Orange Dog Gives Us a Scare

My son's dog, Lucy has some blood in her urine. Assuming it was a a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), we dosed it with doxycycline, but it did not clear up.  Off to the vet.

The vet also assumed a UTI and dosed Lucy with Amoxycillin. Still blood in the urine. An ultrasound showed some possible shadows on her bladder.  A tumor was mentioned, which would mean bladder cancer. There is no cure for bladder cancer.

Off to another high-end pet hospital (recommended by the vet) where they did blood work and another ultrasound.  Expecting the worse, we were relieved to get a tentative diagnosis of polypoid cystitis.

Fantastic.  OK, maybe not fantastic, but polypoid cystitis is treatable.  It may still be cancer, but the vet says she is pretty sure it's polypoid cystitis. 

For now, the vet is recommending a urine culture (being done). If she doesn't have a UTI, they recommend monitoring her for future UTIs as this is common with polypoid cystitis. They may also advise a change in diet to minimize the chance of future bladder stones (a common outcome with polypoid cystitis).  She will also be getting a NSAID (carprofen).

Not out of the woods yet, but it sound like it's probably not cancer which is a Big Damn Deal.  Fingers crossed!

The vet did say that otherwise Lucy was in terrific shape.  That's not surprising, as Lucy does over 10 miles a day accompanying my son on his dog walking business.