Post 2nd Vincristine Treatment - Tired!

The only word to describe Emily post chemo treatment #3 is tired and maybe a little stoned.  She had the Vincristine which she also had on week 1.  Her appetite took a nose dive week 1 but we are yet to see that this time.  She lacks the energy to be constantly asking for more food like she has been as a side effect of the Prednisone.  The quiet is almost a welcome change as long as she still eats her meals and allows me the chance to cook up  her weekly homemade diet without her under foot, whining the entire time.  She did thoroughly enjoy her homemade breakfast.  Last night she was slow eating her can of ND diet but she did it in 2 sittings.  She turned her nose up at peanut butter this morning!!  First time ever.  And of course I had her sucralfrate (to protect her stomach) pill already buried in a wad of peanut butter.  I stuffed it in a chicken heart and she had it no problem.  You have to have a selection of tools in your feeding arsenal when traveling the canine cancer journey. 

One thing that may help her stomach and the impending nausea is cabbage.  Emily loves cabbage which is a shock.  She never had it before she got sick.  She loves the core to crunch on, loves it cooked up and she loves the leftover cooking juice to slurp up.  It needs to be cooked down quite a bit so the canine gut can digest it and absorb the nutrients.  That's why the leftover cooking juice is so valuable.  It has the nutrients!  I simmer all Emily's veggies and I keep all the leftover juice for her to drink.  Ollie loves it too. 

I haven't mentioned the importance of filtered water (when not slurping up leftover veggie juice).  I have read that the cancer canine can't handle the toxins in regular tap water like you and I can.  So we got a brita.  Truth be told... I'm loving the filtered water.  I'm a big water drinker but I don't like water kept in plastic containers because there has been a correlation between plastics and cancer.  But with this brita and using it to fill the dogs water bowl twice a day, water never sits in the plastic for long!