jerry said:

Yipee! Mia is doing GREAT! Congratulations.
So the auborn docs recommended the Rapamune? What else can you tell us about it? Is it being given instead of chemo?

hello jerry

it's also known as Rapamycin. basically it was prescribed when she was receiving her first chemo treatments, so it was in conjunction with her chemo. however, even after they decided to stop her chemo after her 2nd chemo treatment, until after the amuptation, she was still on it, and was even given to Mia the night after her surgery. from what i could dechiper when she was first put on Rapamune/Rapamycin, it was used in conjunction with chemo to help the chemo treatments better attack the cancer cells. It worked as an immune suppressor, lowering her immunity, so that the chemo could attack harder. The drug is mainly used for humans and organ transplants, to help the body not resist the new donor organ (this is my interpretation of research online) However, when we asked the doctor should we discontinue the meds, when they discontinued the chemo prior to surgery, they said keep her on it, because it was working like a light dose of chemo.

basically, Mia had already had 2 doses of chemo before her amputation, because at the time she showed no signs of pain, and the chemo was because they had already removed 1 1/2inch of her ulna bone, and we decided to do the chemo. After her 2nd chemo treatment, and after her visit at the clinic, the pain and swelling started in the leg, so this is when we decided on full amputation.

i hope this helps.

jerry said:

Hey, thanks so much for the clarification. I found information about it for human use, but nothing for dogs. Do you have any links to information on its usage for animals?

Pretty interesting stuff. I'd love to start a separate thread about it if you have any online resources we can point people to. Thanks so much!

hello jerry,

i don't have any links regarding animal usage, but i will look around. i will also ask the doctor next friday to provide  more information about it. when the doc told us about it, he said it was expensive, and wasn't pushing it on us, like we had to get it. i think because of the cost. we paid about 195.00 for 18 pills.  the student that was assigned to mia at the time the doc prescribed the Rapamycin, never heard of it, and had to research it herself. i'll try to get some more info, and post it.