Jan. 16: After we lost our sweet pooch, April to bone cancer in 2006, I thought we’d had our dose of pets with cancer. However, when I took Spooky back in to the vet today to have an ultrasound of his bladder, our vet found a mass. Dr. Heide noted that she’s not a certified ultrasound tech, but there’s definitely something in his bladder. And that’s consistent with the transitional cells found in his urinalysis.
So once again, I find myself reading articles that reference the staging of tumors, surgery and chemo options along with median survival times. And once again, none of it is good.
Spooky’s diagnosis isn’t definitive yet. Dr. Heide took a new urine sample and is sending it to a pathologist for a diagnosis. We should hear back in a week.
So there’s still hope that he’s just lost some weight, has an unusual thing in his bladder, and is totally healthy. But that’s not looking terribly likely.
Here’s a link to a study that my vet gave me.
Right now, Spook has no symptoms other than being a little on the skinny side (he’s 11.5 lbs down from about 14 lbs). So I think I’ll just live in that place of happy kitty denial until forced to behave otherwise.
Althea, Bryan, Andrew, and Sylvia