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Is chemo difficult for the dog?



 
 
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Old September 9th 18, 07:30 PM posted to rec.pets.dogs.health
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Default Is chemo difficult for the dog?

Hi Mike, I hope you get my message since it is 2018. I’m really sorry for your loss and what you had to go through and endure for your beloved pup. My German Shepherd had gotten a bump removed this year and recovered very well from the surgery. We then had biopsy done at it came back as a mast cell tumor grade 2 (high grade). His primary vet said that an oncologist would have to see our dog and determine treatment. We saw the oncologist at the end of June and he went over two treatment options, Palladia and Vinblastine. Palladia seemed the most promising as to give him more months to leave. The oncologist said if we didn’t do chemotherapy that our beloved dog would die this calendar year and if we did chemotherapy he would live pas this year. However, he was a bit afraid of the aggressiveness and the age of our dog. He didn’t know how he would react to treatment because he was only 4 years old. My husband and I thought he was strong to handle the treatment because of his age and he had never been sick aside from the mast cell tumor. We went ahead and did chemotherapy. The first month looked promising, as he didn’t have any side effects and his tumor had shrunken. The doctor said it was at the point where it could be operable but didn’t recommend it because mast cell tumor’s tend to come back and become resistant to chemotherapy. So we followed his advised since he was the professional, we continued with Palladia, prednisone, Benadryl, Pepcid. The doctor lowered my dog’s prednisone dosage since his liver enzymes were elevated and we were ok with it. A few days later the tumor began to swell and we went back to his original dosages but it seemed his body wasn’t able to handle so much medication because he eventually he went downhill with his health. Chemotherapy and prednisone weakened his immune system, he got anemia and couldn’t fight an abscess that ruptured and caused an infection. From that point we stopped chemotherapy and began to focus on his overall health. We took him to ER and he received a blood transfusion and seemed to be doing good, except for a ruptured abscess that occurred while he was in the hospital. We took him to his primary vet to look at his ruptured abscess and it was healing. We then took him to a holistic vet to help with his immune system and cancer but at that time it seemed that palladia and prednisone had really taken a toll on his body and he could never regain his strength. Then fluid built up in his abdomen and we took him to the hospital to have it removed, when we brought him from the hospital, he couldn’t walk anymore and didn’t eat a lot. He only drank water and we only feed him pediasure for dogs and chicken broth. We had hoped he would recover and we could continue fighting his mast cell tumor but he never made it through. His body had been really damaged from the medications and on Saturday 9/1/18, our beloved, handsome, noble, loyal friend and good boy took his last breath. If I were to have another dog which is unlikely because our dog cannot be replaced. I wouldn’t do chemotherapy again, it is hard on the animals as it is on humans.. I wish the oncologist would have guided us better in his treatment and focused on my dog’s immune system rather than just focusing on fighting the tumor. You would think the doctor’s would have the best intentions and interest for your dog’s health when it came to cancer but I felt we were let down and we let down our poor pup for being ignorant about all of this and wanting him to be with us for more years. Our misconception about this was that we thought chemotherapy was the cure rather than a medication to prolong his life.
 




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