Hi Tazzie.  You are very pretty also! You remind me of our first dog, Shadow.  He was part Border Collie, and was darker in color than you, but your faces sure look alike! 

No, we are not on Artemisinin .  We spoke to our oncologist about it, and he wasn't all that positive on it's use, so we didn't start.  We do use K-9 Immunity , though.  And most everyone hear has one or two different medicines for their particular metronomic protocol.  A Dr. Barbara Kitchell (from U of Michigan, I think?) prescribed our particular protocol.  We started out with:  Cytoxan (25 mg, one pill/day), Piroxicam (10 mg, one/day), and Actos (30 mg one/day).  After 8 weeks, we switched from Cytoxan to Leukeran (2 mg, 2/every other day).  If I remember correctly, Cytoxan can also cause crystals to build up in the bladder (??), causing some difficulty when urinating and blood in the urine (also painful), so we were also prescribed a medicine called "Lasix" (a diuretic) This was something that helps with urinating; this was only while Max was taking Cytoxan, though.   We started metronomics about 3 - 4 weeks after Max's last chemo treatment (he had six rounds of Carboplatin).

Our oncologist told us at our last checkup that if Max's next checkup (November) comes up clear, they will officially say he's in remission.  As I said, that would be the one year mark, and that's a very sketchy time for this disease.  But we're very positive he'll come up clear.

Talk to your oncologist, and good luck!  You're a beautiful pup!!

Di

Max was normally 70 - 75 pounds prior to the diagnosis/amputation.  He is currently about 65.  It's slightly lean, but very much in the healthy weight range, and neither our regular vet nor our oncologist is worried about it.  At this point, we prefer to keep him a little on the lighter side, seeing as he only has one front leg!  Plus, he's pretty active, so that helps.  He's about 8 1/2 years old (we got him as a puppy, but we never knew his exact birthdate). 

The cytoxan to leukeran switch is just Dr. Kitchell's protocol.  We didn't ask why; we figured she was the expert, and if that was her particular protocol, then so be it.  We were very comfortable with her, and she's all over the internet if you google her.  So we felt pretty confident that she was doing what she felt was the right thing for Max.

I'm sorry to hear about your mets, goshdarnit!!  I'm no doctor, but I know the whole point of metronomics is to help stop them spreading.  Max has never had a problem with Piroxicam, but I know there are other medicines that can be used, so I don't see that being a problem.  In case you don't know, these medicines can be a little expensive.  Fortunately, we don't have any kids (don't know if you do), so we were very lucky in that we just rearranged what we decided to do with our money to budget this in.  Instead of going on a vacation for us, we went to Carmel with the dogs; or we only go out to dinner once or twice a month now.  It's doable.  Please let us know how your appointment goes, and good luck!  Get in there and keep those mets down!!!