Well it's been a stressful 17 hours. I think we're on the other side now but Emily experienced her first solid bout with appetite loss. Yesterday afternoon she had a snack and her antibiotic around 1:30. She was very tired, lethargic and uninterested. Although she did follow me around, laying down where ever I was. Supper time she didn't even go into the kitchen. Nothing interested her. I had salmon, sardines, smelts, chicken wings, her cooked homemade food, just the meat mix out of her food, just the veggie mix of her food, cooked cabbage, cabbage juice. She totally went off fish and still isn't interested in fish. Thank goodness there is none in her meat mix! In fact, moving forward I think I'll do one protein at a time instead of a mix of 3 or 4. Her veg mix is also just veggies. I did up a egg white mix with the turmeric and garlic so all of her food is separate components. This is proving to be quite beneficial as at this point Emily will only eat the meat mix and will turn away from the dish if the veggie mix is present at all.
Late last night we managed to get a bit of her kibble in her. This would be the kibble that she no longer gets because she's on the special canine cancer diet. Guess what - what they eat doesn't matter one bit if they won't eat. I was so worried that this was the start of a slippery slope. So I was so glad she was taking a bit of the kibble. She only ate a little but I guess to her it's comfort food. I had defrosted and cooked a plain chicken breast which is also her traditional comfort food but no dice. I didn't dare try and give her any of her pills but I was stressed that she was missing a prednisone dose because it is not a drug you should abruptly stop. She also wasn't drinking which was an even bigger concern. However she was still peeing a good bit.
This morning after her morning bathroom outing she headed to the kitchen. It took some trial and error but she finally settled on some cooked chicken and brown rice warmed up a bit. She ate the whole bowl which was a 4oz chicken breast and 1/4 cup rice. She also had some kibble. I ran and got another chicken breast out of the freezer and microwaved it but she was done. I popped in her Prednisone and counted it a successful breakfast.
She is now going to the kitchen occasionally and we pull out everything we can think of until she finds something she likes. She managed to get her Sucralfrate which I really should have popped in her last night since it's one of her stomach pills but I was totally dumbfounded that she wasn't drinking I really didn't want to shove anything down her throat. Today that fear is gone! We even managed her antibiotic mid afternoon after another snacking session where she ate the meat mix. Her current favorite food is thawed chicken wings. It's her first choice but we were able to persuade her to munch away on her meat mix (ground pork. turkey leg meat, beef round, beef liver).
What a horrible, scary experience. After her chemo session she gets an anti-nausea pill. After her first session one of the vets and I had a discussion about how aloof she seemed. In hindsight she was still recovering from her massive GI bleed that she had right before her first chemo treatment. On top of that she had her first chemo treatment. Her poor system was struggling to get ahead of itself. I kept saying "there was no joy in mudville" as she seems to have no joy in her. So the vet
recommended only giving her half of the anti-nausea pill. This week I thought that was a good idea because clearly the chemo treatment had left her tired and lethargic and I didn't want the anti-nausea pill to make it worse. Yeah, never again. Better tired, lethargic and a bit stoned then not eating!!!!! She can't regain her strength without fuel.
By the way, the only 'trick' to get her to eat that worked was the warming of her food. But it wasn't just any food, it was her comfort food, chicken breast and rice. Leftover cooking juice from the meat, veggies, cabbage didn't work. Frozen fish treats didn't work. Note to self - always, always keep chicken breasts in the freezer!
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