I’d pay attention if we’re starting to pee in the house, or there’s blood in the urine, or straining, or stranguria is what we call it, which is a super fun word that means strange urine. It’s one of the few medical words that actually makes sense.
Welcome to Dog Cancer Answers, where we help you help your dog with cancer.
Hello friend, thanks for joining us today. I’m Molly Jacobson, and today on Dog Cancer Answers, we have a listener line call. We’re going to be hearing from Gloria from Florida, who has a dog with transitional cell carcinoma. And joining us to answer Gloria’s question is Dr. Lauren Barrow. So let’s go ahead and listen to Gloria’s recording of her question.
Hello, my name is Gloria and I’m calling from Florida. I have a six year old mixed breed who was just, uh, diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma. And I would like to know what I can feed him. Also, what type of supplement would go well. Right now I am seeing an oncologist. He is taking 10 milligrams of Piroxicam. So I want to know what else can I give him that can possibly help him, save him or give him more time with us. Any information you can provide, uh, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you, Gloria, for your call. So, Dr. Barrow, sort of a broad question about anything else that can be done for Gloria’s dog with transitional cell carcinoma, or TCC, other than Piroxicam?
Yeah, so I was actually really happy to hear that she’s already going to the oncologist. I think they are a resource that I really value for myself too, when I need to help my patients, but they’re really the source of the best, you know, treatment options, trials, all of the, the newest information. So I’m really glad she’s going there.
And that Piroxicam is great. That’s the traditional non steroidal anti inflammatory that’s got a little bit of an anti tumor property to it. And that’s a very common thing that we’ll use for a transitional cell carcinoma. So, so far so good, and you know, they’ve done some studies with Piroxicam and had really great results. So, I think those two things are what’s going to help your dog the most.
As far as diet and supplements, there’s, to my knowledge, to science’s knowledge, I believe, no diet or supplement that will just kill tumors directly. I wish there was, maybe someday there will be, but for right now, the main goals of any dog cancer diet will be you want to have good quality food. You want to maintain appetite and weight and muscle mass, decrease inflammation when you can. So there’s a few different diet schemes and supplements that can help with that.
There’s nothing specific for transitional cell carcinoma that I know of. Again, ask your oncologist. They’re super brilliant. And I’d also say if you want more specifics on the diets and the supplements, dogcancer.com has so much about that. So.
Right.
Definitely listen to those.
Yeah. And we’ll put links. There’s a great article on transitional cell carcinoma. There’s a whole section on supplements. There’s a whole section on diet. So there’s a lot of links that we can include in the show notes for this episode. So Gloria, you can find more details there. Are there any medications that are commonly given in addition to Piroxicam to your knowledge as a general practice veterinarian, specific to TCC?
Not that I have run into. Piroxicam is the one that has had the most studies on it and has had the best results as far as I know. So we tend to not mess with what works when we can. And in the general practice setting. And honestly, most of my patients that have TCC, which is way easier to say than transitional cell carcinoma. My patients with TCC, everyone that I’ve referred to the oncologist will come back on Piroxicam. So.
Okay.
I’m also learning from the oncologist. So I’m happy about that. You know, having said that they are working on other things. I know Palladia is one that was actually developed for a different type of tumor and they’re starting to apply it to types of tumors that maybe it wasn’t originally made for and one of those is TCC. So, I haven’t used it myself in one yet, but I know that’s something to ask. Ask the oncologist.
Okay. Let’s take a short break and when we come back, I want to ask you about more general management and early signs to watch for.
And we’re back with Dr. Lauren Barrow. I noticed that Gloria’s dog is, um, six, which sounds really young to me. Do you have any advice for her in terms of, like, things to look out for or ways to manage TCC? Maybe that’s on the softer side, the non-medication side, any, any general advice about TCC specifically that you give your own clients?
Sure. So, six does sound young. It’s not the youngest I’ve ever heard of. In certain breeds, I feel like I tend to see it more often, and I think studies have shown that. So, if you have a breed of dog that’s prone to those, and I don’t know what Gloria’s dog is.
I think she said a mixed breed. Yeah.
Right, right. So, What’s the mix? I don’t know.
Right.
But if you happen to have a mix of, it was some of those breeds, maybe there’s an increased risk. So to know that would be good. In vet school, they literally teach us when you hear a breed of dog or cat what problems will jump to mind first? And so, this is a totally off topic, as my daughter called it, but if someone asked me what kind of dog to get, I have the hardest time saying because every single breed has a list that comes out of my brain unbidden. These are all the problems I have. So.
So what problems do you want to deal with?
Yeah. Yeah. Which, what’s your, pick your poison, I guess, which usually leads me to say, get a mixed breed and then here you go. Here’s your cancer anyway.
Right.
So that’s the thing about cancer. It does what it wants. But, so I’d say no, no. What breed of dog you have and what it might be prone to if you happen to have a dog that’s a little more prone to TCC. I don’t think I would necessarily lose a lot of sleep over looking for bladder tumors, but I’d pay attention if we’re starting to pee in the house, or there’s blood in the urine, or straining, or stranguria is what we call it, which is a super fun word that means strange urine. It’s one of the few medical words that actually makes sense.
But yes, you could write that in a record. I like record words that actually make sense. So, stranguria is going to be accidents, bloody urine, straining to pee, multiple little tiny pee spots instead of one. So, watch for weird, weird urinary habits. And, you know, stay as healthy as you can in general. A healthy diet, exercise, stay a good weight, same kind of recommendations we make for pretty much everything.
Okay. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Barrow. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today to answer Gloria’s question.
Yeah, you’re welcome.
And thank you, friend, for listening. So it sounds like Gloria is on the right track with her dog. And we certainly wish both of them the very best. We all know how difficult a time this is.
Check out the show notes for all of the resources we mentioned during the show, or head straight to dogcancer.com and browse the articles and videos, including the article on TCC, if that’s a cancer you’re dealing with as well. If you’re looking to connect with our community, go to Facebook.com and search for Dog Cancer Support. That’s our support group on Facebook. You can also go directly to dogcancersupport.com.
I’m Molly Jacobson. And from all of us here at Dog Podcast Network, I’m wishing you and your dog, a very warm, Aloha.
Thank you for listening to Dog Cancer Answers. If you’d like to connect, please visit our website at dogcancer.com or call our listener line at (808) 868-3200. And here’s a friendly reminder that you probably already know, this podcast is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It’s not meant to take the place of the advice you receive from your dog’s veterinarian.
Only veterinarians who examine your dog can give you veterinary advice or diagnose your dog’s medical condition. Your reliance on the information you hear on this podcast is solely. at your own risk. If your dog has a specific health problem, contact your veterinarian. Also, please keep in mind that veterinary information can change rapidly, therefore, some information may be out of date.
Dog Cancer Answers is a presentation of Maui Media in association with Dog Podcast Network.
