Abby's mom here. I'm going to post another update soon (right after this hopefully) on her Tripawd's blog at "Pooch Smooches" but in a nutshell so far: She started the palladia on Wed, 2/16/11 and took it again on the Friday and following Monday. She was great up until then. Tuesday though the diarrhea started in. I called our oncologist at the Vet Cancer Group and he said not to worry - he's seen dog's take a little while to adjust to the meds. He said to just skip today's (Wed's) dose and we'll reassess on Friday whether she'll take that dose or continue on her little break from the meds. I told him that part of the problem could be the wide variety of things she ate over the long weekend. Anyway, today she is on a bland diet and she seems to be improving in terms of how often she needs to go out. He said he's seen this with dogs before where it takes a little while for their systems to adjust, but after that they do fine on the palladia w/ no continuing GI troubles.

Even w/ the diarrhea, she's still hungry and still FULL of energy, so overall I'm not too worried about her (yet...). Hoping we'll just have a little palladia break here for a dose or two, and then be back on it. Hoping that with greater consistency in her diet she'll adjust a little better to the pills and do well on them. 

Will keep y'all posted.

Thought I'd post an update on our Palladia experience for others who might be considering it. Abby was on it from Feb 16 until June 10, off and on (but mostly "on"), so almost 4 months. She would go off it here or there for a dose or two as she would sometimes get diarrhea. I wasn't always sure the Palladia was to blame. We found she was also stealing fruit off our trees (see her 'in the act' below), so that was likely a factor in some cases… But after a visit to my mom's for a week (with no fruit trees!), she had some major GI trouble at the end of the week, so I knew the Palladia was affecting her more and more. I've blogged in more detail about what we are doing instead here on her blogspot blog, but basically we'll now do Cytoxan/Piroxicam every day and, if all goes well, add in artemisinin. (I was in touch with Dr. Singh, who researches artemisinin and he had suggested not to start the arte until she was done with the Palladia, so we are following that advice.)

As to whether or not the Palladia was helpful in keeping the lung mets at bay… I guess it was although it's hard to say whether it was the Palladia alone or the combo of the Palladia/Cytoxan that we had her on. At any rate, the lone met we first saw in its infancy back in December was still a lone met (although a tiny bit bigger) at the end of April. She'll have another xray at the end of July and I guess we'll know more then. If anyone has other Palladia questions, let me know!

Jackie, Abby's mom

Oh, I never heard of that! Thanks for the tip. We've had some success with pumpkin, but will look for the clay.

Jackie & Abby