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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!!
