Hi Team,

Boy we got on the roller coaster again for a few days.

We started him on the mirtazapine and got great outcomes with him eating about 1 kg of mince (unfortunately the only food he will eat is his raw Kangaroo mince - not ideal but very lean or low in fat) so we go with that. But then came increased bouts of tummy upsets and nauseousness. Which had him going outside to try to poop - sometime to no effect and panting a lot and very restless.

So we re-jigged his medication so pretty much he is on everything....  mirtazapine and Cerenia and Metronidazole all spaced out over 24 hours to give him the most coverage.

This seems to have worked and his bowels have slowed down to one poop a day, which based on his food intake is about right and no excessive drooling or panting and he is resting well.  So then we are happy to take him for a walk as we are not so worried about his general exhaustion / weakness. So we walked him 1 block up the street today. We will do the same for a few days and then increase to 2 blocks - which is close to the park and then hopefully we can get the distance to the park soon.

I am worried now we are only 2 more weeks away from his next chemo they are going the treatments every 3 weeks I think for 4 treatment. He is on Carboplatin.

So my question to the community is - do they actually recover between chemo treatment or are you just sort of managing the symptoms / side effects until there next treatment and then the side effects kick up again.  What can I expect?

I am not sure how much is the cancer and how much his sickness is the Chemo?

It would seem like Duke got it all from the Chemo treatment with diarrhea and nauseousness.

All help appreciated

Thanks from Kirsty and Duke

Hi all,

Quick update.  Duke is getting better and better with his walking (hopping) .... and he now knows his dimensions better so he is getting his butt on the bed now which is great !! yippee

We have increased his walking to get him to a park closest to our house....he was determined to get there and did a little happy jig when we took him off his leash...very cute to see. He is getting stronger and stronger each day.  Though he does forget and try to cock his one back leg...which as you can imagine does not work too well...  : (

His eating is still hit and miss.....and he is still losing weight.  We are getting about 1kg of mince and some kibble into him per day ...but last week he was 63Kg and this week 60kg so still not winning the battle of at least getting him stabilized.

His bllood test from one week after chemo show white blood cells still in the normal range but in the lowest part of normal and week 2 he has now dropped just below that.  But vet still happy

We have got him off all his meds now which is great...

Next week is chemo round two - so will start him on cerenia before the treatment to try to protect him better and also diarrhea meds, fingers crossed.

He is showing his normal goofy self more and more....which is very nice to see and also lots of waggy tail.

Thanks for the support of this wonderful community - I will keep you posted on progress

Hi all

well I am almost at a position to be ecstatic......I know my little boys future is now clouded and our time is limited. But he is doing so well!,

i share this not to brag... But hopefully to help other families who Great Dane or giant breed is where we were 1 month ago...I cannot believe it was only a month ago. My guy is such a baby, that when we got the diagnosis my husband and I cried and cried as we were certain he would not understand or cope. So we could not amputate...but with the the stories and information from tripawds we took a deep breath and thought...maybe he could. And when we first got him home we thought...what have we done!

now we are one month in and 2 chemo treatments and he is doing so well.... Our little man and all his goofy ways is almost 100% back. He recovered from the second round of chemo after a few days and his appetite is returning.

i feel so blessed to have this wonderful resource and community to help us make the decision to go ahead with the amputation. It has given us more time with our precious boy, with him pain free and now happy...or hoppy!

Hi all,
Duke is still doing great, learning that a faster pace hop is less work than the slower pace so our short morning dawdle has become quite fast paced now which I assume must look funny.

we are half way through the chemo and Duke seems to be handling it much better, the first two rounds he was unwell with nausea and diarrhoea from the afternoon after for about 4 days. But for his 3rd treatment he was only a little lethargy about day 3 for a couple of days.

Next round of chemo we get a chest X-ray to see if the cancer has spread or not. Fingers crossed!
I'll keep you posted.

thanks Kirsty and Duke 

Hi all,

Thanks for all your support

Jennifer - How is Titan going.  We certainly feel we are out the other side of the dark tunnel you go into when you get the diagnosis and then the solution is amputation....  : (   And when you think we got him home on the 15th Jan... it is pretty amazing!

Sally it is interesting you ask about the chemo because Tony and I are sure when we talked about chemo just before the amputation that they said 4 treatments, but then when we completed the first chemo about 3 weeks after the amputation it said 1 of 6.  This may be due to the results from his tumor analysis?  The discussion we had with the oncologist after treatment 3 was that before treatment 4 they will take him for chest xray, his chest was clear before amputation if they are not clear now potentially he is not responding to the carbo and they will change the treatment for the remaining 3.  But I will certainly keep you updated.

We are taking Duke down to the beach this weekend - which he loves (he normally does a cute little jig when he first gets on to the beach - like his own woo hoo! -  hopefully he balances ok on the sand.

Thanks all

Happy Hopping !