it's been a few days.

Today Hope and I are reading a lot on www.caninecancer.com. They have a lot of ideas and references for diets, supplements, treatments, and, ultimately, end of life stuff.

We're not reading so much on the end of life stuff.



Some interesting things are something called "Essiac Tea". The person writing the website claims that it "cures" cancer. I am not sure how true this fact is but I'm willing to consider it once we get Hope's meatball removed. It cautions that this tea can cause tumors to increase in size and I'm thinking Hope's little buddy is already big enough so we'll wait.

The nutrition portion of the site is neat. It references Dr. Greg Ogilvie's cancer diet and theory which I have seen and read a little bit about before. You can read more here if you are interested. It also mentioned Monica Segal and her webpage on cancer. I am actually already on Monica's yahoo group for nutrition and natural feeding so that was a pleasant surprise that I'm at least headed in the right direction.

In any event, many supplements are suggested. My only thought to this is "how the heck would I ever get this dog to take all that". We are still struggling to get her to eat. The Orijen 6 Fresh Fish is still being eaten but it is a chore to get her to actually ingest it(think: breaking all the pieces in half, sometimes mixing with cottage cheese, and hand feeding it piece by piece). It hasn't been fun, to say the least. I'm really ready for her to go raw but I worry about the whipworms and causing any more digestive upset.

Just after midnight last night Hope had some awful diarrhea. She's never had that before. She was given a tiny piece of bacon yesterday morning(like a crumb) and then "half of a tater tot" - says her Dad. I'm thinking it was one of those two things. Chris was the lucky one to get up with her and he said she sneezed and 'sharted'. Hilarious but in an "awww poor baby" tone. This morning's output was normal, however.



Hope is still itchy but we gave her the first Revolution dose on Thursday and it is one of those things that gets worse before it gets better(or so I'm told). The mites dying off cause even MORE itching. To combat that Dr B had given us a script(yes another one) for Temaril-P. It seems to help but you can tell when it has worn off.

So the list of medications is dwindling - we no longer have to give her Cephalexin or Benadryl. She gets her ear meds, eye meds, and now the Temaril-P(which she takes pretty easily hidden in something).

Her disposition has been good but she is still shaking and crying most of the time she isn't asleep. One day at a time.

lightening the mood....

Hope just ate the rest of her dinner. Thank god.

Chris took this picture/made this joke earlier...


"Thing1 & Thing2" Hope and her cousin, Lost Hope. (the pile on the left is the remainder of a stuffed toy)


tee hee.

this DOG!!!!!!!!!

She is driving me crazy. Really.

Last night she insisted on sleeping where my feet go. with her antics on sunday night(bit me) I tried to avoid moving her or disturbing her. Result is a zig-zag spine. Ow.

She also is being finicky about her food. She doesn't want the Freshpet anymore. I tried Orijen - success..until tonight. She ate some but not most. I resolved that maybe she isn't as hungry at night. I don't know!!

To top it all off, she has this freaking red angry section on her neck that showed up suddenly.

What am I going to do with this dog!!??

She is incredibly itchy and miserable tonight. I feel so bad for her. She also gave us "the business" during meds tonight so I know she is not comfortable. Tomorrow I am going to talk to Dr B about some itch meds since the Benadryl isn't cutting it.

We set the date for the meatball move-out: February 18th.

luxuriousssssssssssss!

To borrow the words of infamous Bobby Trendy(from the Anna Nicole Show), Hope's fur/hair is coming in luxuriousssssssssssssss-ly!! We can't give her the first treatment of Revolution until Wednesday(3 weeks from the shelter giving her Vectra) but her skin is doing so much better. There is a spot on her face, however, that has an angry looking pimple and some crust on it. We washed it gently to clean it off and are hoping it resolves itself. If not, back in we'll go!

Hope hasn't really been snarly or bratty all weekend for meds. Picking her up out of Mommy's lap, however, is another story. Just ask Daddy.

special delivery.

Today it was my turn to feel under the weather. I stayed home to lay low and in turn was here to intercept the B-Naturals.com package that came(finally) for Hope. Inside were Berte's Immune Blend, Tasha's Detox, and the Yucca Intensive.

For lunch, Hope had a couple of wedges of Fresh Pet Vital Salmon/Whitefish with 2 drops of the Detox. It was recommended to start very light with it to avoid GI tract issues. She scarfed up the food without an issue.

The food thing is still bouncing around here. She ended up disliking the Paw Naturaws big time. We'll be using it as a food topper for the big 'uns. She REALLY likes Freshpet. I figured, "okay, Freshpet. We'll do the Vital(grain-free) type with the Bison in it then so we're still on the Bison/Buffalo". Wra-onggggg. She didn't hate it, but she didn't want to necessarily eat it either. That will also go to the big 'uns. She does, however, enjoy the fish version of the Vital. I dislike it a little because it has fruit in it and with the big C looming sugar/fruits are a no-no. It also stinks to holy hell. She needs to gain some weight so we'll take what we can get for now.

We're ordering some raw buffalo from Oma's Pride that arrives 2/10 so we'll start a raw diet then(if she'll eat it). I also grabbed up a couple pounds of ground duck, tripe, and buffalo bones - but that's for another post.

I'll use the next few weeks to do the detox and get her whipworms under control.

little bo peep.

I went to The Hungry Puppy today to pick up Hope's buffalo guts(Primal Buffalo Grind). While there, I spotted the "50% off" bin of clothes. 'Hellooooo, Hope totally needs clothes' I told myself.

She has hardly any fur, right?

I bought her 2 items. One of which being labeled an "athletic track suit", size small. Silly me thinking size small would be the right one. Apparently it is not small enough, she almost drowned in it. For the price, I'm willing to try to shrink it in the wash.

The second fits perfectly, really. Just ask her.


bippity bop tiny tot.




"baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"


xoxo.

5.1 lbs of fun

We had our one week check-up tonight with Dr Badamo. I was a little paranoid that Hope may be getting kennel cough due to some sneezing that had started Saturday but her lungs sound great and we think maybe just the dryness and dusty winter house air might be doing it to her.

Bad news first - we didn't gain any weight!! Damn whipworms. We'll keep plugging along with the Panacur to get rid of them. I am hoping in another week we'll see some gain.

The good news is that she is LOOKING great. Her fur seems to be coming in more and more. Her eyes look amazing. They are no longer dry and you can see a sliver of her iris. The inflammation is much less and she seems to be a lot more comfortable. We don't use the muzzle anymore for meds, either.

The game plan is more Panacur in a month and we'll talk about getting the meatball removed soon. The meatball itself is kind of an angry color which is worrisome. The fluid we had aspirated from it filled in again. The meatball's gotta' go!!!

one more...

gives new meaning to 'furball'.

the 8th dwarf, sniffy.

I have said it before, but I will say it again - Hope has the best nose EVER. She can be sound asleep, suddenly sit up, sniff the air a few times, and then shoot like a rocket(well, bippitybop rocket) toward the kitchen. She is hysterical.

In other health news, Hope's fecal sample came back positive for whipworms. We are already treating her with Panacur so a couple rounds of that and she should be good. Her blood work had also come back last week - lots of white blood cells and low red blood cells - anemia. We suspected whipworms or cancer. Hopefully it is the one and not the other!

Hope has also been sneezing a lot. We're on day 8 post-shelter so the incubation of a respiratory bug is coming due. I am praying and pleading she doesn't get sick. She seems very off today, having to be coaxed to eat her food. She got a worried Mom thermometer up the butt, though(normal temp). She got a little fresh about that but I told her it was in her best interest. She begged to differ.

For my birthday(today) Hope let me medicate her all by myself. Yup, I held her AND gave her eye drops and oral meds. What a gem.

From earlier today, Dexter and Hope! Dexter had been laying on the couch and Hope snuggled up to him. Most excellent. Our dogs are being super awesome with her - being gentle and respectful.

we had dinner in, now we'll have it out - with hope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cks1HNJHPfA


I am positive that french fries aren't on a recovery diet, but what the hell.

The weekend with Hope has been great. We've had zero snarling, zero muzzle, and all the meds on regular intervals. Things are looking good. She's started sneezing here and there, but I can't tell if it is from excitement or not. It's not chronic and it seems to be around times of food. :) Say a little something she's not getting the dreaded KC.

Dinner with Hope

BippityBop.

Chris thinks how Hope prances around the house is hilarious. I think it is adorable. He calls her "BippityBop" or, alternately, "BoppityBoop". He talks to her with animated voice - the two of them are quite a pair. The whole thing brings me big smiles.

Hope may not be able to see, but she can sure as heck smell and hear. If there's even the slightest bit of a scent of food cooking she is up and off to investigate. She has this cute little whine when she wants something we're eating(or thinks we're eating). She knows how to work us.

Here she is, sound asleep in "the nest".


And here she is, after she heard the fridge open up...



:)

(we talk to the vet tomorrow about the blood work results, will update then)

the big day came.

Today I took Hope into work with me. I work at a veterinary specialty center in New Jersey - Red Bank Veterinary Hospital - that has some of the best and brightest in the veterinary field. We had our first appointment with Dr. Maria Badamo, a general practitioner, and our second with Dr. Michael Ringle, board certified veterinary ophthalmologist.

First - almost everyone thought she was adorable. I forewarned them about her being fresh and everyone was respectful.

Dr. B was great, as was her tech - Tara. It was assumed that the skin issue is either sarcoptic mange(more likely) or Cushings disease(yuck). For that we got a prescription medicated shampoo and a few doses of Revolution to kill the mites. Hope was amazingly calm during most of the exam, other than trying to look at her teeth. Ironic, considering she likes to flash them as much as she does. Her teeth look pretty good and we don't think she is a senior but rather around 7-8 years old. Dr. B did a swab of Hope's ears to see what the chunky gross stuff was that smelled like yeast. Big surprise - yeast! We got a script for ear wash and medicated drops for those.

And drum roll... Hope weighed 5.1lbs!!! We gained! You can still count her ribs but we're going to get there.

Dr. B also aspirated what we're affectionately calling "Hope's meatball" aka mammary tumor. She and Dr C, another GP doctor, felt the margins were pretty clear and removing it should not be a problem. If and when she is under we can have a teeth cleaning done at the same time as long as she isn't having a problem under anesthesia. They did a quick peek under the microscope to see if it was mast cell - it wasn't - but saw something that concerned them and asked the onco doctor to look. He advised it should be sent in to be sure. No answers there.

Tara and I trimmed some more mats and then clipped her nails. There was a dew claw that was a DOOZY. Wow, it was long. Hope wasn't very cooperative for this portion of the visit but thankfully she trusts me more and more so her opinion of me didn't waiver even though I had to squish her head multiple times when she was being fresh. We also drew blood, for which we opted to muzzle her. She was fairly well behaved after some mild gremlin noises. Her poor little body is so fragile she bruised from her aspiration and blood draw. It really amazes me how fragile these little bodies are.

So the basics of the general exam were the itching will get worse before it gets better as the mites die. The ears will clear up with meds and time(mites in those too). 5 prescriptions for the little hot mess.

We then saw Dr Ringle - what an amazing doctor. He was very gentle with her. We opted to muzzle her here, too, but there was nothing really invasive and she was extremely well behaved for this. He said there was no need to really do extensive testing because he could tell she had little to no tear production, no eye infection, and lots of corneal scarring. Basically, she is mostly blind. Sigh. She'll need to be on medication for her eyes for life - artificial tears and cyclosporine.

So the rundown is:

Cyclosporine eye drops - three times a day
Artificial Tears - as often as possible, at least 15 minutes outside of the other eye drops
Revolution - one every two weeks starting on the 26th
Epi-Otic - clean ears twice a day
Mometamaxx - 6-8 drops in both ears twice a day at least 30 minutes after cleaning
Welactin Fish Oil - double down for dose while she gets fixed up
Cephalexin Suspension - 2 mls twice a day, with food
KetoChlor shampoo - 1-2 times a week

We talked about adding a steroid/anti-itch type pill once her bloodwork is back. This might become my second - or third - job. We'll wait to hear on the blood results and her heartworm test, most likely tomorrow.

Onward - cute shots from bath time tonight! You can see her meatball pretty good here.





As one can imagine, this all isn't cheap, but her little personality is really coming through now and it is so worth it.

Still waiting on our B-Naturals.com order. Once it gets here we're going to start the detox and then the real fun begins!

houston, we have a dog!

Today was so much better than yesterday. Hope is really coming around and trusting us more and more.





She allowed me to clip more mats today from her fur. She still wasn't thrilled about the eye drops and the liquid medication but she argued less.



She seeks out our hands for petting and didn't snap(other than med time). Progress!


Tomorrow we have an appointment at the vet - to see both the general practitioner and the eye doctor just to make sure we have the correct meds to help heal those little peepers up quick!



My husband even slipped and said, "Aw, that's cute" about her sitting on a little tea towel for a piece of food. :)

Progress all around!

not exactly as planned.

Today was the day! i scooped hope out of the PSPCA ACCT this morning. Special thanks to jill sweeney and natalie smith for helping facilitate all of it.

Hope - what can you say. so much worse than her pictures ever lead me to believe. Her nails are so long she has trouble walking, her eyes were crusted shut, her ears are full of yeast, her coat was mats, and to top it all of - a DANGLER of a tumor.

I didn't get many, if any, pictures of her in the shelter. Hope was not doing well there and was a little fresh to anyone trying to handle her. We'll take it slow for a few days and let her warm up.

A heartbreaking point of the trip was when she was in the front seat of my car - she rolled and pressed her face into the soft blanket I'd brought for her for at least 10 minutes of driving time. She then stopped, sat, looked up at me, and cried this mournful noise that made my heart hurt. I invited her into my lap with a pat and there she went, curled up in a ball, and slept for the rest of the ride content. She did not, however, want me to pet her. Small steps.







We have eye meds, antibiotics, and derm caps for her issues. It's only about half of what I know she truly needs. We'll schedule the appointment with the vet tomorrow at work.

A few pictures from today, all cellphone shots, sorry.

can't confirm or deny..

I asked the ACCT staff in the Life Saving department if they could spare a minute or two and get me a picture of Hope. They are so busy it is a lot to ask, but I *think* they came through. They have a Flickr account where the newest intake of dogs is uploaded, probably for intern record and for rescue resource. I found this picture there.

Sorry, Hope, but you are looking like last night's party. Can't wait to meet you tomorrow.

xoxo.

loot!

Loot achieved! I wanted over to Chewy's Bonetique. They were the listed shop for Herbsmith supplements that was local to where we are staying.





The shop owner was really great - and tearfully shared her story about her own dog, Chewy, who the shop is named after. Chewy also had cancer and has since passed away.







I also found some really great options for food. I ended up deciding to try the Paw Naturaw Bison food. I got two packages - each 14oz. While it isn't cheap, it is organic and full of great stuff.

Now the trick is to find it local.

we'll get by with a little help from our friends.

After doing some quick research on cancer diets and the like, I reached out to my friend, Anna of Calling All Dogs Utah, last night. She is not only a great trainer, but she is someone I consider an expert on canine nutrition and supplements. It is a shame she lives in Utah, I think we could cause a lot of trouble together.

Anna reconfirmed what I had been reading - feed the dog, starve the cancer. For a cancer patient, the worst thing you can do is feed the cancer. Cancer thrives on grains and sugars. A grain-free approach is the best bet for a dog with cancer. Anna is also big advocate of a prey-model type of raw diet. It basically consists of meat, bone, and organ meat. It embodies the "cancer diet" of high fat, high protein, no sugar(think Atkins for dogs). I have fed a raw diet to all of my dogs before, so I am somewhat familiar. I am not sure prey-model will be right for Hope based on my guess of what her teeth probably look like. Anna thought patties or medallions of raw were probably a good option, coupled with some bones if her little teeth are up to it. Raw marrow bones are great for cleaning teeth.

We also spoke a little bit, okay a LOTTA bit, about supplements. The quick retort was that she definitely needed to go through a detox program and then be supplemented with an immune blend to help fight the cancer and add some anti-inflammatory into the mix. A few favorites thrown out were Tasha's Detoxifier Formula and Berte's Immune Blend - both from B-Naturals. Azmira's Yucca Intensive will add to the mix for anti-inflammatory benefit, along with some chinese medicine. Herbsmith's Immunity Support came on the top of the list. Anna was quick to note that fish oil should still be included in her diet - 2000mg per day - which is basically 2 capsules. I was concerned that it was a high dose(that is what I feed my large dogs per days) but for therapeutic levels it is a necessity.

So, the preplanned regiment will be as follows:
Days 1-4 - Detox formula, Yucca, Fish oil
Days 5+ - Detox, Yucca, Fish Oil, Herbsmith, Berte's

I'm looking into raw sources for her. Our local pet supply place, The Hungry Puppy, carries a few brands. At 4lbs she isn't going to cost much to feed so I'm happy to pay for quality. She'll also need drops and smidgens of the supplements so we may be stocked for life around here after this initial buy.

So today's shopping list, as I am still in Denver on vacation, is to find the Herbsmith local(I found a store listing online) and possibly stumble upon the Azmira Yucca Intensive in the same shop.

Thank god for friends.

Actual Hope update: A temporary foster was found for her and so she is OUT of the shelter until Sunday. That puts my mind at ease a lot until I can get my hands on her myself. The PSPCA said she has an eye issue going on and she'll be coming with eye ointment, but I think that's the least of our worries.

there she was...

I have no idea what I am doing. I have no idea why I want to set myself up, potentially, to fail and suffer horrible heartbreak. All I know, for a fact, is that I was instantly, cosmically connected to a dog via a picture on the internet. I saw her on flickr.

A dog in terrible shape, lacking in fur, and located at the Philadelphia Animal Care & Control.

I later found out she was a senior, she didn't have demodex mange(which would have explained the hair loss), and has "mammary tumors".

She weighs 4 pounds. The shelter is calling her "Skinnie".

I know next to nothing about canine cancer. I do know, however, that where they are located is not good in terms of necessarily being benign. My friend Denise, who I met through rescue, who is also a vet(best friend to have for a rescuer) gave me a "50/50" term when I casually asked her about the chances of benign vs. malignant tumors 'down there'. In gambling terms, those are odds I'd definitely play. In cancer terms, I'd normally fold.

I am attempting to promise to myself that if the problems are fixable that she is adoptable. If they are not fixable, I will give as much hospice care and quality of life as is humane. Don't hold me to either of those statements.

What am I doing?

Right now, I'm reading the hell up on canine cancer. I'm going to keep this blog to chronicle our trials, triumphs, and failures. I'm going to use it as a back reference for myself about this whole process.

I'm picking her up on Sunday morning. I think I'll call her "Hope".