BauersMom

Berkeley has a sensitive stomach and started to show side-effects from the chemo after #2 (nausea and fatigue, mostly). I don't know if the two are linked, but it's plausible. I'm sorry Twiggy is still not feeling well. Thankfully he's doing a lot better since finishing up the chemo, here's a video of the nightly routine around here: At the end of the video is Pepper, poor thing got left outside while I videotaped.

So totally odd thing happened tonight. Gave Berkeley his arteminisin - hidden in PB on a little cookie - and he got it stuck in his mouth somehow. He started pawing at his face to get at it, but since he's one-legged in the front, it became this spastic jump-whack-at-the-face with the one paw. As he was bouncing around the room, I'm chasing him trying to get him to stop, so I can help him. The cookie finally dislodges and he eats it... and then I see that he has blood all down the side of his face that he was pawing at, and blood all over the leg. I get him to lie on a bed and I examine him and I can't for the life of me figure out where the blood came from! Geez Louise!

Crap. I'm so sorry, Jane.

Yeah, so something isn't adding up. BTW - the vet felt the shedding was a delayed reaction to the chemo. She was examining him and it quickly became a cloud of hair swirling in the room. He looked like Pigpen from Charlie Brown! She said to just keep brushing it out and it should stop. Oh - and she also commented on his peach fuzz at the surgery site. Poor guy still doesn't have it all grown back yet!

I know I've mentioned this before but in Berkeley's case the 4 vials were 6 treatments. We lowered his dosing based on side effects... Perhaps the clinic is using a higher dose than what OSU measured out?

Berkeley's 6 month x-rays were clear. Hoping for good news for Joe!

Have you had bloodwork run recently? Her kidney values OK? Might be worth a check.

Good news for Gabe! So the shedding continues... Berk's tail is getting bald, and one of his thighs is starting to have that 'bald butt' look to it. Tomorrow is our 6-month lung x-rays and I'll ask about it then. Other than the total shedding blow out, he's doing really good. Fingers crossed for clean x-rays.

Amazing. good boy, Joe!

Well, 1 - she said she wanted to buy locally and NOT online and 2 - petfooddirect doesn't sell Timberwolf.

Good luck Pinky!! And fingers crossed for Ben. It's hard to make the decision, and harder to know if it's "right", but you just have to remember there is no real right or wrong. We're all just trying to make the best of a bad diagnosis. (btw, no humping today. )

So, Berkeley, my bottom-of-every-totem pole, omega male tried to hump Pepper tonight. A tripod trying to hump? I tried to not laugh but it was pretty funny looking. I guess he was feeling frisky tonight.

love it

This is totally true. Though while the first few counter surfing episodes were funny, the rest Berkeley now gets yelled at for. He tried to get his nose into my coffee this morning, too, the little stinker!!

I've successfully healed 3 happy tail dogs. I would say, in most cases, it's a relatively easy thing to do with some patience. Of course, there are always exceptions. In one case, I actually had to pad the inside of a crate so that my broken leg foster could get her quiet time rehab and not continue to whack her tail on the crate sides! Sometimes the set up of the house will prevent successful healing - like a narrow hallway near the front door where the dog is always going to wag and whack a wall. You may have to baby gate off places like that where the tail will get a beating, in addition to the tail wrapping, to get it to heal. All things considered, losing a tail is a relatively minor thing. I would just be sure that they take enough of the tail to prevent future happy tail instances - sometimes I've seen only a few inches removed where the tail was STILL quite a "whip". You don't want to go through that and then still have happy tail!

Interesting. It didn't start with Berk until after he was done with chemo. And of course his surgery site is still pretty nekkid

Berk's doing really great - he had a grand ol' time playing in the snow this morning. So one question - has anyone had massive shedding after chemo was over?? Ever since his last appt, he's been blowing his coat - the hair is coming out in tufts! In the 6 years we've had him, he's never been a big shedder. So strange for January.

Fingers crossed for Ace!!

Ditto to what Wendy said. Berkeley needed his dose both lowered and spaced out further to 4 weeks. He rebounded each time after chemo, it just took him longer. The 4 doses that most dogs get was enough for Berkeley to get 6. There's no real way to predict the reaction. The only thing you can do is monitor closely and make adjustments as needed.

Oh wow, how scary! The late chemos were tough on Berkeley too - but certainly nothing like that. Glad to hear she's doing better.

We have our 6 month ones coming up at the end of the month. I've been stressing about that for about 3 weeks already.

Good advice by Jennifer above. I also second the chest x-rays - we did ours at the first appt with the oncologist. That first appt was actually several hours - they ran tests, leg and chest x-rays, and then we discussed the different courses of action possible for Berkeley's situation. We then took a week to think about what we wanted to do. But the appointment was where we asked all the questions, etc. Our onco vet is 90 miles away, so I get how hard it is to make that sort of drive routinely. Thankfully, we both had enough vacation time accrued that we could make it work.

So sorry to hear about Ben. The only comment I have directly about your situation is don't hesitate to add the tramadol back at any signs of discomfort. I don't like the idea of "holding back" pain meds when dealing with a terminal disease. How is Shimmie doing?

I would probably have OSU look at the films before going the biopsy, or rather, fine needle aspirate (FNA) route. If they think there's a chance it can be an infection, I'm sure they will have some advice on the FNA. Here's the link to the consult form: https://greyhound.osu.edu/consultationservice/ Good luck

My guys eat carrots like a bunny rabbit. With the front teefs. It's hilarious... but they usually give up at some point, and I'm left with carrot bits everywhere.