Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat

Hi Alicia and Daisy,

Congrats on Daisy doing so well for so long after diagnosis - always awesome to hear such news.
I have recent experience with Palladia and lung mets (well, not me personally!) ... my dog Peda

She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma June 2012, with surgery shortly after. She has continued along quite well - but in March this year a single lung met was diagnosed (on X-ray).

Her oncologist and I discussed options and decided that Palladia was worth a shot. (I had some experience with it previously with another dog at home who had a tumour in her jaw). We started treatment on the assumption that it is a lung met (so the primary was osteosarcoma) and that while no other mets were visible on the X-ray, it doesn't mean that they weren't there (possibly just too small).

She started on 75mg Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She tolerated it fairly well, although we dropped the dose slightly to 60mg within 2 doses because she had a bit of a runny tummy. We also added in Zantac and that really helped. Weekly blood tests were also needed.

She did well on it for about 4 weeks, but then developed some quite major swelling in her limbs and face (and to be able to see a sharpei is swollen means they are really really swollen!!) We don't know if it was vasculitis because of the cancer or because of the Palladia. (We also do not know definitively that it was vasculitis (need to biopsy tissue to tell) but ruled out a range of other things it could also be.

We stopped Palladia (as soon as she became unwell) and had a very rough few weeks - high doses of steroids were needed and she was in respiratory distress at night for nearly 10 days.

However, as she is laying by my side snoring at the moment, I can say I am glad we persevered through the weeks of no sleeps (she was having good days while recovering but the nights were terrible).

Now - I say very carefully, that we do not know what caused the reaction - and I cannot say it was Palladia. Vasculitis is a reaction that may occur with Palladia - but dogs with cancer can also have it.

We have decided to no longer treat Peda's lung mets with palladia and we are looking after her and keeping her comfy. She is doing really well - and is even more spoilt than before if that is possible. We decided it wasn't worth putting her through the risk of another potential reaction from the drugs.

I had a reasonable idea of issues that can crop up with Palladia (although I didn't know about vasculitis) - but still thought it was worth a go. I don't regret it (even though she was desperately unwell for 10 days - we do not know for certain it was Palladia). It is worth having a look through forums for other Palladia stories (and Rosie's story is great).

If you do decide to go ahead, make sure you have regular blood tests (weekly for the first 4-6 weeks) and don't be afraid to reduce doses if needed. We actually shifted to a dosage being given every 2.5 to 3 days than every 2 days and that seemed to suit her better.

Good luck - and if you have any questions, I'm happy to help answer if I can.

Kirsty and Peda

We only had Magnum on Palladia for 1 month.  X-rays showed only a minor increase in the growth of one of her 3 lung mets in that time.  But she had GI issues and we stopped it (plus she had the added complication of mets to other bones). 

From what I saw of Palladia I think it could be a good drug to slow down lung mets but my advice would be to make sure Daisy is taking meds to protect her tummy from day one.  And watch her closely for signs of tummy upsets.

Karen and Spirit Magnum