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I realize other people have more serious problems than myself right now, but I just found out Friday (after I thought he'd suddenly gone blind 6 days ago) that my dog has lymphoma. His liver and spleen are enlarged. He's only about 5 (we're not sure; he's a shelter dog). He's a happy, bouncy black Lab. Even when he couldn't see, he sure wanted to play with the ball he couldn't follow at all.
I brought him in and he's gotten one chemo treatment. Apparently it's very "treatable" but as with my cat's metstatic basal cell carcinoma, it's not curable. Chemo will only extend the length of good quality life. In his case, if it's B cell lymphoma (I find out tomorrow), median life extension is 12 months. If it's T cell lympoma, median life extension is 6-9 months.
Two terminal illnesses of cancerous origins diagnosed in two of my pets in the first month of the new year: not an auspicious beginning to 2010. Sigh.
Needless to say, everything else has been shoved to the back burner in my life. I spent unbelievable amounts of $$ last week and 4 of the 5 days I was in veterinary hospitals.
Sigh.
ETA: My cat had her 2nd chemo last week, and she had almost no side effects from it. Sleepy the day after with some lip smacking. Gave her 1/2 a Cerenia for nausea, she slept the rest of the day, and next day she was scampering all over the apartment like her usual bouncy self. So that's good.
The dog's blindness was from cancerous infiltrate behind his eyes (fluid built up), cloudy vitreous humor, and hemorrhages in his eyes. He got steroids and anti inflammatory shots in both eyes. Now he had eye drops 4 times a day (1 steroid, and 1 anti inflammatory), he's taking prednisone on a tapering schedule, he gets Flagyl (he was having diarrhea), he's getting Reglan for the nausea related to the liver involvement, he's on a bland diet (boiled beef or chicken and rice), and he's got Pepcid for the heart burn and burping/gas from the Prednisone.
I had NO idea you could give dogs so many of the same drugs you can give people. The vets were really cool when they found out I had an entire left over bottle of Reglan from when my mom was on chemo; they said I could use that (otherwise they would have given me more Cerenia, which my cat also gets for chemo related side fx). So he gets one pill -- 10mg Reglan -- every 8 hours as needed for nausea. How to tell if your dog (or cat) is nauseous? Lots of lip-smacking and drinking lots of water.
I brought him in and he's gotten one chemo treatment. Apparently it's very "treatable" but as with my cat's metstatic basal cell carcinoma, it's not curable. Chemo will only extend the length of good quality life. In his case, if it's B cell lymphoma (I find out tomorrow), median life extension is 12 months. If it's T cell lympoma, median life extension is 6-9 months.
Two terminal illnesses of cancerous origins diagnosed in two of my pets in the first month of the new year: not an auspicious beginning to 2010. Sigh.
Needless to say, everything else has been shoved to the back burner in my life. I spent unbelievable amounts of $$ last week and 4 of the 5 days I was in veterinary hospitals.
Sigh.
ETA: My cat had her 2nd chemo last week, and she had almost no side effects from it. Sleepy the day after with some lip smacking. Gave her 1/2 a Cerenia for nausea, she slept the rest of the day, and next day she was scampering all over the apartment like her usual bouncy self. So that's good.
The dog's blindness was from cancerous infiltrate behind his eyes (fluid built up), cloudy vitreous humor, and hemorrhages in his eyes. He got steroids and anti inflammatory shots in both eyes. Now he had eye drops 4 times a day (1 steroid, and 1 anti inflammatory), he's taking prednisone on a tapering schedule, he gets Flagyl (he was having diarrhea), he's getting Reglan for the nausea related to the liver involvement, he's on a bland diet (boiled beef or chicken and rice), and he's got Pepcid for the heart burn and burping/gas from the Prednisone.
I had NO idea you could give dogs so many of the same drugs you can give people. The vets were really cool when they found out I had an entire left over bottle of Reglan from when my mom was on chemo; they said I could use that (otherwise they would have given me more Cerenia, which my cat also gets for chemo related side fx). So he gets one pill -- 10mg Reglan -- every 8 hours as needed for nausea. How to tell if your dog (or cat) is nauseous? Lots of lip-smacking and drinking lots of water.