Sue and Ginny, thanks.

Sue - I've heard both good and bad about Dr Obradovich so far...I've been canvassing friends! I have heard good things about a Dr Erin Bannink at OVRS too...a friend whose ESS has a brain tumor has been going down there and is very happy with the treatment she got.

In the spirit of one day at a time, I took Cooper with me to a nearby agility trial. It wasn't busy and there was tons of room, so he came in, someone loaned us a quilt for him to lie on and all his agility friends came and made a fuss over him. I took him out to pee, and asked if he wanted to go truck or go back inside...he wanted to go back into the familiar trial hubbub and lie ringside on the quilt, so that's what we did.

I'll make a decision about which oncologist by Monday. It was nothing Dr Wilson said, by the way...just a feeling I got. He did say he would have some names and would be happy to refer me to someone when I go there on Tuesday.

Hugs to Nova and Ginny-dog. 🙂

From two people I have heard this: My vet said "she's a prima donna" and another person said "she is not fond of clients getting a second opinion." To be fair I've also heard second hand of one client who "adored" her.

I just heard back from someone else with a positive report about Dr Bannink. I am leaning towards OVRS at this point. (Can you tell I am calling and emailing and networking like crazy to find an oncologist...? I don't think I have ever spent this much time online in my life.)

http://www.ovrs.....annink.pdf

Thanks Pam! Southeast Michigan, and I would appreciate that very much. 🙂 I'm about an hour north of Detroit, but will travel within reason. I'm also an hour from Ann Arbor and an hour from Lansing.

Ortho vet said it was an atypical location and appearance, but I know Rottweilers are way up there for osteo, so yeah. 🙁 I've been assured that re-xraying won't do much at this point and to wait. Carboplatin seems the first med of choice for osteosarcoma. I know two people personally who have been having great luck (know them, know their dogs, agility friends) with CAM and while I'm a bit of a skeptic about some alternative therapies, I'm finding that when up against the wall I'm willing to try whatever might work as long as it's not too wacky...

Thank you Pam! Since we mentioned Dr Obradovich before, I have to say this: a friend whose opinion I usually value pretty highly took a lymphoma dog to her some years back and spoke very highly of her, saying she went above and beyond to help her dog.

That said - there's a high probability the cancer has already metatstasized to his lungs. The initial chest xrays showed an extremely tiny "possible" lesion. (One small nodule in the right caudal lung field that could possibly be a metastatic lesion.) Sooo...chemo may be a moot point. I only just figured out yesterday that if there's already other organ involvement, chemo is somewhat pointless, and I'm certainly open to alternative/palliative therapies. Which is why OVRS seems like a good choice because they offer a pretty wide spectrum of treatments.

http://www.ovrs.....t/home.php

My regular vet is allopathic but also listed with some holistic veterinary organizations...he does acupuncture and some herbal stuff, is a minimalist with meds (vaccines etc, way before that trend started changing) and is very down to earth...has a good reputation with local dog people. I'll ask him about acupuncture. I don't know how it works but have seen great results with a previous senior arthritic Rottweiler. And when Cooper was a puppy he came along on acupuncture sessions with a big elderly mutt I had (RIP Phoebe) and dogs seem to really enjoy it.

After most people had left the trial site yesterday, I hung out for a little bit. As we left Coop wanted to stop and rest, so I took this photo. You can see how happy he was, just being out and involved! I HATE that he has spent much of the last five months hurting and practically housebound (previous to this, he had elbow surgery in late October for FCP and has been in "recovery" since then.) He's always been a very, very active dog...agility, of course, but we also did obedience and tracking and I do lots of walks, hikes and bike rides with my dogs. I don't want his last months alive to be spent lying around the house or hopping around the back yard. He loves to be out and about.

I've read about artemisinin , never heard of artemather. Oh joy, more stuff to google! My friend with the ESS who's got a brain tumor has been doing neoplasene and the tumor hasn't grown, I don't think, since she started it. Her dog is blind now - you wouldn't know it - and has stopped having seizures. Seems quite happy. So many options, although sometimes I suspect we just like to think we have more control that we actually do. Life is a crapshoot, really.

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Thanks Sue...what you wrote about Dr Obradovich mirrors what my Doberman friend said...I feel sort of bad now for posting anything derogatory and second hand about a vet I don't know, so I am glad you counterbalanced that! Keep us posted on what her take on complementary treatments is, if you can. I probably will stick to my OVRS plan for now...who knows what the future holds for Coop; it's highly likely he already has lung mets so I really don't know. But I'm open to everything. A friend has been using neoplasene (bloodroot) with her dog who has a brain tumor with encouraging results. When she fitrst told me about it back before I got the diagnosis on Cooper I thought, ehhh, some other iffy woo woo treatment...funny how one's perception changes when faced with a dire diagnosis. Now it's definitely on my radar.

And I hear you about MVS and your experience there...I haven't heard anything good or bad about them, just know it's a fairly high tech specialty veterinary hospital. I don't mind when a vet is matter-of-fact, but...some sensitivity & acknowledgement of the difficulty of dealing with something like cancer is frankly appreciated.

I have a good stethoscope and listened to Cooper's heart and lungs yesterday. Of course I don't know what one is supposed to listen for, but it sounded rhthmic and normal...I'm getting paranoid already.

Good luck with Nova's next treatment...when do you go?

I have a Friday appointment and will let you know how it goes. I also talked to Dr Fox about neoplasene today and my own vet in Davison is very supportive and will get it for me, should I choose that route.

I feel a bit up in the air since I haven't even seen the pathology results yet (or had them explained to me). I'll know more after I talk to Dr Wilson tomorrow morning, we have a 9:30 am appointment. I hate that there are simply no guarantees or clear paths to take with this thing!