Prostate Problems - Possible Cancer? - Page 1

Last winter, my male GSD started to leak urine. When I took him to the vet, he was diagnosed with a very enlarged prostate and scheduled for neutering.

Things were much better after that, although on a couple of occcasions, I saw him pass a little urine involuntarily, for example, once when greeting my new puppy.

The last couple of weeks, I've been noticing drops of liquid on the floor that seemed a bit too far away from the waterbowl to be post-drink dribbling. (The puppy is really bad at this, she'll dribble water at least 10 ft. down the hall!) The clincher was when I saw him get up and stretch, then dribble a small puddle on the hardwood floor. There were other subtle changes too: he vomited twice for no good reason, the second time vomiting food from his breakfast at 8 pm in the evening. I noticed he was not bothering to stand up when I came into my study, forcing me to step over him.  I also saw him licking the rug once, where he was lying which is what he used to do when dribbling urine before his surgery.

Off to the vet. Urine sample clear, no blood, no pus or abnormal cells. Vet recommended an x-ray.

Uh-oh. He's not sure what he's seeing on the x-ray. Either the prostate is still massively enlarged (larger than it was in February) or there's some sort of mass there. However, on palpation, the prostate SEEMS to have shrunk. but he can't get it to move far enough forward to really be sure. More tests are needed, either catheterization to collect cells from the prostate, or an ultrasound.

Your good thoughts would be appreciated. As most of you k now,  Ranger is my hearing ear dog, and I couldn't have asked for a better dog for the job!

Sunsilver my thought and prayers are with you

I will be sending all the good thoughts I can muster up for both of you!

How old is Ranger?? Sorry to hear he is having trouble.. there is no blood, just urine?? Like human males,  male dogs seem also to be destined to have prostate issues...

I'd head in for an ultrasound but I'd also do at least one or more UA's.. somebody is missing something, has a full blood chemistry been done???

Regardless of the test results, there is something wrong.. the way you describe his behavior tells me that..

I am battling the same thing with my 9 year old retired SchH3 girl, who has the most loving kind gentle eyes and the sweetest face ever.... she has had some "odd" vomiting, her bloodwork was pretty ok, xray showed her spleen looked funny so we did ultrasound.. it is really ugly, yet the biopsy came back normal.. I say "what the ??" She wants to play and asks herself most of the time but has started to go to her crate of her own volition and choose to be in another room form me and THAT is not normal.. so, I know what you're feeling..

Keep us posted

Denise 

Thank you all for your good thoughts. Needless to say, I am pretty stressed and upset right now.  The vet hasn't done any bloodwork yet. I wonder if they can do a PSA on a dog?? He hasn't done a C&S yet as Ranger is very difficult to collect, and he managed to contaminate the sample, so all they could do was a microscopic analysis to check for blood cells, etc. (Not-so-fond memories of trying to collect a sample at -20 F last winter, with bare hands. The few drops I managed to catch were frozen in the bottom of the container by the time I admitted defeat, and came inside.)

Ranger is 5 years old. He plays with the puppy, but doesn't seem quite as energetic as he was a couple of months ago. Of course, other factors may be in play, e.g. the hot weather. The changes are very subtle, and if it weren't for the x-ray results, I'd be wondering if I was worrying about nothing. Appetiite is good, he seems to produce a good urine stream, with maybe just a little bit of dribbling at the end. Normal or not normal? It's the first time I've owned a male dog, so it's hard to be sure.

Sunsilver and Ranger,

May God Bless You Both.  Pray really hard, it does work.

Lindsy and her GSD

You might try some of the suppliments for prostate heath.  Saw Palemtto, Zinc once a week, or you can also use some of human prostate formulas which contain serveral things to help.  Sure won't cure cancer if that is what it ends up being, but if the swelling is going up and down you may just have a prostate problem unrelated to cancer. In which case the suppliments should help.

Good luck!

Debby  ebinezer052899@yahoo.com castlebrookshepherds.net/enter.html

dic, the vet says he has NEVER seena case of benign prostatic hyperplasia where the prostate DID NOT shrink following neutering. He showed me both the x-rays from last winter and the one from today, and the mass is in the same location as the prostate on the earlier films, only much larger. It was large enough in February that it was pressing on the colon, as well as obstructing the flow of urine. They said it was the size of a small grapefruit. Now, what ever is there is even larger. 

Have you had an ultrasound yet?  They tend to be more diagnostic than xrays because it is easier to see more angles, that is what I would do as a next step.  Good luck!

We have to wait on an ultrasound, as the vet doesn't have his own machine. Haven't booked it yet, as he wants to consult with another vet (probably he father, who is also a vet, but has his own practise eleswhere.)

Yeah, waiting is the hardest part, when you don't know what you're dealing with!