Did you ever find out what Ellie was mixed with besides Great Pyrenees?  Incredible markings.  Maybe it is related to the chemo somehow.  It doesn’t seem any worse today. It may be mainly fur loss but, because he is licking above his lip so much lately, it could have irritated it. 

Between last night and today there has been a lot of the coughing sound where it is like he has something stuck in his throat along with noisy breathing.  He had some of the stuck in throat/coughing noises start just prior to his radiation which is why I was really worried about what the results of the CT scan would be.  And then there seemed to be something on it that was not defined nodules but now I am worried what they saw might have been whatever it looks like just before nodules form?  Yet, many have said coughing and breathing issues don’t occur until the lung cancer is pretty advanced so this can’t be that?  It’s just that he has never had this coughing sound before in his life until now so….

what else could it be?  Heart issues is the only other thing I can think of and that would be just as bad. Thinking I should ask for another chest xray right before his next chemo on the 18th … but no idea how to rule out heart issue if that is clear.

Walking/limping is quite bad today.  Appetite good.  Seems generally very unwell though and I’m actually feeling nervous about even doing chemo again in a week.  That’s not to say chemo is causing all of this but just that he already is doing so poorly, I am hesitant to add anything extra on to that.  🙁

Very unique mix.  It was good the husky was only a small portion for the cats sake 🙂.  Sometimes you would never guess the breeds that turn up for a particular dog on the DNA test but I can totally see all of those breeds in her.  

I agree with what you’re saying.  The only problem is I still don’t know what the chemo is causing or not causing….other than the low platelets.  I would certainly like to see those have recovered before doing any more. I do think it caused the nausea the evening of chemo because I have since given flagyl again and it didn’t have that effect.

We had more coughing last night and today so now I need to get that addressed.  He was walking a bit better than yesterday but didn’t want to go to the lake this morning.  I walked him over to the ramp and he didn’t want to go up.  I loosened the leash so he could to where he wanted to … and that was back inside.  

He has a good appetite today though and has been getting up more to check things out, follow me around , etc. 

Well, he has been moving a bit better…not great but better than he was.  He is eating much better.  He seems pretty lethargic though. No interest in getting in the car to go to the lake this morning so we just did a short walk on our street.  
His energy level seemed a little better yesterday than today.  

As far as the chemo, it’s difficult to know what it is actually causing or not causing.  I am very concerned about the low platelets (especially since 21,000 when we checked it is very low. That was 10 days after chemo.  The thing I am worried about is you can’t do surgical procedures on a dog with platelets this low and we have a situation where, if he fractured, that would make amputation impossible.  On top of that, they had told me they gave him a low starting dose of the chemo and said, if anything, probably too low.  I would be nervous about increasing it under the circumstances?  He is due for his 2nd one on Fri this week.  If his platelets haven’t recovered, thinking of asking to delay for a week.  

Everything is okay (within context), but I just had a hectic week.  I had to take one of my other dogs into the vet because she was having gastrointestinal issues.  Then, my other Great Pyrenees started holding the leg she had TPLO surgery on 6 months ago off the ground.  I had to take her back into the specialist yesterday and am now having to put her on strict rest then bring her for xrays at the beginning of next week if it doesn’t resolve.  On top of that, all of this was going on while the kids were starting back at school so throw a few orientations I had to attend into the mix, trying to buy school supplies as I waited until the last minute etc.  

Honor has had a pretty good week.  As of Monday, he really seemed to feel more energetic.  We had some fun mornings at the lake and one of my sons joined us and went fishing a couple times.  Honor was obsessed with watching him fish!  

I just took him this morning for what was supposed to be his 2nd chemo.  His platelets had risen from 21,000 twelve days ago to 105,000.  Better but still not in the normal range.  I expressed that I was worried doing chemo already starting out with a lower number might drop him well below even the 21,000.  The oncologist said that could happen….or it could drop to around the 21,000 mark again or maybe not even drop that far this time.  Basically, there is no way to know for sure.  I asked if it would be reasonable to wait an additional week to do his next one and he thought that was fine and shouldn’t really make a difference in terms of the cancer.  I went ahead and got his zoledronate (bone strengthener) and booked the chemo for next week.  Hope that was the right decision.   Unfortunately, it does now mean having to go back in there next week, but I’m hoping he’ll have a good week.