Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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Dear all, it is nice to find out Tripawds, Chubby and her pawrents have so much comfort.
Chubby was diagnosed osteosarcoma on her left hand on Nov. 2011 and soon had amputation on 13 Dec. 2011 when she was 6. She started her chemotherapy Carboplatin and Doxorubucin for around 6 month, everything goes well but still get lung mets on 1st Aug 2012 and already around 8-9 cm big single nodule. We were depress at first and soon started her metronomic chemotherapy . Chubby has LinZhi, b-Glucan and DHA as her supplements everyday since amputation. 15mg perdnisolone, 10mg Lasix twice a day, and Cytoxan 25 mg once a day since mets. And we will start to use Etoposide this week.
Sometimes when Chubby get bad, her red blood value drop down, our vet Dr.Wu said it is because her pleural effusion.
And we use EPO(Erythropoietin) to her.
when we add up Perdnisolone dose up to 30mg it helps the effusion from her X-ray result, and I found out Perdnisolone makes Chubby gasps and drink a lot.
And sometimes when she doesn't feel well (RBC value drop down and the effusion), she can not walk well, not as usual she jump for a little bit walking, it is like back legs move a little and front goes a little or She can't move, need me to carry her to her pee place.
Questions:
1. does any tripawds guys use Etoposide as metronomic therapy? what is your does and weight?
2. Have you tried EPO to improve the anemia in Osteosarcoma?
3. how to make Chubby get well from the hard walking..........
would you please give us some suggestions, thank you very much!
Patty
Hi Patty, thank you for joining us here. We're so sorry that Chubby and you are dealing with cancer but it does sound like you have a great veterinarian. What country are you located in? I ask because here in the States I haven't heard of Etoposide being used in metronomic chemotherapy . That's not to say it's unheard of, I'm just not familiar with it. We found some links that describe its use:
http://etoposid.....tment.net/
http://www.ncbi.....MH0000831/
I was on metronomic chemotherapy for my cancer but I didn't suffer from anemia. I know others here have so they can hopefully offer you some advice. Have you tried searching our Forums for "anemia"?
As for walking too hard, well, I recommend that she doesn't. Having lung mets can definitely decrease a dog's lung capacity and we often would rather lay around and enjoy the sunshine than go for long hard walks. Sometimes it's just more fun to be a lazy dog and this is just one of them.
Chubby is adorable, we're so glad you joined us. I hope we can offer you some help and resources as you cope with this situation, we know it isn't easy.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
We are from Taiwan by the way.
And does anybody can share the prednisolone's dosage you use and your weight,
cause it seemed Chubby has its side effect badly, her dose is 15mg twice a day. Chubby = 28kg
Thank you
Hi Patty. We did use Prednasone and Epogen for Zeus. The Epogen was prescribed to help with anemia, so I am assuming it is the same as the "EPO" that you reference.
Our dog Zeus was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in November 2011 and his right front leg was amputated December 1, 2012. He also did six rounds of carboplatin. Zeus had a lung met and a possible liver met at the time of his diagnosis but we were very fortunate that the lung met never really grew or multiplied. We started to give the metronomic drugs (cytoxan and peroxicam) but Zeus became very sick. Since most dogs tolerate the metronomic drugs without complications, our vet immediately suspected an underlying problem. Testing revealed that Zeus was anemic which led to an ultrasound on August 1, 2012 which showed that the cancer had spread through his abdomen. Our vet prescribed prednasone (20 mg one time per day) - Zeus weighed 42 pounds. At one point I needed a refill and the vet was out of prednasone so he substituted Prednasolone at the same dose and said that it is pretty much the same medicine. He also prescribed Epogen to increase the red blood cell count and give Zeus more energy. The medicines worked well and we had a month and a half with him until his body failed and we lost him.
I wish you the best of luck. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions about our experience.
Lisa
Zeus was a Husky mix diagnosed with Osteosarcoma at age 11. A visible lung met and suspicious spot on his liver meant a poor prognosis-six weeks was our vet's best guess. We decided to fight for our boy and his right front leg was amputated on 12/1/11. We did six rounds of chemo, changed his diet and spoiled him completely rotten. We were blessed with 10 great months after diagnosis. Against the odds, the lung met remained a single met and grew very little over those months. A wonderful furbaby with the most gentle spirit, he fought with a strength that we never imagined he possessed. We have no regrets...
http://zeuspod......pawds.com/
Patty, when I was on prednisone it made me very nervous, thirsty and hungry. The side effects were very worrisome for my people, so they called the vet and then gave me half the dose, which helped some. I'm sorry though I don't remember the dosage. If you feel the side effects are a problem, ask your vet about reducing the dose.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Maggie was on pred for about 6 months as part of her chemo treatment for mast cell cancer. She was a small pug weighing about 8 kg (17.5 lbs). She started on a higher dose to load, but for most of the time she was taking 7.5 mg every other day.
That works out to about .5 mg per kg of body weight per day (averaging). Chubby is getting slightly over 1 mg per kg of body weight per day.
Maggie didn't have any noticible side effects at the dose she took, I don't know if the every other day schedule made a difference.
By the way- welcome to Tripawds! I am sorry you are dealing with OSA, and now lung mets. I hope we can provide some useful information and support.
Karen and the pugapalooza
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