Week 6 Vincristine

Just a quick update to share how Emily is doing.  She handles her week 6 treatment of Vincristine very well.  I gave her the anti-nauseant for 2 days after her treatment.  She went off veggies, peanut butter and sardines but still ate smelts so go figure.  Today she had her multivitamin in peanut butter, she's had her ND diet every day and is eager to eat so I didn't bother giving her the Cerenia (anti nausea pill) today.  They make her very drowse and they are very expensive so I don't want to be handing them out whilly nilly! 

Yesterday she was playing with her treatball and lost her footing while in the kitchen.  I heard her whine and when I went in her 2 back legs were going in different directions and she couldn't get up.  It was very frightening to see.  Emily as a Bouvier, is a working dog and can get very focused on a task.  We have to monitor her and make sure she doesn't over do it.  She had beat herself out yesterday and was still trying to work even though her body was ready for a rest. 

One thing I have noticed now that Emily is no longer on the Prednisone is that some of the foods I thought she liked she was only eating because the Prednisone was making her ravenous.  I thought she liked pumpkin but since her Prednisone was reduced and now no longer part of her treatment, she turns her nose up at it.  Which is fine.  I only gave her pumpkin to try and regulate her bowels. 

Overall it's happy days around here.  I think the dogs may have a marrow bone to enjoy on this sunny Good Friday (I'm pretty sure the no meat rule only applies to humans!) although I may save it for Easter Sunday as we're going to brunch and may need something to entertain the dogs with after when all I can do is lay around and moan from the over eating...

Enjoying the long weekend,
CJ, Emily and Ollie

Emily's First Bout with Appetite Loss

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!

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!