February 2011 - Col
Col - So Brave!
Col is a 13 year old intelligent Border collie. Col was first seen in February 2010 because she had been straining to pass urine, she was examined by a vet who suspected cystitis and was placed on antibiotics.
One month later she started persistently licking at her vulva, on examination there was no discharge present and the scan revealed no abnormalities (this ruled out an infection of the uterus). Col soon perked up when her owners bought a new puppy.
Later that month Col was placed under general anaesthetic in order to look at her urethra through an endoscope. A mass was noted at this point that extended along the length of the urethra. Biopsies were taken of the mass to send to an external laboratory to find out what types of cells were present in the mass. These results came back within a week a showed the mass to be a transitional cell carcinoma (a malignant tumour of the urethral or bladder wall).
The Oncology department at Bristol University advised that Col should start on Meloxicam as it has an anti-cancer effect on the bladder lining.
Three months later in July, Col had begun straining to urinate again. An ultrasound scan showed a large bladder, suggesting that the tumour was blocking the urethra and preventing urine from leaving the bladder. Urine was removed from the bladder by cystocentesis (a needle is inserted into the bladder and urine is drawn off), and Col was administered antibiotics to prevent infection.
In the next few month Col continued to pass urine at home in small amounts and was happy playing with the new puppy at home.
In October, Vet Philip Davies liaised with a specialist the cancer and critical care unit in Essex, they advised repeating the endoscope then using Mitoxatrone along with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. The possibility of stenting the urethra was discussed at this time, however this would not cure the problem, but would allow Col to urinate.
Col started chemotherapy in November. Chemotherapy would take place every 3 weeks and involved placing an intravenous catheter in Cols vein with fluids attached, and then the chemotherapy drug was administered slowly into the vein over a period of 10 minutes. Blood samples were taken from Col before each chemotherapy session; this was performed to check that Col’s organs were functioning correctly and that her white blood cell levels were not decreasing.
In February this year Col was placed under another general anaesthetic to endoscope her urethra. This revealed that the tumour had not grown in size, so after liaising with the oncology vet, the on-going plan is to continue with the chemotherapy course and re-endoscope in 4 months’ time.
