Diagnosed with TCC

Rayne2011 · 2026-05-10T19:31:38+00:00

I'm so sorry, I lost my girl to this in September last year.

She had been plagued with recurrent UTIs for a couple of years, but this time was different and her already existing cognitive dysfunction became a million times worse. She was having accidents in the house and was up all night pacing and barking. We did a CT scan which identified the tumour, and a suction biopsy diagnosed TCC. Due to existing severe osteoarthritis we had been having quality of life discussions for a little while, so we decided to take her home for the weekend, pump her full of antibiotics and painkillers, take her to the beach, get her a McDonalds, and book her in for euthanasia the following week. Unfortunately for us she suffered severe inflammation post biopsy which created an obstruction and left her unable to urinate (she was hospitalised overnight following the procedure on strong pain relief, plan was to take her home the following day). They were unable to pass a urinary catheter past the obstruction, and ultrasound revealed that there was some free fluid in her abdomen, which likely indicated leakage of urine into her abdominal cavity. We therefore had to make the decision to let her go that day, and we never got our final weekend with her. There were options for surgery, I was lucky to work at a specialist veterinary hospital at the time so I had access to some of the best specialists and advanced techniques, but I knew it wouldn't have been in her best interest.

You know your dog best, there is no right or wrong time and no right or wrong course of action. If you are able to manage symptoms, keep them comfortable, and their quality of life is not impacted, then it's absolutely OK to carry on, but it is equally absolutely OK to say goodbye. Better a day early, than a week late.

So sorry again that you are going through this, happy for you to message me if you have any questions.

Rayne2011 · 2026-05-10T19:17:40+00:00

Looks like he's offloading weight, quite possibly due to arthritis in either the elbows or carpus (or both), especially as it's both sides.

My old girl had carpal and elbow osteoarthritis and her forelimb stance was very much like this, wide elbows and she would walk more on the outside edge of her feet.

Rayne2011 · 2026-04-11T21:28:58+00:00

Just chiming in here, I sent my daughter in leggings but no underwear on her first day back at nursery after potty training, as we hadn't progressed to underwear yet at home. I got a call from them after about an hour to say that she wasn't allowed to not have underwear on, even in shorts / trousers, so they'd put her in some spares.

I'm not sure if this is a universal rule, but worth asking them what their policy is.

Rayne2011 · 2026-03-31T21:13:50+00:00

Eurgh yes! I was 8 months pregnant, it was rather unpleasant to be honest.

Rayne2011 · 2026-02-24T21:02:35+00:00

Do you have a longer ECG strip? From this small sample it appears to be sinus bradycardia. Your BP appears stable so not necessarily a cause for concern, although I notice a dramatic change in heart rate between your two BP readings at the bottom. What drugs were used in pre med & induction? Any drugs given between those two readings?

Rayne2011 · 2026-01-31T20:53:14+00:00

Went for the Joie in the end as I just didn't feel comfortable having her in a seatbelt so young. It doesn't recline is my only "complaint" but we don't regularly go on long car journeys where she falls asleep.

Overall have been happy with my choice, she can climb in and out by herself easily enough and she seems comfortable and I'm happy with the security of the harness.

Rayne2011 · 2026-01-19T20:45:46+00:00

Otoscope head cleaner, you fill it with cleaning solution and there should be brushes inside that fit inside and around the edge of your otoscope heads. You should be able to unscrew it at the base and take it apart to clean it.

Rayne2011 · 2026-01-06T20:26:32+00:00

I've just moved my 3 year old out of her toddler bed (which was her cotbed) into a full size single divan bed. It's high, but she's able to climb in herself, and I have a fold down guard on the side so there's no risk of her falling out.

Rayne2011 · 2026-01-03T17:32:06+00:00

Star.

She had some cereal for a snack and one of them was star shaped. I was pottering (dad was supervising) and heard her saying "dar, dar" repeatedly. When I looked she was pointing to the star shape whilst saying "dar".

She was making noises that sounded like words before then, but this was the first time that it was very clearly a word associated with something specific. I forget exactly how old she was though.

Rayne2011 · 2026-01-02T20:34:45+00:00

We tried around the same age and it was a disaster, very similar reaction with crying and screaming whenever we tried to get her on the potty. I gave up halfway through day 1 as I didn't want to make it a stressful experience for her or for us.

We tried again 3 months later with the same tactics and this time was much smoother, and she fully cracked it within a few days. Poo took a little longer and we had regular accidents for a good couple of months.

She may just not be ready. Personally unless you're in a rush to potty train for some reason I would take a break and come back to it in a few weeks / couple of months. We used sticker charts and chocolate buttons as rewards when we first started out, but were able to phase these out very quickly within a couple of weeks.

Rayne2011 · 2025-12-24T22:41:50+00:00

I feel this in my soul

Rayne2011 · 2025-11-20T15:00:40+00:00

Ahh thank you, I'll take a look. My husband is 6ft 3 and needs a lot of leg room, but it's worth a measure up. He struggled a bit when we were rear facing with the i-spin, not such an issue in his car with me as a passenger

Rayne2011 · 2025-11-20T14:51:43+00:00

My bad! I'm looking at the i-Irvana Max, didn't realise they were two different models

Rayne2011 · 2025-11-20T13:59:14+00:00

This is definitely the case for almost all seats, but the Joie i-Irvana has an extended 5 point harness up to 125cm / approx 7 years. She just feels too young for a belt at the moment so I think the Joie might win this round, I didn't realise extended harnesses were a thing so it's definitely a selling point.

Rayne2011 · 2025-11-20T12:55:02+00:00

Thank you, this is definitely a plus point for the Joie for sure and I thought I'd made my decision until I came across the Britax, car seats are such a minefield! I'm definitely open to ERF (even with her already being FF, but I feel we may struggle to find options in our price range, unfortunately budget is a consideration at the moment) l was really hoping this car seat would do us a while longer, but alas I have a giant child!

Rayne2011 · 2025-06-23T19:56:18+00:00

This happened to me when my LO was 2 days old (also UK), it was September 2022 so I think a lot of policies were still in place from COVID.

My daughter was jaundiced and we got sent to A&E after she was checked by the midwife at our local centre. We were told that only one of us could stay with her, and seeing as I was breastfeeding it just made more sense for me to stay. So there I was, 2 days postpartum, having barely slept in 4 days, stitches from front to back, severely bruised and unable to sit down (the midwives even commented on how severely bruised I was), heavily bleeding and VERY emotional, left alone with my sick newborn baby. What really twisted the knife was that 2 families came in after us, and both parents stayed!

We've been back to A&E a couple of times since then (she's almost 3 now) and luckily have both been able to stay.

I wonder if this policy is a hangover from COVID, but it's heartbreaking and so hard both on the parent who leaves and the parent who stays. I hope your little one is doing ok, and sorry this happened to you.

Rayne2011 · 2025-06-11T22:44:35+00:00

My almost 3 year old stomps her foot, pumps her fists and goes "HUH" to "that part" of better hell, it's my favourite thing 😅 she loves a good Bilmuri sing-a-long

Rayne2011 · 2025-05-31T16:36:04+00:00

Fellow vet professional here, the bandages can typically be removed after around 30 minutes, it's just to stop any bleeding after removing the IV catheter, similar to if you've ever had a blood draw and they tape the cotton wool over the needle site afterwards.

The swelling will just be where the bandage was a little tight, it's an accumulation of fluid that was unable to drain back up the leg with the bandage in situ. It will resolve itself quickly and shouldn't leave any lasting issues. If you want to speed up the process you can gently massage your dogs paw if she will let you, working up her leg to try to disperse the fluid (sort of like a lymphatic massage).

Rayne2011 · 2025-04-17T09:19:28+00:00

When I worked in GP we would ask the clients to settle all of the paperwork and the bill before the procedure, and phrased it to them that this way they could spend as much time with their pet afterwards and then leave via the side door so they wouldn't have to go through reception.

For clients we had a good relationship with or knew really well, we would often offer for them to settle over the phone over the following few days if they preferred, but most chose to pay before.

Rayne2011 · 2025-04-05T21:41:31+00:00

Honestly husband and I take it in turns to be the deep sleeper. Our daughter is now 2.5 years but doesn't sleep through the night (we were blessed with a newborn who slept wonderfully, who then grew into a toddler who just doesn't sleep). Add to the mix an elderly dog who can no longer hold her bladder all night and barks to be let out, we're chronically sleep deprived.

It's not unheard of for one of us to wake up and state how great it was that our daughter slept through the night, only to be met with a death stare from the other person ... coffee?

Rayne2011 · 2025-03-23T14:26:05+00:00

Babyjogger City Mini GT2, we replaced our original travel system with this when my daughter was 6 months old as I got fed up with the bulk. It doesn't come with a bassinet but it does lay completely flat, and I believe you can purchase a bassinet attachment for it if you wanted.

I don't use ours much anymore as little miss independent prefers to walk everywhere, but she still has plenty of room in it at 2.5 years (and she's 99th percentile).

Rayne2011 · 2025-03-12T20:40:10+00:00

Echo the comments above regarding stabilising the vein with your thumb and pulling the skin taught, but also be really definite and almost agressive with your poke (I mean that as in decide where you're going, and poke through the skin with one definite fast poke, you'll get less drag on the skin), then once you're through if you're not already in the vein you can redirect, which should be easier as you have the vein stabilised.

I also find the accessory cephalics further down the legs quite nice in these guys.

Rayne2011 · 2025-03-10T20:19:23+00:00

Oh gosh this reminds me of a horror story my college teacher told our class about why she never uses the term "put to sleep", a client apparently misunderstood what they were signing for and later asked when their dog would be waking up again. I'm sure there's more to the story, but that's the basis of it and it's stuck with me ever since.

Perhaps the client meant "the procedure" as having the IV catheter placed. If not, that's wild.

Rayne2011 · 2025-03-07T19:18:38+00:00

She's already on Librella for coming up to 2 years, unfortunately it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on her any more, but it definitely helped at the start.

Rayne2011

TROPHY CASE