The First Last

This past weekend was Sophie’s last visit to the dog park. She doesn’t seem to enjoy the company of other dogs anymore. The local dog park has been part of the daily routine for almost eleven years.

Currently Sophie is producing only a little urine, red with blood, due to an infection.  A slick discharge suggests that the tumor has broken through the vaginal wall.  She may also be suffering from a bleeding ulcer, a side effect of the piroxicam. 

Despite all this bad news, the past week was a good one. Sophie now takes Cephalexin for the infection and her energy level increased immediately after starting it. She is also getting phenoxybenzamine to help relax her muscles and pee more easily. She is still taking piroxicam in hopes of shrinking the tumor, but the side effects are mitigated by sucralfate which helps protect and coat her stomach. 

Sophie continues to enjoy multiple walks each day, to jump for joy at breakfast time, and to snuggle on the sofa in the evening. While we might mourn the loss of our dog park visits, we’re also glad that it’s the only activity ending for now.

 

Sophie’s second cancer

Sophie still has no real symptoms or side effects from her bout with canine nasal chondrosarcoma in 2007. She sneezes daily and is otherwise happy.

For the past several months, however, Sophie has seemingly suffered a never-ending urinary tract infection. She goes outside at every opportunity and takes a long time. At our last visit, the vet strongly suggested an ultrasound because she suspected bladder stones.

Sadly, the results were much worse. Sophie likely has transitional cell carcinoma. It’s a nasty, aggressive cancer of the bladder or the urethra. This cancer is completely unrelated to her previous struggle– it’s just her bad luck to get two icky cancers in the space of two years.

The vet has prescribed Piroxicam, which might help slow the tumor, and Misoprostol to offset any digestive problems caused by Piroxicam.

Beyond this palliative prescription, there is no real treatment– one can try surgery or chemotherapy, but the side effects frequently outweigh any additional survival time. We are switching to home-cooked meals that are gentle on her stomach, but aren’t making any other changes in our daily routine.

We had such success with Sophie’s first cancer that it’s hard to accept that we can’t do anything about this second scourge. We have absolutely no idea how much time she has left. Right now, she’s happy and generally healthy, and we’re going to enjoy each other for as long as we can.