Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Hey Beth, thanks for the update. How is Tara doing this week? How was your week back at work?
Yeah I'm assuming "chromotherapy" (that's light therapy!) means chemotherapy too. I dunno, metronomics is still around but it's generally an older treatment that hasn't shown spectacular results over the long term. When it first came out it was very promising, but these days not so much as far as I know.
The reason we did the above article about chlorambucil vs. cytoxan, was because one of our kitty members developed a bad case of cystitis after being on cytoxan for osteosarcoma. Her oncologist came up with chlorambucil as an alternative. Did your own oncologist mention the risk of cystitis? Not all will get it, but we've seen a fair number of cases here, especially with daily doses. A lot of oncologists have switched to dosing every other day to minimize the risk.
One thing about compounding pharmacies: they can be hit or miss. A feline member posted this warning about compounding pharmacies after her cat received bad medication. You may want to read this study and this article about compounding pharmacies in vet med. I'd want to make sure whatever pharmacy your vet is using is 503B certified.
Tara is OK. I bought her a new cone because the other one is old and a little gnarly, but she didn't like the new one because it was fabric and opaque. The old one is clear-ish plastic. I figured fabric would be more comfortable but she clearly prefers the plastic one. She does still chew at her paw if I leave her without the cone for long enough. I check it daily and no growth and no wound, but she doesn't like me messing with it too much either.
I did check the compounding pharmacy in the area that I have used before, which is Central Compounding Center South in Durham. They say they are DCAB accredited, which has something to do with ACHC (all acronyms I'm not familiar with!). I previously had some meds for Elly compounded there that were prescribed by my primary vet. My main complaint was their hours, they were barely open 9 to 5 during the week and then closed for lunch and so (pre-COVID) when I was working at work 40 hours a week it was almost impossible to get over there to pick stuff up. But I think this may be different because they said the chemo drug would be mailed to us. I can always call and ask.
Things are iffy for me this week because husband and I have been feuding about our pet rats. He lets them out in our sun room so they have time out of the cage (which I agree with) but he does not supervise them and they have been destroying my (all non-toxic) plants. We even moved some things around this week to try and make it harder for them to reach the plants and yesterday I found even more damage and kind of blew up at husband. Now he wants to go back to letting them out in our spare bedroom, but that is basically my office even if I only work from home two days a week now. I'd have to totally redo that room to take stuff out that they would destroy in there (mostly yarn) and we'd have to set up a new desk for me in our bedroom, which is less than ideal and I'm not sure where it would go anyway. We'd have to rearrange the entire bedroom as well to get a desk in there. I think it's better and less disruptive to let them out in the sun room, but we still have to figure out a way to keep them out of the plants. Having my personal property trashed is very triggering to me, so it's hard to talk about it rationally. Sigh.
I can't complain because for years my 20 year old cat Orlando was the most destructive beast I've ever owned. I did not own plans at all for almost 12 years because of him. And then we bought our house in 2017 and there was a sun room for plants and it was great... and then we got rats. And they are great too, but rodents are so destructive.
Ugh, anyway, sorry. Bleah!
No need to apologize at all, you've got a LOT going on and having your stuff chewed up is adding to the stress. I had no idea that rats will destroy plants. Eeeek!
Can't tell if that pharmacy has the certifications listed in Dr. Bergman's article, that would be a question for the vet. They don't say it on their website. Apparently DCAB is an accreditation for compounding pharmacies by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc..
How funny that Tara prefers the old school cone! I hope she's doing well this weekend.
Yeah, it's mostly that the rats like to dig in the dirt. We have three female rats who didn't really bother the plants all that much, but in the last three months or so we got three male rats who are bigger and who definitely dig in the plants. And then that kind of gets the girls interested, since they can smell the boys have been there, and then they start digging too (obviously we keep the two groups separate). The boys we got because they ended up at the pet store by mistake (it's a female-only store) and we were concerned they were going to be sent back and killed or turned into snake food or something. But husband talked one of the store employees into giving us a free cage (since that is the expensive part) and then he bought the rats for half price. We totally saved their lives. They are way more timid but have been coming out of their shells and it's been really nice. Until I discovered how much they were destroying my plants.
The compounding pharmacy is Stokes Pharmacy. Their website also says they are DCAB Accredited, but that's all I can find. We are supposed to go to our regular vet once a month for a CBC blood draw and an exam, and in the paperwork they warned about vomiting and also the cystitis issue, which apparently is "VERY VERY RARE IN CATS" (yes, they capitalized all of it). So we'll see. I'm nervous about giving it to her, I think I will start on a day when I am working from home. I mean, husband is always there and so is my FIL, but I'm just nervous about it.
The really tricky part is keeping the dogs from eating Tara's... stuff... in the litter box. We have two dogs and the older one is definitely the main culprit, but she taught our younger one to do it, though he doesn't do it as often. We currently have five cats and seven litter boxes, so it's hard to track which one Tara is using, though I'm pretty sure she uses several different ones. So I'll have to think about that for a bit.
Aww that was so nice of you guys to save the boy rats the way you did. True animal lovers!
It will be tricky keeping the dogs from litterbox snacks. Would love to hear how you prevent that issue. I'm sure there's some kind of gadget you can get to keep them out.
Glad to know your vet addressed the cystitis issue with that blurb. That's a little relief.
I am agog at seven litter boxes. Wow. I keep my (one) cat's (one) litter box in the basement and she has access via a cat flap. You must have a large house... or very public litter boxes.
Sadly, they are very public. My personal rule of thumb is one litter box per cat, though for years I did get away with two for four cats when I lived alone, I just cleaned them every day. We don't have a huge house, just a 3 BR ranch built in 1977, but two litter boxes are in the corner of the living room, one is in the hall bathroom, there is one in each bedroom, and then one in the sun room. We use pee pads liberally spread around the boxes because we have one cat who will not pee in the box, period (she is just special that way). I really hate the two in the living room, but I'm afraid if I took them away some of the cats would just keep peeing in that same spot, so it is what it is. When we first got Jodie she would pee on any blanket/soft fabric left on a hard surface, so like the dog beds and Orlando's heated cat bed, and the rug in the bathroom. Or the dog's blankets that she used instead of a dog bed sometimes. We finally got her to stop that, but now she pees on the ground right next to the litter box. So we just put pee pads all around them. She will poop in the box, thankfully. But I'm really not sure about how we will keep the dogs from going after Tara's "snacks". Going to have to think about that one, and hopefully figure it out fast.
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