RikyR
Premium Member
Zulu has bladder cancer. Last week after his potty break, we were walking back to the house, he stopped again to lift his leg again. I thought that was odd, and noticed he only did a few drops. Did not see anything in the grass, so I ran my hand under him and found blood. Brought a urine sample to the vet, and they did an ultrasound. Confirmed the blood, found a few white blood cells, no bacteria. There were also cells that looked suspicious, so we did a BRAF test. The ultrasound did not reveal a tumor, but she told me it could be very small. The test results came back yesterday as a positive for cancer. The vet had given me a very detailed paper on bladder cancer. I had prepared myself for bad news, but we are still shocked by this. She has put him on Piroxicam, that seems to help slow down the progression of the cancer. But even with that, we are looking at 6 months to a year. The LSU Vet school has a cancer treatment center for animals. It offers extensive treatments, but at his age I am not currently sure I want to put him through that. Right now, you would never know he is not well. Just being Zulu.
but shelties do seem to be prone to bladder cancer. my friend's shelties were in a bladder cancer study- her girl was on piroxicam and some other supplements including one with mushrooms- don't know if it's the same as what Ann mentioned. she lived about 2 years after the diagnosis and still competed in agility for some of that time.
