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.

 

Chatterbox

An unexpected side effect started this week. In the middle of the night, Sophie’s jaw started to tremble uncontrollably and make her teeth click violently together. This little tremor would continue for a minute, stop for a while and then start again. We were all scared and exhausted by sunrise.

The vet called this phenomenon “chattering”– it could indicate jaw pain (best case) or small seizures (worst case.) I read somewhere that it could be a side effect of the prednisone, but didn’t find anything authoritative to support that.

The chattering hasn’t stopped but it’s a lot less frequent. We’re hopeful that it’s a temporary side effect and will eventually pass.

Otherwise, Sophie is in good shape. Her eye is drippy but not disturbingly so; she has more saliva but I wouldn’t call it excessive. She’s been tired lately but I attribute that to all that late night chattering. For a dog who got a whole month of radiation, she’s holding up pretty well.

postscript: chattering lessened and then stopped shortly around the same time we stopped using prednisone. 

 

first side effect

We’re in our final week of radiation treatment for nasal chondrosarcoma and there’s one noticeable side effect: BAD BREATH!

Eating a whole litter box bad. Smell it ten feet away bad. Wake you up in the middle of the night bad. Even Sophie seems to notice and be distressed by it.

There are many reasons for this. We’ve stopped brushing her teeth to cut down on the risk of gum infection. Also, the vet feeds her canned food after radiation each day. But most of all, I blame the prednisone. One of the side effects of the drug is increased appetite; the vet warned that dogs will do bad things to get more food, like go through the trash or jump up on counters, even if they’ve never done it before.

Sophie’s bad behavior involves horses. She has been sneaking under the fence to eat the horse manure in the green space behind our house. We’ve lived here four years and she’s never shown the slightest interest in horses but now they produce such a delicious delicacy that she simply can’t resist.

I can’t wait until the prednisone bottle is empty.

 

Radiation: Day One

We spent a glorious weekend at the beach, trying to forget that Monday would bring the first day of radiation for Sophie’s nasal tumor. No food or water was allowed for eight hours prior to treatment, so I fed her at 5 AM and went back to bed (normal breakfast is at 7ish.)

 

Location is everything

We met with the vet this week. First, the tech took out the staples from the area where the skin tag was removed two weeks ago. (An aside: those staples were really cool! She pressed in the middle and the ends came right out.)

 

Chondrosarcoma

We have a diagnosis: stage 2 chondosarcoma. Basically, it’s a type of cancer that forms in cartilage. It can be found in the “flat bones”, such as ribs or skulls.

The good news is that it doesn’t often metastasize and it doesn’t grow as fast as some other nasal cancers. Bad news is that it doesn’t respond well to radiation. We’re meeting with the vet next week to discuss our options.

 

The Day After

On Wednesday, we anxiously waited for a call from the vet. Finally, we were allowed to meet with the surgeon and pick up Sophie. I woke up with a headache from all the crying the night before; and when we entered the waiting room, I started sobbing all over again. I was exhausted by the time we were shown to an exam room.

 

A night at the vet

The veterinary surgeon agreed to look up Sophie’s nose on the following Tuesday. However, he warned us that it while it could be foxtail, it was more likely a fungus or a nasal tumor.