After my last update, Griffin continued to go downhill, eating perhaps ½ cup of food for several days in a row.  He had zero interest in any type of dog food, and turned up his nose at most human food, too – including chicken and sausage.  The Ellevet CBD oil arrived on Friday, and I began dosing Griffin immediately.  The loading dose (given for the first week) is double the usual dose, and it appeared to make Griffin quite sleepy.  At some point late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, Griffin had a diarrhea accident (smart boy went to one of the very few uncarpeted areas in the house, which made clean-up so much easier!), which I attribute to the extra large CBD oil dose.  So, I cut back to the standard dosage and went back to the basics with white rice and chicken.  I am thrilled to report that Griffin has eaten 2 full meals yesterday and 2 full meals today!  He seems eager for and interested in mealtime, which is such a change from the last few weeks.  I searched high and low for canned pumpkin, but all stores around me are out, so I ordered a ridiculously overpriced pet version, Weruva Pumpkin Patch Up!, which arrived today.  It has both ginger and turmeric but more importantly, Griffin appears to enjoy eating the puree mixed in with his rice and chicken.  He pooped very little today, but it was at least somewhat firm as compared to the day before.  I'm hoping for good poops tomorrow!  I’m going to keep him on the rice and chicken with pumpkin for another day, and then slowly start adding his old kibble to the mix - fingers crossed that works!  It appears that the CBD oil, as advertised, is addressing his nausea and lack of appetite, with the added benefit of increased mobility (which wasn’t really an issue for Griffin), so with any luck, we can successfully reintroduce his old foods in the coming weeks.

This photo was in the last blog post, and I wanted to point out how cute Savannah’s shoes are (the brand is Zooligans).  Of course, they were a gift from me and they are her favorites at the moment!  Her shoes resemble a handsome, happy pup I know well!

Sorry, Sally!  I didn't mean to scare you.  Griffin is just keeping me on my toes!

Since I freaked out a few folks last time, I'll start with a spoiler alert - Griffin is just fine.

Today's oncology appointment at AMC was a mixed bag.  On the not so great side:  Griffin lost a lot of weight (more than 3lbs in the last 2 weeks and over 6lbs in the last 7 weeks - he stopped eating again after my last update) and one of the 3 tumors in his lungs appears to have grown (after previously decreasing in size).  On the pretty good side:  the other 2 lung tumors appear to have remained stable in size, no new tumors were detected, and his bloodwork was normal.  Griffin started taking Palladia (chemotherapy drug) and Piroxicam (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug) 7 weeks ago and for almost that entire time, his appetite has been off and eating a struggle, as evidenced by his significant weight loss.  Given the increase in size of the one tumor, Griffin’s oncology team and I agreed that the Palladia doesn’t seem to be having a positive impact, and with the quality of life issues with eating, it is not worth keeping Griffin on that protocol.  We are also discontinuing the Piroxicam on the chance that it is upsetting his gastrointestinal tract.  Griffin did well on a different NSAID, Galliprant, and we will consider restarting that in the future.  For now, Griffin’s body is going to have a rest from drugs for about 2 weeks, at which point he will return to AMC to restart Doxorubicin (IV chemotherapy).  Griffin previously did 2 rounds of Doxorubicin, which shrank 2 tumors but a third one developed in that time, which is why we paused the to allow for the administration of the Yale canine cancer trial vaccine.  Now that Griffin has received both doses of the vaccine, we are optimistic that restarting Doxorubicin will have a positive impact and if history repeats, Griffin will sail through the IV chemotherapy treatments.  While I was hoping for more positive results of his chest x-rays, I remain grateful that Griffin is doing well overall, that his disease spread is relatively stable, and that we have options to pursue.  To celebrate ending meds that messed with his appetite (and to jump start his necessary weight gain), Griffin devoured not one, but two double cheeseburgers from McDonald's after his appointment!

If you have a few moments, please check out my blog post from today which includes the info above, but also has a tribute to Finn and Arktik.

Here's a bonus video of Griffin hunting for his ball and then clowning around.  Enjoy!