cavNrott

Pfft not worth it.

You say the dog has been vomiting since Saturday? Take him back to the vet. You gave me advice about my sick dog so maybe the advice you gave me would be appropriate for you to take since your dog is not well.

Thanks to all again who are thinking of Sophie and sending her best wishes. She's about the same today, fairly quiet but comfortable. I wish I could drive her somewhere to sit quietly with me but she's an inquisitive dog an sitting quietly is not in her repertoire. She'd be off, sniffing and running around. She loves new smells and new places and she still feels well enough to explore. Keeping her anchored to me would frustrate her. Her immune system is compromised so she'd pick up any bug going around. Oncologist has told me to keep her home but I want her to have some fun. I'll take the advice until we find out what the problem is with her liver. She's pain free but there's more to quality of life, surely. I'd walk her if I wasn't afraid she'd pick up a bug and feel sicker than she already is. Thanks dandydog. I'll have a look at the website. I have to run everything that Sophie has past the oncologist. She wants a list of everything and doesn't want me to introduce anything new unless she approves it. I guess it has to do with all the medication. She's always contactable by phone which is great. Chell thanks for your comments. I have doubts...often, that I'm doing what she needs. I do what I think she needs and just hope I get it right. Now that natural meds have been added, her medication routine is different and I second guess myself all the time. This is about Sophie, not me, but I'm feeling really depressed this week. I'm so lucky to still have her but my sadness is overwhelming me in the last few days.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Oonga. I'm not so sure I'm holding it all together very well at all but Sophie gets anxious if she sees me cry so I have to pretend every thing is normal for her sake. She puffs and pants and fusses around me so I try not to stress her out. The other puppers are doing well. Only Dana seems to know there's something wrong. She doesn't play fetch for hours like she used to. The ball was always my friend. I could do anything with her and get a perfect recall just by saying 'ball'. Now she'll fetch it about 5 times and that's it. Pretty good considering how ill she is. She's lively tonight after a fairly quiet day. I'd love to take her out for a walk but since I was specifically told not to I guess we'll stay home.

That's a good idea. I don't always take vet advice either but I get a diagnosis first then do what I think is reasonable. I also go for a second opinion if I think the first vet's talking through their hat. I think you're on the right track now. My arthritis dog started on anti inflammatories and now she lives drug free on supplements only. She's an old dog.

How sad. I'm very sorry. R.I.P. little one

You already rejected the advice of one professional you consulted and you've had sound advice from people here. Your dog is in pain, the vet offered you anti inflammatories to relieve the pain and you refused them. Now without a diagnosis you're treating the dog with homeopathic medicine but you have no idea what issue you are medicating for. What did you want to hear? Obviously not anything we've said here. I would follow the advice of the professional and get the dog onto some anti inflammatory drugs and treat the pain and then go onto supplements. I have an arthritic dog I treat with supplements but I had a diagnosis and treated her with anti inflammatories before I relied on supplements.

Oonga you never hassle or hound me. I'm so pleased you think of Sophie. My ISP was down for about 15 hours and I just found your message. She's had a couple of quiet days but she's brighter today. Due to her liver issue I was told not to walk her so she's confined to barracks again. I play fetch with her and Faith, they take it in turns to return the ball. Sophie holds the ball on the left side of her mouth, well away from her tumour. It's pretty clear to me the cancer is progressing so I'll continue with the increased pain meds. She's still her happy, delightful self and enjoying life. I'm watching her closely for any changes or signs of depression in her. I'm fairly certain she's not in pain because she is not shaking her head or showing any other sign of pain apart from her difficulty with eating so I'm spoon feeding her all meals now. She happily accepts eating from a spoon. I'm ok, just a bit stressed.

Nell.M. I'm sorry to hear of the positive diagnosis. Seeing an oncologist is a good thing to do. I don't think my dog would still be alive without the care of her oncologist. Sophie does not have chemo as such but has one chemo drug in the metronomic protocol she is on. She also has herbal medicines. In the Health section of this forum we have a Palliative Care thread. You may like to start a thread about Jasper and keep us up to date about him in there. It's an gentle place to go when you need some extra support. We are all in the same boat in that forum so we understand what you are going through.

Did the vet give you a diagnosis? It could be muscular but it sounds like arthritis to me in it seems to improve when the dog has warmed up and is moving around. There are good supplements available for arthritis but first you need to know what the problem is before you can treat it. I would have accepted the anti inflammatories because it could break the pain cycle.

You don't mention if the limp is in a front or back leg. It sounds as though it could be arthritis. I would certainly have accepted the offer of anti inflammatories. They are necessary if you wish to relieve the dog of his pain and he does have pain or he wouldn't be limping. I guess the anti inflammatories the vet suggested would be either Rimadyl or Metacam. Why take the dog to the vet if you're not prepared to accept the medication and advice offered?

Hope you pushed the owner in right after your dog. I would have...What a moron.

Forgot to mention in my last post. My dog too has put on weight since her cancer diagnosis. I've always kept her at 42kg. At her weigh in last Thursday she tipped the scales at 46.6Kg. I think this is due to the change in diet. It's a good sign.

I understand how worried and stressed you are. My much loved dog has recently been diagnosed with osteosarcoma. Her cancer is very aggressive and she was not expected to live beyond the beginning of January. She turned 7yo in January, they didn't expect that she would see her birthday. I changed her diet to a cancer starving fat and protein diet with no sugars or grains. We are seeing an oncologist and she is on a multi drug regime with one of her tablets being a chemo drug. Here we are at the beginning of March and she is still strong and happy. Though she has had a set back in the last week or so but we think/hope that this is due to the chemo drug which we will need to stop for a while. She also has couple of herbal supplements. I know only too well that it's easy to say don't stress out but not quite as easy to achieve. I hope the problem is with his ear but if not there is a lot you can do to make his life and yours much easier and you can enjoy eachother whatever the diagnosis. Denial, anger and shock are normal reactions to the information you were given. I had that in spades and I was racing around trying to find a way to make her better. I was angry that people didn't get my point of view and had a few disagreements. However true friends understand... the others drop away. This is the way it's meant to be. Good, understanding friends stick around and give you much needed support. Don't be afraid of your fear and emotions...they are normal. I went into panic mode when the pathology results came back. What my behaviour did was not only stress me out but it also caused anxiety in my dog because she knew I was very upset. Try to take it easy and know that you will do the very best you can for your dog whatever the diagnosis. I wish you well and you and you Jasper are in my thoughts.

Puggles I'm so very sorry to hear of the loss of Mollie. Run free sweet little girl

Thanks to all who are thinking of Sophie and wishing her well. We've had a bit of a set back. A test result came through on Friday night showing Sophie's liver is not functioning as it was. There are changes happening. The oncologist doesn't know whether it's because of the one chemo drug Sophie is taking or that the cancer has metastasised to her liver. She thinks it's probably due to the chemo drug so we will need to stop that drug. I've started her on milk thistle for her liver and she is booked for an ultrasound on our next visit. This isn't good news because once that drug is stopped the cancer will rapidly and aggressively progress. I have a suspicion this drug is not very effective anymore in any case because of the rapid growth of the mouth tumour. She's having a bit of an off day today. Only ate half her breakfast and didn't even try to eat it on her own but she did eat some with me spoon feeding her. She's not her usually happy self and she doesn't look well. I increased her pain meds last night and I'll keep her on the higher dose from now on. I hope her unusually quiet state today is due to the effect of the increased pain meds and not a sign that she is going downhill.

Since he's sleeping now why not make some ice cubes for when he wakes up. If you don't have an ice cube container then freeze small amounts of water other small containers....egg cups , small jars etc., a small amount of water in the bottom and it should freeze quickly.

I would want to know what's causing the limp before I had anything but massage done. Is it a bone problem, muscle problem, joint problem? What does the vet say is the cause of the problem? I know a really good myotherapist who may be able to help. She was coming to my home to massage my dog. Box Hill would be within her area.

The breeder of the pup would know the breed best so I would be asking her advice.

A big thankyou to all who are wishing Sophie well. Dandydog I have read about Essiac but I'm in Melbourne and so far have been unable to find it anywhere.

Thanks Griff and it's good news to hear that Sinna is showing improvement too.

Anyone not interested in osteosarcoma, please skim over this post because it will bore you witless. Allerzeit I'm not certain if all metronomic protocol is the same or whether it is tailored to the type of cancer or to a particular patient. With Sophie she takes a combination of different drugs. I think all up there's about 7 of them. One of them is a chemotherapy drug which she has every 48 hours and that's taken with a diuretic to flush it out of her system within the 48 hours. That's the one I suspect causes bladder problems. I have to use latex gloves to handle this drug. (except when I spilled a couple on the floor today and had to rush to find them and pick them up before the dogs got them) Another drug is to build and strengthen bone to prevent pathological fracture of diseased bone that often happens with osteosarcoma. That's given on an empty stomach early in the morning. A couple of hours later with breakfast she takes two strong antibiotics with an anti nausea tablet along with Piroxicam for pain. Piroxicam is also said to slow the progression of the disease. I think this is only expected if it's used in conjuction with the other drugs. About 1/2 an hour before her dinner she has another anti nausea tablet along with Tramadol for pain. At dinner time she has two antibiotic tablets and a vitamin tablet. I can give her Tramadol for pain at any time but I'm keeping her on a maintenance dose because I'll need to step it up as time goes on. She seems to be pain free on the maintenance dose...if I think she has pain I give her another Tramadol with her yoghurt/goats milk at night. She drinks Nobles bottled water and I add AlkaLife drops to make sure the water is alkaline. I also add the alkaline water to all her meals. That's basically all Sophie's routine is At the beginning there were two other drugs as well as the 7 she currently on but they've now been dropped, thank goodness. I'ts not quite as confusing now I'm into the swing of what's supposed to happen and when. I have changed her diet to an alkaline cancer starving diet so she's eating totally different food to the BARF diet she's grown up on. She has no grains at all and I stay clear of carbs and sugars. It's mostly protein and fats. There is rigmarole about cleaning up poop, any vomit and pee but no need for me to explain unless someone wants to know Something is working for Sophie so I'll keep on with it. She was only expected to live for a couple of weeks at the most and here she is 2 months later, strong and good spirits. This dog is really something. I always knew she was special.

Thanks for asking BluePoppy. Amazingly the oncol consult went very well. I felt negative about going there today, I expected bad news but it was all good. Sophie had a full blood examination and she is well within the normal range for a healthy dog in all areas. I was amazed as was the oncologist. They said Sophie is doing much better than expected. I mentioned I didn't expect she would still be with me for this long. They said they didn't either. So this amazing, wonderful dog has lived beyond all our expectations. How lucky am I? Her urine test was below the normal range and they are keeping it for 24 hours and doing more tests It was explained but I didn't take it all in. I know one of the drugs she is on has a side effect of bladder problems. They said whatever it is I'm doing, to keep doing it because it's working. I suspect it's their metronomic therapy that's keeping Sophie alive and fit rather than anything I'm doing. There are no changes in her drug regime but for me to give pain relief when I think it's needed. They've given me extra Tramadol. It was suggested not to debulk the tumour even though it's growing quickly unless I'm prepared to go the whole hog and have a most of her right mandible removed at the same time. My answer to that is a firm NO. Metastasis has probably already happened so I wont put Sophie through major surgery and another GA to have her go down in short time with a malignancy in another part of her body. They don't know if they get clear margins on the excised bone in surgery until pathology results are in anyway. If the margins were not clear I would've put Sophie through all that pain for nothing. For now, all is well and she goes back in 3 weeks.

Thanks Jodie, I have been giving all my dogs active Manuka honey 10+ and live culture yoghurt in goats milk as a nightcap at bedtime for years. Sophie suddenly refused the Manuka honey and the natural yoghurt. I asked a dietitian why this would be and was told that in the stomach, the honey turns to acid. Cancer needs acid to survive and that I should be guided by what Sophie and that I need to feed her an alkaline diet. So exit Manuka honey for her but all the other dogs still have it. Sophie has never refused any food in her life but she won't take that mix now. She will eat live culture yoghurt in either vanilla or box honey flavour but won't take it with Manuka honey. I have a product here where I put three drops of the stuff in water it turns the water alkaline. So she now gets full fat live yoghurt and goats milk with alkaline water added. I also add 15ml of Aloe Vera and Manuka honey mix that I buy at the health food store. She takes this without a problem. I guess she doesn't taste it in the goats milk. She takes 400mg of Doxycycline a day so I doubt any bacteria could survive with that high dose of antibotics. I hope the live yoghurt allows the good bacteria to survive.

Thanks Oonga, Staffyluv and Allerzeit for thinking of us. I'm very nervous and apprehensive about the oncology visit today. I think panic stricken would be a better description. I know Sophie has gone downhill in the last week or so and I'm not expecting a good report like she had at the last visit. Our consult is at 2pm. Oonga the tumour in her mouth has grown rapidly. It's a bit like an open wound in that the food seems to sting when she eats so I have to spoon feed her making sure I place the food on the good side of her mouth, away from the tumour. If I didn't spoon feed her the pain would prevent her from eating even though her appetite and interest in food is good. At least that's what I think is happening. It could be that the tumour is so painful to the touch even with soft food. Whatever it is she hasn't been able to eat unaided in the last week. She can drink without problems. She can eat half a chicken frame, she chews it on her good side so at least she is getting some bone. Staffyluv I will try the diet you recommended. Sophie loves those vegies too. Do you cook the meat or mix the cooked vegies with raw mince? All the meat I feed her is minced, either beef or chicken. I give her the beef raw but cook the chicken mince. Though she's always been BARF fed I'm a bit worried now about raw. Maybe her system can't cope with the normal bacteria in raw meat. She eats human grade meat. I'm going to make the trip to Macro to get organic meat and vegies for her but I hate leaving her for too long in case she takes a turn for the worse. Trace, please keep those fingers and paws crossed. Sophie needs all the positive, healing thoughts she can get. She's a bit depressed today too which is not like her at all.