Hi Jake's mom,

We have been taking Maddie to University of Penn Veterinary Hospital which is one of the top veterinary hospitals out there.  I was really surprised when they told me there was nothing they could do the other day.  She is getting winded more quickly, but besides from her set back a week or two ago, when she was running the fever she was doing amazing up until that point. 

Her discharge papers from U of P on Tuesday say the following:

"On phsyical exam Maddie was initially bright and alert but seemed slightly lethargic & easily tired during her exam.  Her lungs sounded slightly harsh but she seemed to be breathing comfortably.  She had a mild fever.  She did not have any obvious painful areas along her bones, although she did tire from standing.  Her chest x-rays showed signs the cancer had spread to her lungs with several smaller and one larger nodule on her lungs.  This metastasis may explain Maddie's recent lethargy & her mild fever.  She may also have spread to the bones although we did not take xrays today to evaluate this since you think she is still moving around and jumping on/off the couch well at home, we did not feel it was indicated to take xrays today.  We discussed that, unfortunately, there are no chemotherapeutic options to further treat Maddie at this point.  We want to focus on keeping her comfortable at home and maintaining a good quality of life for her for as long as possible."

I did put a phone call in to her oncologist Friday and asked her to call me to discuss metronomics and anti-angiogenesis therapy.  I directed her to this website as well.  Hopefully I will hear from her on Monday, if not I'll call back.  Maddie's regular vet does do some chemo treatments in his office, I guess I can try to go to him to see what he thinks if I have to. 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  Am I being unrealistic that there might still be options for her out there?  I'm just so disappointed because when we first took Maddie to an orthopedic vet, back in January he gave her a death sentence and said she wasn't a candidate for amputation.  We refused to accept that and went to U of P who have us hope and gave us back our Maddie for the past 10 months.  I'm just not sure where to turn now because there isn't anywhere better to take her in the Philadelphia area.   I was laid off from my job 3 weeks ago so our funds are getting pretty limited, not that it matters, I'll find the money somehow if need be....

Thanks for listening....

Kathy & Maddie 

Hey Maddie's Mom,

From what I've read here it sounds like it can really vary alot how long a dog can live just fine with lung mets.  Yoda was on the short side.  It all depends on how fast the mets multiply, I guess, and his were rather quick.  Still, we were lucky enough to have close to two months and most of those two months were as happy and active as ever.  After amputation and carboplatin chemo, I couldn't afford any of the other options Yoda's oncologist suggested for slowing the mets - trying a different chemo drug or Palladia.  She didn't give either good prospects of helping anyway.  I asked her about metronomics too, and she was willing to try it (though at that clinic they generally stick to metronomics pre-mets, because they don't have data on how it does after mets have appeared), but that would have cost about the same as the other options for me.  He did take Piroxicam for a while, which is an anti-inflammatory that has shown "anti-cancer activity" in studies, but due to symptoms I'll be listing below, he had to be taken off of that because it may have been causing GI upset.

Like I said, Yoda's survival time was on the short-side, so take this with a grain of salt, but I know I liked to get details on what others experienced, so that I specific things to watch for rather than just dread the cancer generally.  So here are the details on how it went for Yoda after they found mets:

I think it was three or four weeks after his first mets were found that he had a rupture and coughed up some blood.  That turned out to be fairly minor and he bounced pack pretty quick with pain meds.  Maybe a week later though he did struggle with his appetite and the cause was unclear.  Ultimately, the oncologist felt it was probably a symptom of the cancer itself, but after about six or seven days or so, he began to bounce back from that too! (He turned up his nose at food in the mornings still, but ate well starting around afternoon and into the night).  Then he caught a rabbit in the yard (yep, my three-legged dog with lungs full o' cancer caught himself a rabbit!).  But then the next week after that, he started coughing again (though no blood came up, stayed in his lungs) and it turned out that he had a much more serious met rupture, and started going into shock from blood loss.  After I got him into the Vet School, they got him stabilized with oxygen and fluids, but it seemed like the bleeding might not ever stop and the safest option for Yoda's quality of life was to euthanize him that day.  Looking at him, he didn't give me any hope that he was planning to bounce back from this one too.

That's what we experienced, for what it's worth - not much time, but very high quality for most of it!  But the mets, the cancer, the meds, all affect our dogs in such a wide variety of ways, and at such different speeds, that Maddie might not have much in common with Yoda. 

There's plenty of reason to hope that Maddie is going to be one of those superstars who goes on hoppily for years with mets!  I'll add my prayers towards that outcome.

Yoda's Mom

Dear Bob & Cherry,

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you  for your message.  We appreciate the prayers more than I can say:)

We will be thinking of and praying for you & Cherry.

Thanks again, we will keep you posted.

Maddie's Mom

My son helped me take Maddie to the vet this afternoon.  It's a really good thing that we did.  Her fever was over 105 and she was severely dehydrated.  She just came off a round of antibiotics for a bladder infection on Monday.  The vet said she will need to stay on antibiotics long term.  They gave her IV fluids and more antibiotics and we just got home with her a little while ago.  The vet said that she was having problems walking because of the fever her joints in her back legs were swollen and hot. She should perk up within a couple of days, thank God!  I was in panic mode at the thought of losing her and my husband not being here.  The good news is that her lungs still sound clear and her heart is very strong!  So hopefully staying on the antibiotics long term will keep all these underlying infections from knocking her down.  Thanking God for answered pray on this one!  Our girl is not done fighting yet!