When a new member arrives, it’s easy to remember how we were once in their situation; frantic, scared, alone, and desperately seeking some kind of direction that will lead us to the “right” choice for our animal.

During those dark times, we just want someone to figure out our dilemma and tell us “you should do this . . . ”

But ironically, perhaps the greatest lesson that we have learned since founding Tripawds in 2006 is,

There are no “right” answers!

Every situation is so unique, that we cannot legitimately say to someone:

“you should . . . amputate /not amputate / do chemo / go holistic / do nothing.”

This is why a good vet will never say those words to a client. Because what is right for one person’s animal is not right for another. We all come from such a variety of backgrounds that one answer, one treatment choice, one path, is not right for everyone.

The best anyone of us can do is share our experiences, answer questions as honestly as possible and support pawrents as they make choices during their Tripawd journey.

This is one of our biggest goals with Tripawds: to welcome everyone with open arms and respect their treatment choices regardless of whether or not we agree with how they proceed. New members eventually learn that the only “right” answer, is the one that works best for their pack.

Ultimately, the purpose of this pawesome community is to help Tripawds live the best life they possibly can within the parameters of their circumstances.

Thanks to everyone for making the world better for animals! And for your support, friendship and kindness to strangers across the globe. This is a really special community, don’t you agree?

He is the author of the Pet Insurance Toolkit, a free downloadable book that helps pet parents understand pet insurance policies.

Dr. Kenney’s goal is to share a veterinarian’s perspective on pet insurance by highlighting things he feels are essential in a pet insurance policy, based on common conditions seen at the typical veterinarian’s office. He also provides a free, regular podcast that gets into the details of how pet insurance works.

For tips on choosing the best policy fo your pup, don’t miss Dr Kenney’s Pet Insurance Guide Podcast in the Tripawds Downloads blog!

Join us in the Tripawds Chat Room during the show or post your questions in this Forum.

*You need not call in to hear this show! Tune in live or listen later on Tripawd Talk Radio.

Date: Sunday, May 13, 2012
Time: 3:30pm PDT (4:30 MT, 6:30 Eastern)
Duration: 30 min.
Call In Number: (310) 388-9739*

Tune In Here: How to Choose the Best Pet Insurance Policy
Share Link: bit.ly/ttr051312

When shopping for a pet health insurance policy, please consider these Pet Insurance Providers.

Recommended Reading:

Pet Insurance Guide Podcast Helps You Decide on the Best Policy
Understanding 24Petwatch Pet Health Insurance
Guide to Understanding Pet Health Insurance
Why Pet Insurance Is A Good Idea
Learn How to Choose a Pet Insurance Plan
Navigating the Pet Health Insurance Maze

See you tomorrow!

Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Time: 3:00pm PST (4:00 MT, 6:00 Eastern)
Duration: 30 min.
Call In Number: (310) 388-9739*

Tune In Here: Metronomic Chemotherapy for Canine Cancer
Share Link: bit.ly/ttr020812

*You do not need to call to hear the show. Listen live here and join us in the chat room or call (310) 388-9739 with your questions. If you can’t listen live, a podcast will be available after the broadcast.

Learn How to Fight Dog Cancer with Metronomic Chemotherapy

Dr. Biller’s research primarily focuses on the interactions between the anti-tumor immune response and metronomic chemotherapy. One of her most recent studies was for the  Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) during which she evaluated metronomic chemotherapy treatment on dogs with soft-tissue sarcomas.

For this study, Dr. Biller wanted to learn more specifics on how to treat dogs using metronomic chemotherapy protocols. She says:

“Even though veterinarians have been using metronomic chemotherapy on patients, we have been guessing on important factors like what drugs we should use, what dose is needed and at what intervals we should treat the patient. We hope to determine some of those factors.”

Join us in the Tripawds Live Chat during the show! We will be taking your calls and questions for Dr. Biller.

Recommended Reading:

Tripawds News Blog: A Look at Colorado State University’s Animal Cancer Center

Tripawds News Blog: Morris Animal Foundation Studies Metronomic Chemotherapy

Tripawds Discussion Forums: Tips and Resources: Jerry’s Metronomic Chemotherapy Experience

DISCLAIMER: Information provided at Tripawd Talk Radio and Tripawds.com is not a substitute for medical care by a qualified veterinary professional. Always seek the advice of a licensed veterinarian prior to making any medical decisions about your dog’s health. Tripawds.com is not responsible or liable, for any damages resulting from the use (or misuse) of information contained in or implied herein.

Mark your calendar now for a special Tripawd Talk Radio show about the latest metronomic chemotherapy breakthroughs for cancer dogs, with the world-renowned Dr. Barbara Biller, Veterinarian and Assistant Professor of Oncology at Colorado State University Animal Cancer Center.

Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Time: 3:00pm PST (4:00 MT, 6:00 Eastern)
Duration: 30 min.
Call In Number: (310) 388-9739*

Tune In Here: Metronomic Chemotherapy for Canine Cancer
Share Link: bit.ly/ttr020812

*You do not need to call to hear the show. Listen live here and join us in the chat room or call (310) 388-9739 with your questions. If you can’t listen live, a podcast will be available after the broadcast.

Dr. Biller Shares Metronomic Chemo Research News

We are so thrilled to have Dr. Biller join us! The primary focus of her research is on the interactions between the anti-tumor immune response and metronomic chemotherapy. We learned about Dr. Biller’s work when we read about her study for Morris Animal Foundation (MAF), for which she evaluated metronomic chemotherapy treatment on dogs with soft-tissue sarcomas.

During the study, it was Dr. Biller’s mission to learn more specifics on how to treat dogs using metronomic chemotherapy protocols. She says:

“Even though veterinarians have been using metronomic chemotherapy on patients, we have been guessing on important factors like what drugs we should use, what dose is needed and at what intervals we should treat the patient. We hope to determine some of those factors.”

Dr. Biller is also involved in a number of collaborative studies with investigators at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and the Garden State Cancer Center evaluating immunotherapies in dogs with lymphoma and brain tumors.

Join us in the Tripawds Live Chat during the show! We will be taking your calls and questions for Dr. Biller.

Recommended Reading:

Tripawds News Blog: A Look at Colorado State University’s Animal Cancer Center

Tripawds News Blog: Morris Animal Foundation Studies Metronomic Chemotherapy

Tripawds Discussion Forums: Tips and Resources: Jerry’s Metronomic Chemotherapy Experience

DISCLAIMER: Information provided at Tripawd Talk Radio and Tripawds.com is not a substitute for medical care by a qualified veterinary professional. Always seek the advice of a licensed veterinarian prior to making any medical decisions about your dog’s health. Tripawds.com is not responsible or liable, for any damages resulting from the use (or misuse) of information contained in or implied herein.

If you have purchased and read our first e-book, we would love to hear your suggestions in the comments field below and in this accompanying forum post, about how we can make the second edition even better.

Readers, please tell us:

• what was the most / least useful content in the book?
• what you did / didn’t like about the material
• which book sections need improvement or editing
• did we give enough examples for each type of Tripawd? For example, did we share enough information about senior dogs, puppies, dogs with or without cancer, etc.
• what can we do to improve the book layout

We would also love to hear which forum posts and Tripawds blog content published after October 2010 (the book’s publication date) would be most helpful to include in the new edition.

Since Three Legs & a Spare is essentially a compilation of the best material found throughout the Tripawds community, we want to know which newer Tripawd stories, anecdotes and blog posts you feel would help potential new Tripawds pawrents. Don’t be shy, we’re happy to include your Tripawd’s story too!

And of course, feel free to share anything else about your experience with this canine amputation guide. We want to ensure the next edition of the book is better than ever. Thanks.

Because, prednisone is a serious drug that can have mild to serious side effects, let’s take a minute to discuss how you can make the most of this therapy without putting your Tripawd at risk.

What is Prednisone?

This steroid drug, usually prescribed in pill form, is used to reduce inflammation, redness and swelling in the body caused by auto-immune disorders, cancers and other diseases affecting the immune system. Prednisone is not a chemotherapy drug, but is used in conjunction with chemotherapy protocols to treat dog cancers such as mast cell cancer, lymphosarcoma and lymphoma. The dosage will vary depending on the disease being treated.

Prednisone works fast by decreasing the immune system’s response to inflammation and pain. It affects nearly every system in the body and should be used with extreme care, only when necessary and rarely for long-term use.

When to Take Prednisone

Recently Dr. Demian Dressler, author of the Dog Cancer Survival Guide, stated in this blog post that veterinary overuse of prednisone has given this class of cortisone drugs a bad rap. Many diseases can be better managed with less serious drugs, but some vets are too quick to reach for this fast-fix. Consequently, a significant number of dogs experience prednisone’s serious side effects when they really don’t need to.

While prednisone can cause serious side effects such as poor wound healing, thinning fur and skin and even diabetes or Cushing’s Disease, prednisone does provide many benefits, such as managing cancer’s side effects in dogs. However, prednisone should always be used with caution and only under direct veterinary supervision.

To reduce your dog’s risk of experiencing the downside of prednisone, always get a firm diagnosis of the condition you are trying to treat and ask your vet to give you a definite time-frame for starting and stopping treatment. You’ll also want to use the least potent form possible to alleviate symptoms.

What to Expect

Many dogs will experience insatiable thirst and frequent urination while taking prednisone. Since your dog will want to drink more water than usual, and in turn, urinate more often, give your dog the prednisone in the morning. Allow as much water as your dog wants, but adjust your schedule so that your dog can eliminate outside. To avoid nighttime indoor accidents, don’t hesitate to remove water a few hours before bedtime.

Your dog may be hungrier than usual. Keep your dog’s weight in check by only feeding healthy, low-cal treats such as green beans and celery inbetween meal times. Baby-proof your house; your dog may eat weird things that he normally wouldn’t.

A rarer but more serious side effect can include stomach ulcers and personality changes. Do not give your dog predinisone if she is also on an anti-inflammatory medication such as Rimadyl or aspirin. Watch for black tarry stools or vomiting, which can be signs of stomach ulceration. If you notice a severe personality change in your dog, call your vet.

The sooner your dog can complete treatment with prednisone the better, but never, ever change or stop the prednisone dose without consulting your vet first. Doing so may put your dog’s immune system into shock. For dogs battling cancer, your vet may want to keep your dog on a long-term, low dose regimen which usually requires regular monitoring.

Jerry’s Prednisone Story: Share Yours Too

Back when I was being treated for later stages of my osteosarcoma lung metastasis, my oncologist prescribed prednisone and albuterol, a  bronchodilator, to help alleviate lung inflammation. I was coughing so much that my lungs hurt, and the predinsone was supposed to help make me feel better. Well, it did and it didn’t. It made me hungry again and I also stopped coughing so much, but at the same time my pawsonality changed so much that I just didn’t feel like the same dog. I didn’t continue on this therapy once my pawrents and I decided that we wanted to live out the last bit of my time on earth without experiencing side effects from drugs.

If you have experience using prednisone as part of your dog’s cancer regimen, please share it in the comments section below or in this Discussion Forums post. Thanks for sharing your story so that it may help others.

Recommended Reading

Dr. Demian Dressler: Prednisone for Dog Cancer
Veterinary Partner.com: Prednisone / Prednisolone
The Bichon Frise Club of America: Prednisone, the Good and the Bad
Tripawds News Blog: Stop the Presses, I’m Feeling Good Today!
Tripawds News Blog: Saying Goodbye: How We Knew (Part 1)

NOTE: Please remember to buy from a Vet-Vipps Accredited Pharmacy when buying online!

Radiographs will typically show if the cancer has metastasized to the lungs. If it has, amputation is discouraged due to the poor prognosis of this condition.

While x-rays are standard protocol, they are imperfect. As Dr. Hady says in this Tripawds blog post, radiographs can only pick up lesions larger than 3 mm.

Another problem with radiographs is that it may be hard to distinguish between a lung met and an alveoil. With X-rays, a tumor can only be seen from a few angles. If possible, always choose a vet who uses digital x-rays over film, which will show more detail.

Vets tell us that even if lung metastasis isn’t seen on x-rays, it’s there, but in microscopic size (known as micrometastasis). Still, if mets are invisible on x-rays, amputation and chemotherapy is usually encouraged because it’s assumed that even with micrometastasis, our dogs have a fighting chance at beating the odds.

What if CT Scans are an Option?

If you want a more accurate picture of what’s happening in your dog’s lungs, you may want to consider a CT scan before amputation. CT scans are more expensive than radiographs, but they’re best at detecting small abnormalities, such as metastatic cancer in the lungs. CT scans require general anesthesia and sometimes contrasting agents must be injected into the body to enhance the images.

We bring this to your attention because recently, Tripawds member Zeus posted in his blog about what happened when his pawrents opted for a CT scan instead of radiographs.

If you are in the early stages of diagnosing bone cancer and considering amputation for your dog, we advise you to read Zeus’ post about what happened when the CT scan results came back, and his pawrents had to decide whether or not to proceed with treatment anyways.

Here’s an excerpt from his blog post,  “Zeuspod: The Story Begins”

” . . . A few days later the vet called with the devastating news that the radiologist reported a lesion on a lung and a lesion on the liver.  Without further biopsies, the lesions could not be confirmed as cancer, but it is likely cancer.  Obviously, this led us down the road of thinking “the mets are visible so chemo will likely not help.”

We thought we were part of the unlucky bunch that would only have, according to the statistics, three or four months (or less) with our baby.  Additionally, we couldn’t leave the leg on due to the immense pain and the risk of it breaking just during walking and causing even more excruciating pain.

Was it fair to Zeus to remove the leg and go through the pain and recovery when he would only just recover before succumbing to the cancer?  I will admit that euthanasia was on our minds. Then something occurred to us. . . “

continue reading Zeus’ story here

We hope this will help you as you decide the best option option for your pup and your pack. Always keep in mind that there are no “right” decisions, just the one that works best for all of you. And whether or not you choose to amputate, we are here to help any way we can. Since we’re not vets, if there is any information here that you want to add to or clarify, please don’t hesitate to do so in the comments below. Thanks!

Recommended Reading:

ZeusPod: the Story Begins
Tripawds News Blog: Dr. Hady Demystifies MRIs and CT Scans
Dr. Dressler’s Dog Cancer Blog: Can a Dog Cancer Diagnosis Be Wrong?
Dr. Dressler’s Revised Dog Cancer Guide

One of the ways we can ensure that all treatment options are presented to us is by ensuring that a biopsy is performed on our dog’s affected limb, before and/or after amputation.

Recently we were saddened to hear that a member’s vet did not send the dog’s amputated limb to a pathology lab for a post-op biopsy. This wasn’t the pawrent’s fault, they trusted their vet to follow standard cancer diagnosis protocols. Sadly, the vet didn’t.

Being angry about this error doesn’t serve a purpose, but we thought we could turn a regrettable situation into an educational one, by reviewing the importance of this procedure for new members who haven’t gone through surgery.

Why Are Biopsies Useful?

In “The Dog Cancer Survival Guide,” (one of the best dog cancer resources available) Dr. Susan Ettinger DVM, Dip. ACVIM (oncology) says:

“Biopsy reports are extremely useful because they give the diagnosis and a detailed description of the cancer cells. They will also often report the tumor type, grade and sometimes a margin evaluation (which tells you if the entire tumor was likely removed). The lab may also include comments about the cancer’s likely prognosis, but these comments, unfortunately, could be viewed as facts. Keep in mind that the biopsy report is only one part of the story, and your dog’s prognosis is not based solely on this one item.

For a more complete and reliable prognosis for your dog, it’s best to have a discussion with an oncologist who has examined him, reviewed his medical history and stated his cancer for spread. Putting that information together with the biopsy report creates a more complete picture.”

Biopsy Types

Biopsies can be performed before or after amputation. Before amputation, a fine needle aspirate can detect up to 94 percent of bone cancers. When a diagnosis can’t be confirmed with this painless, in-office procedure, an open incisional biopsy may be suggested.

An open incisional biopsy is a general anesthesia procedure that takes several large bone samples from the affected area. It is a painful procedure and one that usually isn’t done unless an exact diagnosis isn’t achieved from a fine needle aspirate. It’s roughly $300 and complications can range from infection to a pathological fracture of the bone.

Why Biopsy?

Bone biopsies are not necessary before amputation if you are certain that you will amputate. While bone biopsies will help determine what kind of cancer your dog has, and what kind of treatment is best if you are considering chemotherapy, bone biopsies are not necessary if you know you will not pursue chemotherapy.

If you are leaning toward amputation and your dog’s diagnosis is up in the air, spare your dog the agony of this expensive bone biopsy procedure and ask your vet to conduct the bone biopsy after the leg is removed.

Recommended Reading

The Dog Cancer Survival Guide by Dr. Demian Dressler, DVM and Dr. Susan Ettinger, DVM, Dip. ACVIM (Oncology)
Three Legs & a Spare, a Canine Amputation Handbook from Tripawds
Tripawds Discussion Forum: Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Final Diagnosis?

Spirit Bo’s folks also knew about this easy way to keep track of good and bad days. His mom Meghan generously provided the following description:

The Penny Jar Method: How to Measure a Dog’s Quality of Life
by Meghan Howell

“During the canine cancer journey, “bad” days are likely to arise. Sometimes the bad days are so overwhelming, we may overlook the many good days that our companions are having.

An effective way of assessing your canine pal’s quality of life is called the Penny Jar method.

To use this method, you will need two jars/cups and pennies. One jar is for good days and the other is for bad days.

It is important to establish a rubric, or standards, as to what constitutes a good or bad day. You can write out your rubric or keep a mental note of it, and it should be tailored to your dog’s specific issues.

For example, the most important issues that you may keep track of could be

• appetite
• mobility
• breathing

Of course, each dog is different and will have his/her own set of standards to track.

After establishing the issues that you want to monitor, you will need to decide to what degree or how many of the variables will need to be abnormal to count it as a bad day. For instance, if two of the issues are off that day, you may want to count it as a bad day.

It’s important to remember that it is your dog’s health and days that you are assessing, not your own. A bad day at work should not equate to a bad day for your Tripawd.

Be sure to make the Penny Jar part of your daily routine so you do not miss a day. Sometimes, the good days are smooth rides and we may not think about the Penny Jar until a bad day hits.

Always add pennies daily in order to get an accurate assessment of your dog’s quality of life.

Be Consistent; there are No Wrong Decisions

The Penny Jar method can be used as a tool to aid you in the decision to set your dog free. You will need to determine at what point your dog no longer has a good quality of life.

At first glance, you may think that when the bad day jar has more pennies than the good day, it will be time.

However, some may decide that after multiple, consecutive bad days the time will be right.

When using the Penny Jar method, it is important to be consistent. There are no wrong decisions as long as you are honest with yourself and your Tripawd!”

Many thanks to Meghan for sharing this important tip with our community. If you would like to share tips from your own Tripawd journey, contact us here.

Recommended Reading:

• Bo’s Story, a Tripawds Dog Blog
• So Easy to Love, So Hard to Heal, by Laurie Kaplan
• The Quality of Life Scale for Pet Pawrents
• The Legacy of Beezer and Boomer
• “Pet Loss Articles and Books Resource” by Christine Davis
• Land of Pure Gold Foundation’s Vet Hospice Care page (scroll down about halfway).