Oldest dog hates chemotherapy

I'd beg to differ on the loving, but you're dead on on the sharing. (But how many dogs share?)

When we rescued Iffy from the pound we already had a hand-me-down collie/shepherd cross. Iffy was quite fond of him in her way, but her way included using him as a sparring partner.

She could never understand why after a good, invigorating dog fight no one was speaking to her or why Laddie was uncomfortable when she licked the wounds she inflicted.

Iffy adores her people but she's never offered me a piece of kibble let alone a Super Cookie.

I'm sure Otis found the pilfered biscuits much tastiier than the biscuits he'd been given. After all, top dogs get all the goodies first.

Undoubtedly he's glad to be home, churning gut or no. Routine is such a comfort when a body is feeling sub-par.

Tell Otis, "Hold your dominion."

dawg, I'm not sure you saw this,

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=94051&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Our youngest likes to play rough, but it's all puppy bluff. It went over well at the parks in Seattle, but out here in Madison people demand a little more decorum at the dog park. Molly never seems to understand why she doesn't make more friends there...

Thanks, osso. I've bookmarked it for later.

Patiodog--

Poor Molly.

At least her playmates aren't bleeding all over the living room rug. I hate breaking up dog fights on crutches.

Perhaps Molly's inland playmates aren't used to brawling through arthritis pain? Or perhaps she's just a big girl who doesn't appreciate her own mass and momentum?

Nah, she's a pretty slender girl who just likes a rassle. Her intentions are perfectly innocent (she did get bit once by a neighborhood pit and was completely befuddled by the whole event) -- it's just that her approach looks to other dogs (and especially to their owners) like a show of dominance and/or an invitation to fight. Not always, but often.

She was an orphan pup, and I think she's missing some of the social skills that mom would have taught her at a very early age.

Serious bloody fights are another question entirely, of course.



(But did they really fight on crutches?)

Hi. Found out to day that Jess has T cell lymphoma of the GI tract only. Fantastic, about as bad as it can get! started chemo tonight (we re in the uk) see how she does on that. My fingers are crossed but i don t feel like lady luck is on my side at the moment! P dog, i so share those proper poo sentiments!! If i see a random dog poo that the owner has not cleaned up i think "show off" All i hope for Jess is she recovers enough to get fat and happy once more, she loves (loved) her food. Hope your all feeling in better spirits that me today! How ever bad i feel (and will be feeling) I still would never give up my nine years we have spent together. She s worth the pain.

Patiodog--

Both the crutches and the dangling prepositional phrase were mine, all mine.

Jessiesmum--

You and Jess will be in my thoughts.

Hold your dominion.

Otis has a T-cell tumor, too (at least, the odds are over 90% that this is the case). I'm very sorry to hear that's what he's got.

He got oncovin (vincristine) yesterday, which wasn't too hard on him the first time around. (The time I've been thinking was a doxorubicin round was vincristine -- lack of sleep has been clouding my head lately.) He's going into it in much worse shape this time, though.

Otis seems better since starting on the antibiotics for his gut yesterday, and was perking up a bit before that. Big meals for the guy, which we haven't seen much of in the past month. The bad hours for the current drug are coming up, though, so we'll see how far he dips. If he's not better on Monday than he is today, I think that may be it for this type of chemo.

For now, though, he's eating stew meat and healthy (and expensive) treats, and some of the nutrient dense sludge that we force fed him when we wasn't eating and which he seems to like.

He gets a 500 ml of fluids under his skin twice a day (wondering what somebody would make of the jar of used needles in the kitchen), and really seems to perk up after each dose. When he sees the bag and the fluid line come out he gets up right away and does to whichever sofa he wants to get his fluids on. He seems to pick the one that has the best breeze at the moment, and afterward he lays there and faces the fan or the window and pants for a while.

That this routine has become a pleasant little daily ritual for both of us reminds me how little time I've got left with the little guy. I want to make sure it's as good for him as it can be.

Otis seems to have a talent for Modern Medicine. Odd that needles are so much more acceptable to him than oral meds.

He's got very loose skin -- most dogs who do don't seem to be very sensitive to needles. The pills, on the other hand, are really bitter and apparently smell really bad, because he won't even touch a piece of meat that's touched one of the pills even if the pill is no longer there.

Which means he's getting spoiled, of course.

Good for Otis. My cats sister died a few years ago after I tried to give her subcutaneous fluids. She ahted it. But, the dog downstairs did well with it for months.


Pdawg, the fluids are for now because of the chemo?

And, how is it possible to spoil a dog in Otis' condition? I don't think it is. The only thing keeping me from spoiling Boo rotten was that I had to carry her outside and I could barely do so as it was.

Answers and update (for what it's worth)...

The fluids are to make sure he's not chronically dehydrated. He was having some signs of early kidney damage after his no-eat-no-drink episode, so I want to make sure that he's covering his fluid losses. Also, putting SQ fluids into a sick critter runs minimal risk of overhydration (unless they have heart failure) and tends to perk them up a little bit -- stimulate appetite, grooming, drinking, etc.

The weekend hasn't been a good one for the little dude. His attitude is all right, but the diarrhea persists, and his bunghole is raw. Poor little bastard. I've been cleaning him up and putting on A&D and we put a diaper on him last night so he can't lick at it and make it worse. Gave him some metamucil (psyllium) and immodium (loperadine) yesterday, which seemed to help make the **** a little more solid and a little less caustic.

Saturday morning we took him to the park, which might not have been the best idea, but he had a great time catching his frisbee. He tires easily, but, except for the squirts and the effects thereof, he seems in good health.

This morning he showed interest in kibble for the first time since this all started, and ate a whole bowl. (I'll have to pop some more immodium in there and make sure it stays in his gut for a while.)

...

So we're going to cut the chemotherapy and just go with prednisone. That may buy us weeks, even months, and they should be of a reasonable quality. The diarrhea is just too hard on the guy, and even if it wasn't there would be no way for us to maintain the sort of 24-hour nursing care that he's getting this week.

This is hard for me, because by every other account he's responding very well to the chemo -- no dip in his white blood cell counts (except for a slight lymphopenia, which is a common effect of the prednisone) and only a slight dip in his red blood cells that probably have as much to do with his not eating a month ago as the chemotherapy.

But the squirts are a deal-breaker. They're threatening to ruin his quality of life, and medical management hasn't done much in the face of the chemo. I thought that maybe once we'd resolved the clostridial overgrowth situation that it might normalize a bit, but the vincristine was too much for him to recover. And if that's too much for him now, the next dose of cytoxan -- the drug that caused the bulk of the problems two weeks ago -- is bound to tear him up.

So that's Otis's story on this Monday morning. He's in good spirits, and we'll go take a stroll somewhere before the weather gets really warm today. Then I'll hang out and catch up on the laundry backlog while he slurps at ice water.

I think we'll have a good Monday. (But goddamn it I need sleep.)

Thanks for the update, I've been thinking about you guys. Everything you say makes a lot of sense.

Patiodog--

Poor Otis--but he's lucky to be treated as a beloved companion rather than a simply a case of cancer with chemo reactions.

Hold your dominion.

Thanks soz, noddy.

Oy. What a balancing act.


Hope you all get those good months.

Me too.

Too.