Rusty celebrated a milestone on July 25th, it has been thirty months since his amputation and his battle with cancer began!  He is an amazing dog, having battled cancer for over half of his life and now dealing with “Fanconi Syndrome”, which was caused by the damage to his liver & kidneys from the Chemotherapy.  He will celebrate his 4^th Birthday tomorrow, July 30th.  Two and one-half years ago, we never expected that we would be celebrating his 4^th Birthday; that he is still with us is a testament to his determination to fight this terrible disease and two fabulous Dr.’s, Dr. Huber & Dr. Macy.

Rusty saw Dr. Macy for his normal follow-up appointment on August 9th.  No visible signs that the cancer has metastasized, but without X-rays we don’t know for sure.  He has been making a lot of “grunting” noises the past few weeks, not sure if that means anything.  If it keeps up we may ask Dr. Macy to take X-rays on our next visit as it has been about a year since his last X-Rays.  His liver and kidney functions have decreased since the last visit; Dr. Macy increased the dosage of his med’s and put him back on Milk Thistle for his liver.  When he was on Milk Thistle before, his sensitive stomach could not handle it; so far this time he seems to be doing okay with it.  We are splitting the Milk Thistle and spreading it over multiple dosages, making sure that he has food in his stomach.  Altogether, he gets a total of 9 ½ pills wrapped in 4 cheese balls daily; fortunately, he eagerly looks forward to his “cheese balls”.

The main symptoms of “Fanconi Syndrome” are increased water intake and increased urination.  Rusty’s water intake has increased substantially, from his previous high levels, and we are hoping it is a result of the summer heat and not more kidney/liver issues.  However, Dr. Macy is more concerned about the latest readings and we are anxiously waiting on next tests in August.  He is now getting up twice a night again, which is challenging. 

He has less energy this summer, does not swim as much and sleeps more.  Hopefully, part of this is a result of being older along with more warmer/humid days this year.  Also, the Fanconi Syndrome drains most of the nutrients from his system, which reduces is energy levels.  We put him on the Adequan protocol, hoping to decrease the stress on his joints and reduce any pain that he might be having.  He seems to have more energy since completing the series of injections, but is still not up to his previous levels.  He still surfs some, but I don’t think there will be a 4^th surfing video this summer.

He still enjoys life to the fullest and seems to be very happy.  We will have another birthday party for him on August 11^th; that is the weekend that Dr. Macy will be in town.  I will update his blog with photos from his party.

Chuck & Rusty