Jack received another round of Carboplatin today her 2nd of three before she’s switched to another Chemotherapy drug for the remaining three threatments. Because we had the emergency the evening after she received her last round of Chemo where we had to take her in for a 105.5 fever and vomitting we had them give her benedryl and the anti-naseua IV drug prior to receiving the Chemotherapy. Much like last time she spiked a fever 106.4 which is quite serious. She didn’t seem all that sick this time, no vomitting and only a little diahrrea. We called the U and they said that she should probably come in but they were in the middle of an emergency. She drank a little water and we let her outside for a bit. When she came in we used a large syringe to give her more water and then waited about 20 min before re-taking her temprature. This time it was down to 105.1 and she wasn’t that interested in drinking but keeping her hydrated seemed to help the fever break much like the last time where they gave her IV fluids to re-hydrate her after the vomitting. I discovered that she would drink out of MY water glass with the ice cubes so i’ve relinquished my water glass for the night in hopes that her fever will continue to drop. Update: An hour later her fever stabilized at 105.1 still too high but wasn’t rising any longer and she was drinking on her own from her own water bowl. She fell asleep and we checked her two hours later and the fever had thankfully dropped to 103. We decided to keep an eye on her vs bringing her in because outside of the fever she was acting normally as the nausea drugs must have been working. She has slight diahrrea but even tht wasn’t bad. As soon as she started drinking more water the fever began to subside so we kept that going. Had it not worked or if she appeared to feel sick or was lethargic we would have been back at the University. Today see seems mostly back to her old self. Thank goodness round two is over.
Dec 30, 2009 | | Dog Chemotherapy
Monday 12/7/2009 was the first Chemotherapy for my now three legged dog with Osteosarcoma bone cancer. She received Carboplatin for chemptherapy which takes about 15 minutes to give however we had to leave her the entire day so they can do diagnostic work prior to giving the chemo. The cost was about $650 and she’ll have Chemotherapy six total times three weeks apart. You can read more on Carboplatin at the Bone Cancer Dogs website. We were given Metoclopramide for nausea and vomiting to use as needed every 8 hours. Metronidazole to use every 12 hours in case of diarrhea and an antibiotic called TMS which starting three days after chemo she is to be given one every 12 hours until the course is completed. Carboplatin suppresses the immune system so the antibiotics are to help fend off infection and other viruses. She came home at about 6:30pm and seemed ok. However around 8:30pm she started vomitting. Twice containing all her dinner. Then bile. No diarrhea however. She seemed very uncomfortable and had thrown up her anti nausea drug. She had a 105.5 temp so we called the hospital and they said bring her in. We made the hour trip in and by the time we got there and she had puked once in the car she seemed better. Still running a 103 temp they gave her an IV for re-hydration and an IV drug for nausea. An hour later her temp was down and she seemed much happier. We got home about 2:00am and thankfully everyone slept the entire night. Since then we’ve given the Metoclopramide every 8 hours to keep the nausea. Wednesday evening we gave nothing as the nausea seemed gone and she was eating normally. For the next round of Chemotherapy we’ll have them give the IV drug so she can be more comfortable sooner.
Dec 11, 2009 | | Dog Chemotherapy
Jack had been quite depressed in the week and a half after her leg amuputation. She ate slowly not showing much interest. Slept alot and kept looking sadly at where her leg used to be. I had heard that dog depression after an amputation was normal but it was still very sad to see her in that state. Wednesday we had her staples removed and Thursday she seemed to be in better spirits. I think she really perked up when she could use stairs and visit the kitchen, greet us at the door and we were all very happy to sleep in our own bed. Jack appreciated not wearing her cone at night and we all got the first full night sleep in about two weeks. Today I was pleasantly surprised when Jack grabbed one of my other dog’s stuffed balls and raced outside. She ran around teasing the other dog just like she used to. She stars chemotherapy next week. I’m hoping she doesn’t go back into her depressed state. I really like seeing her runnign an playing on her three legs.
Dec 04, 2009 | | Dog Amputation
So I’ve got three dogs, one almost 14, one 6 and my youngest who is five who this blog is about. My 14 year old we recently found out has 4 tumors, 1 on the liver operable but three on the kidney, spleen and something else non-operable. We’ve been torn about removing the liver tumor as she’s not bothered by any of them and she is 14. We decided to wait 4-6 weeks to see how her appetite and attitude was and the re-ultrasound and make more decisions. So my youngest 5 year old has been limping for about three weeks and finally stopped putting weight on her rear left leg. We brought her in and the vet after some blurry xrays due to her moving thought she might have a torn ACL. I actually was glad to have a dog with an issue that only money would solve via an operation after having two other dogs die of cancers. We were all ready to have the ACL surgury done when he sent the xrays to the surgeon who would do the operation. He had a dog with xrays just like what he was seeing, and it was bone cancer in his case. We took her to our University of Minnesota small animal hospital for new xrays and a new opininon. That produced nice digital xrays where the Doctor felt it was 90% certain we were dealing with Osteosarcoma bone cancer which was eating her from the inside out. I had wanted to amputate the leg to eliminate the pain and then move on to chemotherapy etc. My wife and local vet wanted to do a bone biopsy just to be sure. This however would have delayed any pain relief as with the Thanksgiving holiday and time it takes to get the biopsy results we would have been a week or so out and likley been amputating anyway. The night before the biopsy she was in alot of pain, not sleeping and moving about whimpering due to her pain. The cancer likley had caused multiple small fractures in her bones causing pain as it eats from the inside out. My wife called the surgeon and lucky for us we could change the procedure from biopsy to removal of the leg. We’ve thankfully been able to use the time for healing after the amputation and as I thought the analysis of the leg produced Osteosarcoma which requires the leg be removed as a pain relief procedure and cancer fighting procedure. She’s healed well but is depressed but can move about just fine. We now have to do chemotherapy to prolong whatever life she has. I anticipate 6-18 months of good life with her and will plan to make the most of it. Besides the leg removal she’s fine so I see no reason we cannot have many many happy months ahead.
Dec 01, 2009 | | Uncategorized
I didn’t write about the entire story because I wanted to wait for the histopathology of the amputated leg from my dog so i’d have a confirmed diagnosis. So today we found out that yes as expected she does have Osteosarcoma which is a form of Bone Cancer that is very painful, hence the removal of the leg. We’ll begin chemotherapy as soon as we can in an effort to give her as much life as possible. From what i’ve been reading however even with chemo she has maybe 6-18 months left. Sad as she’s only 5 years old. Our hope now is to get her healed from the amputation and then have the most fun wtih her as possible. She’s healed well from the amputation and is getting around great so I think for awhile we’ll be able to have lots of fun together. For more information on Osteosarcoma in Dogs I found this site to be helpful.
Dec 01, 2009 | | Dog Amputation