Hi Pam

Overall Tazzie is doing well, perhaps much better than I expected 4 weeks ago. But his Alk Phos was high today, at 220 with normal ending at 155. He was also "slightly anemic". I got the blood results through a phone message, so don't know what the exact value was. I assume the ALK Phos is related to the 'c' in either his liver or bone, but am wondering if the result might be caused by one of his new drugs or supplements.

About four weeks ago, he started power mushrooms (2/day), glucosamine chondroiton (1 or 2 x 1000 mg per day), artemin (plus artemisinin and Buturate, (sp?). He did not start them all on the same day, but they were all begun about 4 weeks ago. Two weeks earlier, he started Cytoxan and Actos, plus he is still on daily Metacam. We did a blood test after he was on those for 2 weeks, at which time the only high result was the CREA. The CREA was normal today (wow!).

My question: any chance any of the new drugs (in particular, the mushrooms or glucosamine chondroiton) could affect the ALK PHOS? He seems to tolerate these drugs well. However, there are times when I give him an extra mushroom or extra glucosamine and he ends up salivating excessively (really excessively) which continues through the evening and part of the night. I'm not sure what triggers the salivating, but I think it is the extra glucosamine. On the other hand, it might be the extra mushroom, or the combo of mushroom and glucos. at the same time. The symptoms seemed minor enough that I haven't worried about it, although I tend to give him a Fortiflora the next morning (he gets a few of those each week).

Similarly, could the artemisinin be related to the anemia? (He did have slightly anemic values earlier this year, so this is probably not surprising.)

Susan

Pam

Thanks for the info. Because of the timing of the results (late-Friday), I won't have a chance to discuss them with my vet for a few days, but her message indicated that she was wondering about the mushrooms. I did not know that muscle could make Alk Phos. It is moderately reassuring that the problem is not due to the liver and not necessarily in the bone at this time (she did not mention the ALT but I will get a copy of the results this afternoon)

I was thinking of your Artemisinin this week. I was happy to see we completed one bottle and he looks like he might be around to use a new supply in a few more weeks (yay!!!) So it would be helpful to have them (I might need dosing info with them since your pills differ a bit from ours). As I said, Tazzie is doing much better than it looked like he might do a few weeks ago, even if the damn lump is starting to look like a bowling ball.  I guess we are lucky that a lump this size is not in a major organ or in the bone.

Do you think the idea of removing this large lump is out of the question? I assume it would be too entangled in muscle so that muscle and nerve damage would probably occur. The other newer lumps are growing much more slowly, so I am wondering if this might grow more slowly if removed a 2nd time.

Susan & Tazzie 2