Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Has anyone experienced fever as a side effect of Tramadol? The onco said she hadn't found any reports ofor it for dogs, but it has been reported in humans. Could my dog be the first? He does have Giant Cell Osteosarcoma so clearly Milo has no qualms with busting norms!
Temps:
- On just Tramadol. (Dropped Metacam due to bad liver response and high ALT.)
- July 21, 102.7
- July 26, 102.4
- July 28-30 -- amputation, lots of normal temps in 99-101 range.
- Fentanyl and gabapentin post amputation, no temps taken after leaving hospital
- Fentanyl patch off on Aug 5, Tramadol started Aug 6.
- Aug 9, 103.3, 103.8, 103.2
- Started Clavamox antibiotic
- Aug 10, 101.9, 103.8, 102.8
- Aug 11, 102.6, 103.1
- Aug 12, 102.5
Wound looks fantastic and Milo lays on it half the time. Not likely source.
Tested for tick borne disease. Negative.
Urine is normal, and normal routine.
Lungs sounded great to vet on Aug 9. No coughing or respiratory stress.
So tumor fever becomes a possibility.... but he had clear lungs and full abdominal scan on July 26, clear lymph nodes on July 28, and first high readings pre-date that (21 and 26), dropped, and are back up.
Chemo was supposed to start today, but can't until we figure out the fever. Onco's plan was to ask the surgeons what nasty stuff they've seen 'catching' in the hospital lately and maybe we need a different antibiotic. Also starting to ween Milo from Tramadol.
It would be nice and easy if it's Tramadol and not an infection or bad things, but it could leave us in a pickle down the line with no Tramadol and no NSAIDS, but we'll cross the bridge if we get to it.
Any insights or suggestions to pursue?
Jenifer & Milo
Online
You are such a good advocate for sweet Milo! Excellent job of staying on top of things and monitoring Milo so thoroughly.
Milo doi g okay in all otner areas, right? Eating, drinking, good attitude, etc.
Looking forward to seeing what our good vet says.
Hang in there! This will get figured out!
Hugs!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
Full CBC on Tuesday 8/9. Platelets look normal. Nothing obvious. Low level anaplasmosis detected, but that's been his situation for a few years, as is typical in New England. Also did full CBC on 7/18, 7/21 and 7/26 as part of the effort to get him into a clinical trial. His ALT was borderline high on 7/18, and disqualifyingly higher on 7/21 which led us to realize he wasn't handling Metacam properly. Took him off on 7/21 and got his ALT down to acceptable levels on 7/26. As a result of chasing the NSAID-ALT issue, we have a solid CBC history.
We dropped him from 100mg 2x a day on the Tramadol, to just 50mg 2x today. We'll see how he does with the lower dose and see if we can drop Tramadol altogether. I haven't taken his temp again since this morning -- I don't want to make his tushy sore -- plus it was a heat index of 111 today. I don't have central A/C and he's struggling with the temps, same as the rest of us right now. We all have high body temps right now. I'll check him at bedtime and again in the morning.
If it's not Tramadol, it's probably tumor-fever which is disappointing. But the clean scans on 7/26 matched with the high temp on those days, followed by low temps two days later doesn't scream tumor-fever. But then again, his mitotic index for his primary tumor was 40+ and he has Giant Cell Osteosarcoma so any thing is possible. Argh! If he could just speak better English!!!
Thank you for the feedback. If we learn anything, I'll be sure to share.
Peace,
Jenifer & Milo
To finish up this topic....
We took the Tramadol from 100mg 2x a day, down to 50mg 2x a day, to no Tramadol. There was a small drop in avg temp with each drop in dosage, but not dramatic. I plot his temp in Excel each day and the drop is there and correlates, but not compelling.
He's still running a slight temp ranging from mid-upper 101s each morning to upper 102s each night. We have no idea why but aren't really trying to track it down any more. The temp prevented us from starting chemo, but we've since changed our minds and are not going to do chemo, so no need to figure this out.
Currently, Milo is nearly his same ole goofy self. He seems to feel fine. We know we can't cure cancer. We'd be multi-billionaires if we could! Milo reacted poorly to Metacam. He may be the the first documented case of fever with Tramadol. A single dose of Trazadone had him lying on the ground peeing on himself. While most dogs handle chemo well, Milo isn't like most dogs it appears. And given his very rare form of osteosarcoma, with a mitotic index (replication rate of cancer cells) off the scale, we'd be spending a lot of money and putting a lot of stress on us and the dog with little chance of benefit. We've decided to just take what days, weeks, or months we have and enjoy ourselves. Milo doesn't understand death. He understands pain and food and the joy of chasing bunnies. We'd rather have a short time with that, than a slightly longer time with a dog who is on a roller coaster from chemo and vet visits.
Note, we are still sticking to his home cooked, nearly carb free diet, and no more than 3 supplements. We currently have two. I recently reread Jerry's protocol and realized how similar ours is. Maybe we'll get Jerry's luck.
Peace,
Jenifer & Milo
Hi, Jenifer:
Glad you are feeling settled on the course of treatment that is best for Milo and for you given what you know. Certainly wishing you "Jerry's luck".
Curiosity only compels me to ask if you had discussed Metronomic (low dose pill form) chemo for Milo - I don't know if it is something that would be considered effective for his cancer type. It is for Pofi's - IV chemo shows little or no benefit for incomplete STS removal in studies. And he is tolerating it very well so far. But with Milo's sensitivity, maybe that would just be something you would rule out regardless - which I totally undestand. We tried Piroxicam as a less liver impacting anti-inflammatory and the results were instantly ugly for him (diarrhea and retching) and we aren't going to try it again! It doesn't fit with my life quality vision for whatever time remains!
Lots of love to you and Milo. So happy he is feeling and acting like himself.
Lisa, Minneapolis
On October 27, 2016, nearly 6 months after amputation, and 18 months since his cancer likely started, we lost Pofi to a recurrence of Soft Tissue Sarcoma in his spine quite suddenly. His canine sister also succumbed to cancer on March 1, 2019 - we lavished her with our love in the interim, but life was never quite the same without her only real canine friend. Cliff kitty had to leave us, too, suddenly, in August 2019. Lucia kitty grieved all these losses, but helped us welcome two new Lurchers into our home and our lives, Shae and Barley.
Jenifer and the Amazing Milo!
Milo is certainly EXTRAORDINARY and does not fit the "norm"'in so many ways! And that could be a good thing!
Heck, who knows, maybe a slight "fever" is Milo's "normal" now. It certainly doesn't seem to bother him.
You've done an outstanding job in evaluating Milo's needs based on who he is an individual.
Your statement says it all so well and I'm certain Milo agrees 100,000 per cent!
....."Milo doesn't understand death. He understands pain and food and the joy of chasing bunnies. We'd rather have a short time with that, than a slightly longer time with a dog who is on a roller coaster from chemo and vet visits."
EXACTLY!! I'm'so glad Milo is feeling good and enjoying hus pain free life!
Following Jerry's protocol is certainly doable and definitely causes no harm and may do a lot of good! 🙂
Keep pictures coming! He's such a handsome boy...adorably handsome!
Lots of love!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Happy Hannah had a glorious additional bonus time of over one yr & two months after amp for osteo! She made me laugh everyday! Joined April's Angels after send off meal of steak, ice cream, M&Ms & deer poop!
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