Once again, there’s a dreadful amount of scottie owners writing in about Bladder Cancer or technical Transitional Cell Carcinoma. Many owners favour Facebook with their stories, and comments, but often these ‘posts’ are hard to find if you need to refer back to them. So I shall once again start to add back the Facebook posts, so that should anyone need to seek advice or support, it will be more easily found on this site.
So here’s the very latest family, owning a scottie, currently trying to come to terms with this diagnosis …..
If you have a Facebook profile, you can click on the ‘comments’ and read all the replies. If you don’t have a Facebook profile, just ‘contact’ me and I shall collate the responses for anyone who is interested.
Scottish Terrier Health Network 
My Wheaten Scottie, Sarah, was diagnosed with TCC late Aug 2015 at 6yrs and 10 1/2 mos. It was initially suggested to me by my vet to do biopsy which I knew not to do and sought the advice of my friend/breeder whose female, and Sarah’s mama, was also diagnosed in the spring of 2015. I have ended up making many trips to her vet and happy to say, at almost 11 months post diagnosis, Sarah still is her Scottie self. Her mama, though, passed in February. She has been on Piroxicam since September. Our only problems have been 1 urinary tract infection and diagnosed on ultrasound with bladder stones in May. She had a cystotomy done with 14 stones removed and recovered remarkably well. She still loves to play with her Scottie sibling and Rottie brother. We are grateful we found a vet who regularly deals with TCC.
That is such ‘good news’ Thank you so much for taking the time to post your comments. Long may Sarah enjoy life. Please send me a photo so that we can do a post especially for Sarah. You can either post here or send me your photo to scottiehealth@gmail.com.Thank you xxx
My Scottie Ruby was diagnosed with TCC in October 2014 during a Scottish Terrier TCC screening study by Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. When I left the hospital, I was devastated. I cried all the way home (over 700 miles) thinking this was the end. She had no symptoms of TCC other than what showed up on the ultrasound, so I was very surprised with the diagnosis. I agreed to participate in Purdue’s TCC study and they put her on Deramaxx. From her diagnosis in 2014 until June 6, 2016, I drove Ruby from Georgia to Purdue every six weeks for her followup exams. The mass had shrunk considerably in the beginning and then went into partial remission. Unfortunately, during the last exam, they found the mass had increased which indicated the Deramaxx was no longer helping her, so we had to get out of the study. Dr. Knapp at Purdue recommended Ruby go on chemo treatments with Vinblastine every two weeks. Not crazy about chemo. She is getting her treatments at the University of Georgia Vet School and has had three treatments so far and is doing very well. I never dreamed that Ruby would be with us this long; I am so grateful. She rarely had any symptoms other than a uti which went on way too long without antibiotics as recommended by Purdue. Ruby has been very healthy during most of the past 20 months. We don’t know what to expect now, but I never expected her to be with us this long. So my message to all is there is hope. I made a lot of diet changes when she was diagnosed, added many supplements, and no vaccines or flea/tick medications, and most importantly, lots of praying. Ruby will be 10 in November.
Maureen, what an uplifting message you are giving to those pet owners currently suffering the horrors of this disease. I would love to do an article on Ruby and how you have both coped over the lady two years. So if you are up for it, why not send me a photo. The email to use is scottiehealth@gmail.com
I sent Ruby’s photo to Karen yesterday. Glad to share our story.