Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Shea has received her 4th dose of carboplatin this past Wednesday. After her 3rd treatment she had some urinary incontinence and now after this last treatment seems to be happening again. The first time we noticed it was about 5 days after her treatment. She was sitting on the floor with me and my husband right there and when she got up I noticed a puddle of urine. We took her to the emergency vet ( because everything always happens on the weekend) in case she had a urinary tract infection. They checked her urine but it was very diluted so difficult to tell. We started her on antibiotic because of the increased risk for infection. No problems, antibiotic finished incontinence seems to have resolved.
So we go for her next round of chemo and the next day when shea gets out of bed there is a puddle of urine. I'm wondering if it was an infection last time or a chemo side effect. And did the antibiotic really help or would it have resolved on its own.
I'm going to call the oncologist tomorrow but was curious if anyone else has experienced this as a side effect? I've read about this being a potential side effect for humas but can't seem to find any information for dogs.
Hello, I am on a first-name basis with inconntinence due to chemo drugs. But our story is a bit different than yours. My Dobe, Nitro, had 6 doses of carboplatin without any issues. We then started him on metronomic therapy (daily low dose oral chemo - cytoxan); after about 10 months of this was when he developed severe incontinence. A side effect of this particular drug is cystitis, or inflammation of the kidneys/bladder, that causes blood in the urine. Luckily I work in a hospital lab, and can check his urinalysis frequently, so we caught it early. But his kidney function decreased to the point I feared he was in kidney failure. After an extensive workup to rule out anything serious, we changed his food to Hills K/D (low protein and phosphorus), and started acupuncuture.
I'm happy to report that we were able to reverse the kidney dysfunction to the point of not needing diapers for him anymore, but it was a long process to get where we are today. I should also mention that Nitro is almost 11 years old, which may also contribute to lessening kidney function. Your vet might want to do labs/urinalysis to check Shea's kidney function levels. For sure give them a call to see what their thoughts are. Good luck, I know how frustrating this can be.
Paula and Nitro
Nitro 11 1/2 yr old Doberman; right front amp June 2014. Had 6 doses carboplatin, followed by metronomic therapy. Rocked it on 3 legs for over 3 years! My Warrior beat cancer, but couldn't beat old age. He crossed the Bridge peacefully on July 25, 2017, with dignity and on his terms. Follow his blog entitled "Doberman's journey"
"Be good, mama loves you".....run free my beautiful Warrior
Online
Was waiting for our "Pee Expert" to chime in!
Yes, have the vet check all the things Paula mentioned.
Some of tbe old timers might remember this...it seems Great Dane Bailey had incontinent issues that "appeared"ro be chemo related. As usual, I'm not using the "search"'thing right so, hopefully others can. I may be waaaay off base anyway.
Glad pretty Shea is doing really well overall.
As an aside, many Oncos just suggest four rounds of Carboplatin anyway. So, if for some reason you have to stop, that's the number often used anyway. OBVIOUSLY, I don't have insight into Shea's specific diagnosis so her treatment could be completely different.
Hugs to all
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Shea is so sweet, I love her avatar.
Urinary incontinence in conjunction with chemo has been seen here before. Not often, but it has. These search results in the forums give you lots to sift through unfortunately.
Worst case scenario it's cystitis (irritation of the bladder lining). Oncos will either switch drugs and add an anti-incontinence drug like Proin, if you want, or stop it altogether. But like Sally mentioned, there is so much back and forth about whether 4 or 6 treatments are most effective, that if chemo is stopped, she already has her bases covered. See this article for more info:
http://tripawds.....a-in-dogs/
Let us know how the visit goes OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
I spoke with the oncologist today. They said sometimes a concern could be kidney function, but she had kidney levels checked right before her treatment and everything looked good. Not typically a chemo side effect. But could be a side effect from zofran. Which got me thinking... We really hadn't needed the zofran until her last treatment and started giving it to her regularly. Shortly afterwards the incontinence started but I never saw a correlation. After a week we stopped it because she had her appetite back. The incontinence also stopped but she was given antibiotics for a UTI so I figured it was from that.
Then this treatment we started the zofran immediately due to her poor appetite after the last treatment. The I continue started the next day. So for now we are stopping the zofran and see if there is any improvement. We will get cerenia in case we need it in the meantime.
Hopefully that's all it is. That would be an easy fix.
You're a great advocate for Shea!!
Makes sense! Good job of figuring out what the culprit is!
PICTURES! We need PICTURES!!
Hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Oh wow interesting! I hope that helps, do let us know. Glad you were able to come up with a plan.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Shea's last zofran was yesterday morning. We did not give her an evening dose last night and there has been no incontinence, not even a dribble. I'm so glad that was an easy one.
How do I add a picture to my post?
Oh fantastic! That's really great to hear.
This is a post about adding images to the Forums. If you'd like assistance, just PM me OK?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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