Tripawds Three Legged Dog & Cat Forum Archives

I'm posting a quick update just to say that today is Griffin's 6 month ampuversary!  I can't believe the time has flown by so quickly and I know we would not have made it through this journey without the love and support of our Tripawds family!  This has been a good week, with Griffin's appetite steadily improving and his spirits remaining happy!

And he looked quite dapper today with his special Halloween (candy corn) leash! 

Griffin was at AMC on October 7^th for another round of Doxorubicin after a washout period of about 2 weeks since we ended the use of Palladia.  During that time, Griffin’s appetite steadily improved, and while it was not yet back to “normal” (prior to the start of Palladia in mid-August), he was eating a good amount of dry and wet dog food along with home-cooked meals each day and he gained one pound.  After the chemo on Wednesday, we celebrated with McDonald’s cheeseburgers around 2pm which was the last food that Griffin ate until Saturday (yesterday) afternoon.  It is not clear if the chemo was causing nausea since the side effects of Doxorubicin usually appear about 3-5 days afterwards, not immediately, but regardless of the cause, Griffin was definitely not interested in food.  After 48 hours, I contacted his oncologist who prescribed Zofran (brand name version of Ondansetron) which is an anti-nausea medicine and Entyce (brand name version of Capromorelin) which is an appetite stimulant.  Griffin started both meds Friday night, had a diarrhea accident in the house overnight, and was very lethargic on our morning walk on Saturday (to be expected since he hadn’t eaten in 3 days!).  However, by yesterday afternoon, he was interested in food and ate 2 large turkey burgers.  He had another diarrhea accident in the house last night and has not yet been interested in food today.

Needless to say, I am incredibly frustrated, although I try very hard not to show it to Griffin.  I would feed him anything he wants, but that seems to change from day to day, so I have no way of knowing what to offer him on any given day.  While his appetite was improving after we stopped the Palladia, Griffin was still refusing to eat any wet dog food on its own or with dry dog food, and would usually eat one large meal of wet/dry mixed with home-cooked (ground meat with kale and spinach) in the evening as opposed to one smaller meal in the morning and another in the late afternoon.  So, we still have not found a wet dog food that Griffin will reliably eat, although I am grateful that he is not refusing his Taste of the Wild dry food.  I have wasted so much food trying to tempt him and I am never sure if he is truly not feeling well enough to eat or if he is just waiting me out to see what else I might offer him.  He has stopped eating pill pockets or anything that might contain meds, so I have to push pills down his throat, which neither of us enjoy (although to his credit, he doesn’t really fight me or seem to hold a grudge!).

Here’s his current medication and supplement list:

• Zofran – 4mg up to 3 times a day (small pill)
• Entyce – 2.5ml once a day (liquid that seems to taste nasty)
• Ellevet CBD Oil – 0.3ml twice a day (liquid that he seems to tolerate)
• Cobalequin – 1 tablet daily (oh right – forgot to mention that Griffin is B12 deficient, probably due to his prolonged inappetence from the Palladia)

To add insult to injury, the cost of the new meds that I picked up from AMC was $300, but I could have bought them from an online veterinary pharmacy for $75.  I know things in general are more expensive in NYC than elsewhere, but price gouging on meds is infuriating.

Sorry for the long post – I just needed to vent.  As always, any advice about our current situation would be most appreciated.  I know diarrhea is a potential side effect of Entyce, so I’m not sure how worthwhile it is to keep him on it if that continues, but if anyone has specific experience with that medicine, I’d love some input.  Thanks!

If you've made it to the end of this very long post, please enjoy this lovely autumn photo of my handsome boy!

Thanks for the support Rene, Jackie, and Sally!  We are going on over 2 months of the issues with Griffin’s appetite and I don’t feel like I’m any closer to figuring it out than I was at the start, but I’ve tied a knot at the end of my rope and I’m hanging on!

I truly have no idea if it is the Doxorubicin that is making Griffin nauseous.  He never had an adverse reaction to either the Carboplatin (3 rounds) or Doxorubicin (2 rounds) previously, and this side effect occurred the next day rather than during the usual 3-5 day window.  One member of his oncology team remarked that he could be experiencing pancreatitis due to the fatty nature of the McDonald’s cheeseburgers, but he’s never had an adverse reaction to them before (and doesn’t eat them all that often).  The Palladia really did knock him for a loop, and I think he wasn’t fully recovered before the latest round of chemo, so perhaps it hit him harder than usual.

I also really struggle with interpreting when he is truly nauseous and when he simply doesn’t want what I am offering.  In my mind, if he were feeling nauseous, he wouldn’t show any interest in food or check it out by sniffing, but that’s what he does all the time.  When I ask him if he wants a treat, he jumps up and heads to the kitchen, but then will sometimes refuse high value treats, such as a <a href="