We're glad to hear Gus is doing so well!  And glad to hear he's back to his tanning bed!  

We opted to try chemo with Holly.  She sailed through the first round, but she experienced a loss of appetite/nausea after the next 2 rounds.  Our vet consults with an oncologist so we don't go directly to the oncologist for treatments (this saves us money).  Holly's chemo treatments involve her going in for bloodwork on a Monday, then chemo (carboplatin) on a Tuesday.  This is repeated every 3 weeks for 4-6 rounds.  If the bloodwork on Monday doesn't look good they postpone her chemo by a week and redraw blood again to be sure it's better the following week.  Her third chemo was delayed due to low white blood cell counts the day before it was scheduled.  The oncologist recommended checking her blood again one week after chemo to check on her reaction for the first 1 or 2 chemos.  Because she did so well with the first round, they opted to skip that step for the second round.  Looking back, had they realized her bloodwork was off earlier maybe they would have reacted more to the nausea... I'm not sure.  If you opt to try chemo, I'd strongly recommend asking for some anti-nausea meds to take home in case you need them.  Our vet didn't give us those until the third round and I think her 2nd round would have been less uncomfortable for her had she had them then.  She's had 4 treatments and tolerated the 4th one better, but they also reduced the amount they were giving her because of her reactions to previous treatments.

As our wonderful Admin said, chemo is a very individual decision.  Some dogs do really well with it, others have trouble.  We scheduled a visit with the oncologist prior to starting just to be sure we had all of our questions covered.  She strongly recommended 6 treatments if Holly could tolerate it.  I still have second doubts that this was the right course of action for our girl... but we are continuing down this road with hopes that ultimately it will help her.  There's another forum discussion on regrets with chemo - you might want to check that one out, too.  I think it was started back in Jan or Feb... but am not sure.  Sorry for rambling here...

Best wishes in making this decision!  Whatever you decide will be with love for Gus - and so will be the right decision for him.  We're all here for you!

Hugs,
Holly and Holly's mom 

jerry said:

About the chemo, well….it's another "it depends" answer.  

 
 The ability of the surgery to remove the source of the extreme pain of osteosarcoma is the one constant that I have seen while a member of this community. Like the reaction to pain meds, chemotherapy may be one of the more diverse reactions and opinions. As with everything here, it is a personal choice and we know that you will be making your decisions based upon what is best for Gus. Jerry had extremely great success for a very long period of time without chemotherapy. I personally attribute Miss Cherry's success to the very aggressive chemotherapy and the team that coordinated our overall treatment. There are reasons to believe that she had a growth on her single functioning kidney at the time of her initial diagnosis, but we were fortunate enough to have 405 days after the amputation. For a Standard Poodle who turned eleven the day before her surgery, we think that this was nothing short of a miracle. Miss Cherry's initial treatment occured just hours after the amputation, just as soon as her body temperature returned to normal. Yes, as with humans, good surgical techniques for something as complicated as an amputation dictate lowering the body temperature. Miss Cherry did not suffer from a drop in blood count, nor did she have nausea, but she did have a total loss of appetite. This was due to the bad chemical taste. Even I could "taste" this horible whenever I kissed her. I had to stuff nearly every morsal of food during this time, and while her appetite did suffer longer term, we are ever so grateful for the success of the chemotherapy. Two more common complications that Miss Cherry experienced and are common amongst humans: 1) She was cold much of the time and would shiver if she did not have her sweaters or was covered. (Miss Cherry had special had made sweaters with a missing left fore-leg hole.) 2) Her imune system seemed to have been comprimised and caught many more "bugs" after the chemotherapy than she ever did before.

However, have said all this, I will again state that chemotherapy is much more personal and it is unclear how much it helps in many cases. Be sure to do you homework (as it appears that you already are doing.) Our local vet (also a family friend) gave us an article that describes this issue rather well. You can view that article with this LINK.  Also, you can read about Miss Cherry's One Year Ampuversary Celebration along with some photos via this LINK.

Above all else, this community will continue to support your decision because we understand how difficult it is and know that your focus will be on what is best for Gus. Looking forward to hearing about more improvement regarding his return to a great quality of life.

Spirit Cherry's Dad

Magic started chemo three weeks after his amp with carboplatin...he sailed through it with no problems, but had low white count two weeks later so they waited three weeks to do the second round...before the second round, his vet did chest xrays which unfortunately showed lung mets...so the vet got mad and saiid the damn cancer laughed at us and changed to the Doxorubicin (Adriamycin) last Sunday.  Magic had no sides from either treatment and we need to wait for blood work to see if the white cell count will drop with this one also.  They did a "just in case" round of antibiotics after the low count the first time.  In another two weeks they will do another chest xray to check the status. 

I wonder if one of the things that helped Miss Cherry was starting so soon, but the honest answer is this horrid thing is so weird that there are no absolutes.  It seems like all of our furkids react somewhat differently and the outcomes are somewhat different.

Good luck and keep us posted!