We first posted here a little over a year ago.  Our 10-year-old black lab, Bree, was diagnosed with OSA in the left front humerus.  I just posted a brief update with some questions about the Aratana field trial, but I owe more of an update here.

We are in month 16 post-symptoms.  It's been a long journey, but God has answered our prayers in ways I would never have expected.  We pray for her every night, and know that the God who created her is sustaining her for now.

Our first dilemma was SRT vs amputation.  We've worked with UF for all of our advanced care, and I can't say enough about them.  One thing we've learned is that it's best to utilize different vets for different services and to garner different opinions/approaches.  We've also been to Auburn and University of Minnesota along the way.  UofMN was for chemo while we were up there and they did a good job.  Auburn... we weren't a fan of them.  I can give more specifics if anyone cares, but I found UF to be far better in multiple ways.

We paid for a phone consult with Dr. Dressler.  It was worth the money.  The Dog Cancer Survival Guide is a great book, and while his recommendations followed a lot of what was already in the book, it was catered to our situation.  If nothing else, his optimistic outlook was encouraging.

So we decided on SRT, followed by carboplatin.  The tumor was quite large and UF was actually recommending amputation at the time but was supportive of our decision.  Dr. Keijiro Shiomitsu is their radiologist and I can only say good things about his recommendations and care.  For about 2 weeks post procedure she was down and out (expected) as the cells died off from the radiation.  But after about 2 weeks she perked up and started running on her leg again! 

We also started her on the OSA vaccine trial UF is doing (this is different from UPenn and Aratana).  She has been getting successive treatments since then.

We got about 5 months from this before the tumor started to regrow.  We amputated last September at UF.  Dr. Sarah Boston did the surgery.  Phenomenal Doctor.  Bree was walking the same day.  I have no regret doing SRT - doing radiation and chemo prior to surgery may be part of the reason there is no metastasis now, but we don't know.

It took about 3 weeks but she was back to herself, even running almost as fast as before!  Faster than me, at least, and I like to think I'm pretty fast.  We did a round of doxorubicin at this time on the advice of oncologists.  I asked the question about the return of local cancer, and UF as well as University of Colorado (they have a free consult line) agreed that another type of chemo would be worthwhile.  She tolerated it well and ended chemo in January.

Since January we've been praying and continuing the supplements we've been using along the way.  We've used this product religiously at every meal... not sure if it helps but it hasn't appeared to hurt at all:

https://pathwit.....ht-cancer/

That blog has some good info, and we've used a couple herbal mixes she makes.  We give some Turmeric in her meals, along with some pain/NSAID pills, Glucosamine supplement, and Benadryl (for past mast cell tumors).  We also use Artemisinin at about 400-500mg/day along with Artemix (you can't use more than 1 pill/day of Artemix), which we cycle on/off and give in the evening after meals.  We added Melatonin along with the Artemisinin a few months ago.  We use K9 Immunity with Transfer Factor, a dog Multivitamin, Vitamin C, and Apocaps ... all in the morning.  And we add some fish oil to every meal (take caps and let them sit in warm water to dissolve them - sometimes she'll eat the whole thing, though).

Again, I don't know what's working besides God's hand.  But we are very grateful.  Hope our story can encourage you and provide some help.  We take her to the beach a few times a week with the kids and this 11 year old amputee still runs full speed into large waves to chase a ball, swimming against the current while "danger, high surf, do not swim" signs are posted.  Quite an amazing gift from the Creator.