Bladder Tumor, Treatment, Secondary Symptoms: Desperately Need Help!

[rxsherm]

Hello.

Our Fox Terrier, Maddie, was diagnosed with an inoperable bladder tumor about one year ago. Through a combination of Piroxicam and Doxycycline we have managed to turn her death sentence into a temporary reprieve shrinking the tumor and have had, thankfully, another 12 months to spend with her so far and there is no sign of the tumor growing at this time.

About 6 months ago, however, Maddie started to urinate in the house... FREQUENTLY. Now, it seems like every time she gets up, she squats and it's getting a bit out of control here.

Our vet found some organisms in her urine we started to treat with a variety of antibiotics. Some of these antibiotics would show a temporary benefit, but several days into the treatment, the symptoms would return.

The vet's last theory was that the tumor was causing an irritation in the bladder, making Maddie believe she has to urinate. So based on this, we've been trying a number of medications to reduce the "sensation" and "urgency" of needing to urinate (the latest being Gabapentin). It seems to help A LITTLE BIT but the results are far from ideal and we just feel like we're bobbing along the bottom in terms of quality of life...

Maddie can't go for walks (because she squats every 100 feet). No one is getting any sleep because we are constantly jumping up every 2-3 hours to let her out (or clean up her accidents on her way down the stairs and she won't let us pick her up and carry her out.)

We've tried diapers, but she's the kind of dog who "won't move" if she's wearing something like that. We've tried a kennel in the bedroom but she tries to chew the bars to escape (breaking her teeth). We are about to try puppy pee pads to see if we can't redirect the pee to a controlled spot, but we're not overly optimistic at this point.

There seems to be little or no information online on the long term care for a dog with this medical situation and although we adore our vet and he has gone above and beyond to try and help us, he's low on ideas and we feel like we're just treading water.

Needless to say, we're getting desperate to try and improve this situation. We can't even remotely fathom a "final alternative" at this point (she still is a happy, active and loving dog, DESPITE ALL THIS).

I realize there aren't many of you out there with this problem, but we would love to hear from any owners or doctors with experience with this particular condition (and related set of problems) who could offer some potential advice that we can share with our vet as to medications they've used to treat this very pesky secondary symptom and give us some hope again.

Thank you for taking the time to care.