Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Echo is my 10yrs old Golden Retriever. We are living in London...
Early this year Echo was diagnosed with a mass cancer on his large intestine.. it was successfully removed and Echo quickly gained the weight but...a few months after he started to be picky about food again.. further tests showed secondary liver cancer... a few tumours... It was a tough time for me... but we didn't give up.
We went for palliative chemo and my research started... he was given maybe a week.. now is 5 months.. soon 6th... not without problems..
Generally during 5 months Echo was ok.. he was picky but he was eating till about a month ago.. 3 weeks ago he stopped eating at all... just excessively drinking... I've done magic to get him any food... but his stomach wasn't handling it well... to the level that my protocol started to fail...
He was all his life on raw meat... 10 years of super strong dog.. with minium 3-4hr walks a day. We walked across the world together...
I miss our walks...
Echo last 3 weeks lost tremendous amount of weight.. 25%.. he got so weak that I started to force feed by syringes.. had to learn a lot... so now the battle is to get him back eating on his own.. but most importantly to get his muscles back as the cancer is not progressing for past 5 months...
He was on Palladia (different amount due to different white cells level) - 5 months ago he was 7 (white cells index) just below norm.. later 5.5 >6.5 >4.1 which was border line of sepsa and all bad... now 7.1 >8.7! so back to good! but... despite that his liver enzymes ALT which I was managing to keep OK ish -76-190 (100 is max norm) now went to 1000! I blame metrananizadol which is used to control his very sensitive stomach... reducing it but still 250mg (from 800).. that so far is keeping him ok..
So back to the basics...
normal drugs:
Palladia (3x week) back to full dosage (as white cells are good) -100mg each dose
Cerenia 3ml injectable daily (planning to stop and replace by Pro-Kolin probiotic paste)
Stomogryl 20 (metranizadol 250mg) once daily (will test further cut)
SamE - liver protector 2x 400mg on empty stomach daily
Herbal protocol (had to develop on my own as here nobody can advice from the vets and oncology hospital proved not to care as Echo was lost case.... well they gave him a week of life)
Milk Thistle 2x day 400mg (with food blend)
Artemisinin 250mg 1x 3 hr after his last meal
Krill omega 3 oil - large doses 5-8g daily
There was a break for a while of the herbs as he stopped eating and throwing it to his trout was very traumatic... without that he very quickly lost strength
His food (force feeding)
Blended 200-250 of meat (morning turkey, lunch turkey or chicken, dinner beef or lamb, late dinner livers/kidneys or any other organ) with 2 spoons of brown rice (for calories and bit of energy) - that gives me about 250-400 cal per meal squeezed in average 250ml per meal. Each meal got herbs added but each herb is isolated per meal.
To boost his appetite for past 3 days adding 4mg of Periactin (active ingredient cyproheptadine) as Im desperate to get him eating on his own.
With that managed to stop the weight lose hoping for some gains in near future... ideally if he ate on his own but he is quite ok with force feeding... Im making it as positive as possible.
With that Echo is back on his legs.. visibly getting stronger again.. still bit wobbly but day by day is better (been just over a week on blends).
Will be adding a recovery supplement Nutribound by Virbac (60ml day) and Pro-Kolin and try to eliminate metrananizadol and cerenia. Today he went for quite a good walk.. yesterday he was ok as well...
Ok to summarize...
Can you comment on the supplements? from your experience.. maybe there is something more I can do?
Despite tremendous weight loss his blood is good.. protein level great.. immune system very good too... just ALT went first time way over.. but hoping back to herbal protocol will calm it down.
Palladia had great impact on him so far.. usually chemo days were really good.. he was having good appetite etc and was usually more playful..
Gosh. I so much miss his happy eyes... and our hello time after work... I would do everything for him.. even my own liver if I only could.
Please help...
Hi Echo and family, welcome. I'm sorry to hear things are so trying right now, that's got to be hard on all of you. Honestly, I don't have a lot of familiarity with these supplements, since most of the Tripawd cancers we see here are bone cancers. Perhaps another member has dealt with the type of cancer Echo has, and they can chime in.
You might want to scan our Tripawds Nutrition blog for ideas about appetite and supplements. Please keep in mind however that we are not vets and cannot give any type of real advice in that sense. Please keep looking for a holistic-oriented vet, you can probably find one here:
Best wishes to you and the pack. We hope Echo continues to rally and gets his sparkle back.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Wow! Sounds like you are already doing everything you possibly can for Echo! My Otis had bone cancer - we did four rounds of carboplatin, and were very briefly on palladia after he developed mets. The only supplement we used was the K9 immunity , which both my vet and the oncologist said was a safe supplement, but no real proof that it had value against bone cancer. Have you been able to speak with a holistic vet, or anyone who can review your protocol? I know that there can be interactions between medications and supplements, and it would be great if a holistic vet could take a look and give you advice, perhaps even on what else you could do.
Good luck! You love for Echo is shining through in everything you are doing!
Otis - 106 pound lab/Dane mix, lost his right front leg to osteosarcoma on Febuary 9, 2016. Four rounds of carboplatin completed in April, 2016. Lung mets August 25, 2016. Said goodbye too soon on September 4, 2016. Lost his adopted sister, Tess, suddenly on October 9, 2016. likely due to hemangiosarcoma.
Wherever they are, they are together.
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