Canine Cancer Update

Remember this picture? It's one that I took of my girl being stoned out of her mind after the test to confirm her cancer.  I don't think we've seen her that sedate since...

Teddy continues to be full of energy and has an inexhaustible appetite, which are good signs.  Last week, she had her yearly physical with her regular vet and he did the blood work the oncologist would normally do, but can't because she's on maternity leave.  The plus to having the regular vet do it, is the test is a lot cheaper, but the minus, is that the sample is sent out, so it takes a week to get results back.  If her disease continues to progress slowly, it is likely that we will eventually do fine with twice or once yearly test with our regular vet.  He was also able to measure her lymph nodes and I felt it was a very good exam.

Prior to the visit, I printed up my spreadsheets where I track her values.  Having a sheet helps me see how some values go up and down -- so I don't freak out when one month they may be a little higher.  She's had a bad summer with skin issues, so her prior test (in July) had her lymphocyte count above 5000.  We had a frank discussion with the vet about our difficulty getting antibiotics, and he apologized, then we talked through a plan of attack for the future.  At the end of it all, we came away with a bottle of 40 pills (enough to treat four outbreaks), a bottle of ear cleaner, and a prescription shampoo.  There is now a plan in place at the first sight of a sore or any sour smell.  I feel a lot better about that.

Another thing I did, was write up a summary -- which ended up being two pages (color me obsessive), outlining all meds she had been taking (including OTC) and their dose.  I then listed her activity/exercise routine, a list of herbs I am giving her, all different foods she eats, and the reason I chose each.  I made sure to book the last appointment of the day so the doc wouldn't have to rush out to another patient, and he read it all, asked if he could keep a copy of each, and told me he wanted it scanned in as part of her records.  So it wasn't a waste of time.

She got flying colors for her weight, muscle tone and dental health.  At 11.5 years old, she's never had a formal cleaning and never had any sort of infection, tooth break, or bad breath.  I did happen to mention on the sheet how often we clean her ears and what we were using, the same info for her teeth and for her grooming regimen.

At first, he was a bit surprised we weren't treating the cancer, but then when he looked at her accumulated test results, my write up, and gave her exam, he thought she looked very good.

When he finally got the blood work back, it was a relief to see her lymphocyte counts were cut in half.  She's back at 2500, which is in the same basic range she was before her last test when she'd had a bad infection. As far as he was concerned, everything was perfect.  We just feel better knowing that her immune system bounced back from the episode.

I also had to make a fresh batch of her ground veggie slop -- which is just a lot of work.  It's not only pulverizing the legumes and veggies, it's all the different pills I have to either grind up, split open or pop and squeeze.  Buying the supplements on sale or clearance, accepting donations from friends, and stockpiling when a deal has been found, means I can give her about ten different substances but not break the bank.  And whatever we are doing, it must be working because her exam was good and she's pretty happy -- except for the twice per week baths she's been getting lately.  Poor Girl!