Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Gaby had here 3rd round of Carboplatin 3 weeks ago and is having a difficult time with it. Her counts have been low and her bone marrow is not recovering and the vet mentioned possibly giving her Neupogen to stimulate the bone marrow to make white blood cells? She has been on an antibiotic for 1 week. She has had a low grade fever for a couple of days anywhere from 102.5-103. I think and hope it broke last night as this morning it was down to 101.1. She sleeps a lot during the day and seems relaxed, but during the night (usually 2 a.m. till we get up) she becomes restless, moves every 3 minutes, and starts to pant.
I searched Tripawds but couldn't find any info on neupogen. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this?
Thanks,
Joanie and Gaby
Hi Joanie,
Sorry Gaby is having such a time with her chemo. I haven't seen much discussion here about neupogen, but I am familiar with its use in people. I have a couple friends who went through lymphoma or leukemia treatment and both got neupogen injections to help build their white cell counts during chemo. I don't remember either of them talking about side effects from the injection, but both were pretty sick during treatment anyway.
It is used in dogs for the same reason- to rebuild white cell counts while undergoing chemo.
There is lots of info online if you Google it- mostly about people, but some info for dogs.
Hopefully someone here has direct experience they can share.
Karen and the pugapalooza
Well here's a new one we haven't heard about here in the forums, so thank you for introducing this topic. I'm just sorry that Gabby is having a hard time, and hope she's feeling better now.
One of our favorite medical veterinary sites, MarVista Vet, says about neupogen:
NEUPOGEN
"Neupogen" is the brand name of a genetically engineered hormone called “granulocyte colony stimulating factor.” This hormone is responsible for stimulating the bone marrow to produce white blood cells and its administration easily overcomes the bone marrow suppression caused by the parvovirus. In other words, neupogen helps the white cell count recover.
A recent study did not find increased survival with the addition of this product to the parvo regimen; however, in sicker puppies it may make a significant difference. It is very expensive usually adding $100-$200 to the basic treatment cost.
Have you called your vet and described her behavior? What did they say?
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
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I actually personally had neupogen when I was going through chemo treatments back in 2010. I'm not sure if it was the neupogen alone, or in concert with the chemo, but I would be really tired for about 3 - 4 days. I never got sick, just really tired for a few days. I was on a lot of meds for cancer at the time, so I'm sure it was all of them put together.
Hi Jerry...It is our vet that suggested the Neupogen if we don't see improvement and her blood count does not go up by next Tuesday. We were quoted $500 so we are hoping that her bone marrow starts repairing on its own. We just want our crazy Gaby girl back to how she was before this last round of chemo knocked her on her butt.
Joanie and Gaby
The major side effects reported with people use are bone pain, nausea and fatigue. I'm guessing that like all canine chemotherapies, the dosing will be significantly reduced from what it might be in human usage, so it's likely that the side effects will be significantly less than what they would be in a human cancer patient. (One study I found, the placebo group reported higher numbers of adverse reactions in everything except for bone pain than the group getting the actual drug.)
Rio's momma
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~ ~ Rio ~ ~ |
How low is her white count? I have only used Neupogen in the past for parvo but in theory it should help the bone marrow crank out more white cells. We sometimes use Epogen for anemic cats and that product helps make new red cells but I did see one cat develop autoantibodies to the product and she then required transfusions. I do not know if this can occur with Neupogen; the problem is that it is a human product and sometimes an animal's immune system gets confused and treats the new cells like invaders so the cells get destroyed. This is only a rare side effect (with Epogen) so if your dog's white count is truly that low then I would follow your oncologist's advice.
Pam
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