wait for biopsies to be evaluated, but the researcher and the oncology resident said she has defied all odds by still being alive. It is advanced. The bladder has numerous tumors and the urethra has tumors throughout.
They put her on piroxicam which is an NSAID. They are not quite sure why it works, but in most cases it does better than the actual chemo drugs. She could not tolerate a similar drug, but we are hopeful she can use this one. I think there are some homeophathic things I have learned about that we may be able to give her to help her stomach if we need to. This will all be discussed with the vets when they get back to us later this week.
We are not doing any chemo or radiation. She is 10 1/2 and I want her to be as comfortable as she can be. There is no surgical solution and nothing that will save her life. Only prolong it. So we are choosing this minimal route. The drug is supposed to make it easier for her to pee and I know she would welcome that.
Butterscotch had a bad start in life by a puppy miller in Cincinnati. She was rescued by her former owner when she was near death at 8 weeks old. She lived with him till she was 8 when she and her sister came to live with us. She has been dearly loved her entire life and obviously is quite the fighter to still be here with us.
I wanted you all to know that if you have a pet you are having trouble diagnosing, don't be afraid of a teaching hospital. It's been expensive this week ($1400) but we had already spent more than that at different vets trying to find the problem and now we have definite answers. We were not close to a teaching hospital this winter or we would have done this sooner.
Love your pets. Their time with us is so short.
Dale
The news is not good. She was officially diagnosed. True we have to wait for biopsies to be evaluated, but the researcher and the oncology resident said she has defied all odds by still being alive. It is advanced. The bladder has numerous tumors and the urethra has tumors throughout.
They put her on piroxicam which is an NSAID. They are not quite sure why it works, but in most cases it does better than the actual chemo drugs. She could not tolerate a similar drug, but we are hopeful she can use this one. I think there are some homeophathic things I have learned about that we may be able to give her to help her stomach if we need to. This will all be discussed with the vets when they get back to us later this week.
We are not doing any chemo or radiation. She is 10 1/2 and I want her to be as comfortable as she can be. There is no surgical solution and nothing that will save her life. Only prolong it. So we are choosing this minimal route. The drug is supposed to make it easier for her to pee and I know she would welcome that.
Butterscotch had a bad start in life by a puppy miller in Cincinnati. She was rescued by her former owner when she was near death at 8 weeks old. She lived with him till she was 8 when she and her sister came to live with us. She has been dearly loved her entire life and obviously is quite the fighter to still be here with us.
I wanted you all to know that if you have a pet you are having trouble diagnosing, don't be afraid of a teaching hospital. It's been expensive this week ($1400) but we had already spent more than that at different vets trying to find the problem and now we have definite answers. We were not close to a teaching hospital this winter or we would have done this sooner.
Love your pets. Their time with us is so short.
Dale
