15 year old Persian suspected tcc

[Chanel4011]

Attention vet techs only: Hi! My 15 year old Persian began to use the litter box way more than usual on Saturday. We brought her to an urgent care where they did an exam and said that her bladder wall felt thick and that they didn’t want to grab a urine sample in the event she has a mass. They prescribed antibiotics and told me to get her to her primary vet for an ultra sound. I was worried because she seemed to still have an issue urinating so we brought her to an emergency vet with imaging. They did a bedside ultrasound and saw that she had a mass near her bladder and urethra. They said she didn’t have much urine in the bladder so the reason she is going more frequently is likely because the mass. They asked if I wanted to do cystoscopy to determine if this is tcc. The vet felt strongly that it is. Since she’s 15 I don’t want to stress her out and drive over 2 hours to do this test that “might” give us confirmation of tcc. I asked if we could proceed with treatment instead of putting her through this stress. They said yes but we would need to get her kidney level down (it’s currently at 2) and we would need to flush out the prednisone before starting nsaid. She’s on pred for on going issues she had before with her low red blood cell count. The pred helps her appetite. My concern is if her kidney levels don’t go down I’ll be forced to make the decision. I’m just at a loss, I don’t know what to do. This is my baby, I’ve had her since she was 8 weeks. She goes for bloodwork every other month at her primary vet because of the pred, she’s shown no signs of any cancer. Her blood work today was also normal, just elevated kidney #s due to the infection (they think it’s from the irritation.)
Today her numbers went down and we are going to proceed with onsior . I hope this helps her

 

[neely]

Welcome to TCS! I'm glad you joined the site but sorry to hear about your cat's health problem(s). I also have a senior Persian, he is our third Persian and I dearly love the breed. I noticed you requested only vet techs to reply. Although there is a vet tech on the Team who I'm sure will read your thread there are many other very knowledgeable members here who may be able to offer their assistance. However, please keep in mind we are not vets and, therefore, cannot offer medical advice. But we can offer guidance and support. There is also a very well respected member who is a Persian breeder and familiar with the Persian's health problems. Hopefully they will see your thread too. Wishing you the best of luck with your sweet girl and sending special thoughts her way.

 

[Chanel4011]

Welcome to TCS! I'm glad you joined the site but sorry to hear about your cat's health problem(s). I also have a senior Persian, he is our third Persian and I dearly love the breed. I noticed you requested only vet techs to reply. Although there is a vet tech on the Team who I'm sure will read your thread there are many other very knowledgeable members here who may be able to offer their assistance. However, please keep in mind we are not vets and, therefore, cannot offer medical advice. But we can offer guidance and support. There is also a very well respected member who is a Persian breeder and familiar with the Persian's health problems. Hopefully they will see your thread too. Wishing you the best of luck with your sweet girl and sending special thoughts her way.

I tried to update it but it won’t let me

 

[neely]

I tried to update it but it won’t let me

According to the site rules you have to be a member for five days and have at least 20 posts in order to edit your post. I hope this helps.

 

[silent meowlook]

Lower urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma in cats

www.vin.com

Bladder Tumors-Feline — VSSO

vsso.org

The above is a study and then notes from a lecture on TCC in cats.
Unfortunately, there just isn't that much information available regarding it in cats because it is rare. Dogs usually have the tumor location to where it obstructs the urine flow out of the bladder, cats it is usually not.

The medication I have seen it treated with in cats is Piroxicam.

What concerns me is the use of NSAIDs in a Persian cat with a history of elevated renal values. But what can you do? Surgical removal of the tumor (if it is a tumor) would also involve resecting the bladder. I doubt I would want that surgery done if my cat had the same issues. In some of the things I have read it says to obtain a needle biopsy, then in the next paragraph it says not to aspirate the mass with a needle due to seeding (spreading) the cancer cells. That is why you don't want to get a urine sample from a cystocentesis (needle to the bladder). That I have heard forever and is why you should always visualize a bladder with an ultrasound before you stick a needle in it.

Urine can be collected via a clean litter pan with special cat litter, then sucked up with a syringe. It wouldn't be good for a culture sample, but you could visualize cells. I have seen urine samples with a high amount of transitional epithelial cells that were not normal in appearance and would also help to come to a conclusion of TCC.

Does the vet have you giving subcutaneous fluids at home? I would think that would be a good idea.

Do they know why your cat is anemic? This is something that could be linked to cancer. Unfortunately, there are often no signs of anything amiss in blood work with a cat that has cancer.

Have x-rays been taken? I would think that not only bladder radiographs, but a three view chest radiographs should be done to rule out, if this is cancer, that it has not metastasized to the lungs.

Obviously, canned food only, I am sure they have you on a prescription diet.

Couple of questions:
Is the veterinarian that you saw that did the ultrasound a board certified veterinary internal medicine veterinarian? If you are in the US, the initials after his or her name would be DVM DACVIM. This is important to know because if it is a specialty hospital and you went in at the emergency side, it could be just a regular veterinarian, a boarded emergency veterinarian or some other specialist, who is great at emergency medicine but lacks the education and learned skills to be an internal medicine veterinarian. So, please look for those initials after their name.

If this was my cat, I would want to be sure to have an internal medicine veterinary specialist looking at my cat with a special interest in urology, if I could find one. At this point, if she was my cat, I would hold off on treatments suggested by the regular veterinarian, unless they were consulting with a boarded veterinary specialist, who had examined and ultra sounded my cat. I would be okay with them doing chest radiographs though.

I have seen some very confident veterinarians make mistakes, or just not know what they are seeing. Veterinarians are human and are expected to know so much about multiple species. Before any life altering decisions or treatments were started, I would want a second opinion from a specialist.

Your cat needs pain management regardless of what is going on. Bladder cancer hurts, bladder issues hurt.

I have worked with veterinarians at specialty hospitals, Emergency hospitals, and feline only hospitals, as well as GP. I am not a veterinarian and do not hold any license.

 

[Chanel4011]

http://[URL]https://www.vin.com/apputil/Project/DefaultAdv1.aspx?pId=99&id=11374708

[/URL]

http://[URL]https://vsso.org/bladder-tumors-feline

[/URL]

The above is a study and then notes from a lecture on TCC in cats.
Unfortunately, there just isn't that much information available regarding it in cats because it is rare. Dogs usually have the tumor location to where it obstructs the urine flow out of the bladder, cats it is usually not.

The medication I have seen it treated with in cats is Piroxicam.

What concerns me is the use of NSAIDs in a Persian cat with a history of elevated renal values. But what can you do? Surgical removal of the tumor (if it is a tumor) would also involve resecting the bladder. I doubt I would want that surgery done if my cat had the same issues. In some of the things I have read it says to obtain a needle biopsy, then in the next paragraph it says not to aspirate the mass with a needle due to seeding (spreading) the cancer cells. That is why you don't want to get a urine sample from a cystocentesis (needle to the bladder). That I have heard forever and is why you should always visualize a bladder with an ultrasound before you stick a needle in it.

Urine can be collected via a clean litter pan with special cat litter, then sucked up with a syringe. It wouldn't be good for a culture sample, but you could visualize cells. I have seen urine samples with a high amount of transitional epithelial cells that were not normal in appearance and would also help to come to a conclusion of TCC.

Does the vet have you giving subcutaneous fluids at home? I would think that would be a good idea.

Do they know why your cat is anemic? This is something that could be linked to cancer. Unfortunately, there are often no signs of anything amiss in blood work with a cat that has cancer.

Have x-rays been taken? I would think that not only bladder radiographs, but a three view chest radiographs should be done to rule out, if this is cancer, that it has not metastasized to the lungs.

Obviously, canned food only, I am sure they have you on a prescription diet.

Couple of questions:
Is the veterinarian that you saw that did the ultrasound a board certified veterinary internal medicine veterinarian? If you are in the US, the initials after his or her name would be DVM DACVIM. This is important to know because if it is a specialty hospital and you went in at the emergency side, it could be just a regular veterinarian, a boarded emergency veterinarian or some other specialist, who is great at emergency medicine but lacks the education and learned skills to be an internal medicine veterinarian. So, please look for those initials after their name.

If this was my cat, I would want to be sure to have an internal medicine veterinary specialist looking at my cat with a special interest in urology, if I could find one. At this point, if she was my cat, I would hold off on treatments suggested by the regular veterinarian, unless they were consulting with a boarded veterinary specialist, who had examined and ultra sounded my cat. I would be okay with them doing chest radiographs though.

I have seen some very confident veterinarians make mistakes, or just not know what they are seeing. Veterinarians are human and are expected to know so much about multiple species. Before any life altering decisions or treatments were started, I would want a second opinion from a specialist.

Your cat needs pain management regardless of what is going on. Bladder cancer hurts, bladder issues hurt.

I have worked with veterinarians at specialty hospitals, Emergency hospitals, and feline only hospitals, as well as GP. I am not a veterinarian and do not hold any license.

Hi,
Her values have gone down to almost normal. The reason they were so high was because of the underlying infection. The vet said that Chanel isn’t in pain, she examined her fully and Chanel didn’t display any pain. The nsaid (day1) seems to be working okay. She seems more like herself today, eating, drinking and lounging as usual. We attempted to give her Gabapentin the other day but I didn’t like the way she was acting, she couldn’t hold herself up and she didn’t sleep at all. We gave her the lowest dose possible. The vet that diagnosed her is DVM and Chanel’s personal vet (also dvm and an internal specialist ) one of the top in this state has been overseeing her case. I think we are at a good place and I’m hopeful that I’ll have a little bit more time with her.

thank you for your response