Hi Sara,

I wanted to weigh in on your question about doxorubicin side effects with the HUGE caveat that our dog had a reaction to doxorubicin seen in less than 1% of dogs so please remember that what happened to him is incredibly unlikely to happen to your sweet pup. I’m sharing this only because most of the ER vets and even our oncologist at a highly respected veterinary hospital in Massachusetts were completely useless when this happened. I had to step in and dictate Bear’s treatment after consulting with an expert on rare cases of high grade doxorubicin toxicity. Maybe our experience can help someone else should they end up in the same situation so at the risk of scaring everyone I thought it was worth sharing. 

Anyways, with that said, about two days after his first dose of doxorubicin I noticed Bear didn’t want to eat (he was a total trash compactor throughout his entire 13 month fight with stromal sarcoma so this was highly unusual). He was also salivating a ton and seemed dumpy. Our oncologist recommended giving him Cerenia so I gave that but it didn’t help and by the middle of that night (about 6 hours after I noticed the first symptoms) when he couldn’t settle down to sleep at all and seemed truly tortured we took him to the emergency vet. He had declined so fast they had to carry him in on a stretcher and he was admitted to the ICU with grade 4 gastrointestinal and hematological toxicity. His neutrophil count went down to absolute zero, he was septic, and was having bloody diarrhea and vomiting. It was horrific. His bloodwork was a mess (low hematocrit, liver dysfunction, low platelet count, so bad he was close to a diagnosis of DIC-disseminated intravascular coagulation which one ER vet not so kindly informed me was referred to by vets as “death is coming.”) The ER vet assigned to our case had nothing to offer but to euthanize him. I refused to accept that answer and contacted a researcher at Virginia Tech (Nicholas Dervisis, DVM) who had published a paper about reactions like this and he immediately called me, a total stranger/hysterical dog mom, and advised on what Bear needed to recover. He is the entire reason Bear survived and I cannot say enough about his kindness in helping a stranger. I will forever be grateful to this man. 

It took a blood and platelet transfusion, an injection of Neupogen, and 10 days of care in the ICU but Bear fully recovered. He likely would have recovered sooner had his treating providers recommended the blood transfusion and the Neupogen injection at the start of this mess. 

Again, it is highly unlikely that this type of reaction will happen to your pup. Generally I think most of our pups, mine included, have tolerated treatment way better than we expect! My hope is your pup will too 🙂

- Heather, Paul, and Pee Wee

sara87 said

tlahaye said

I'm not a vet, but I'm surprised to hear about doxorubicin . . . Carboplatin is the current standard of care for osteo, generally found to be more effective, easier to administer, and with fewer side effects.  It is a little more expensive.

My dogs have taken both, carboplatin for Casey's osteo, and Doxorubicin for Jet's hemangiosarcoma.  Jet had more side effects including lethargy, appetite loss, skin darkening, and loss of fur.  He had his last treatment in July or August, and he's just now growing his whiskers back.  Now fur loss is not a big deal, and appetite loss can be treated, but efficacy . . .

You might just ask your oncologist why doxorubicin rather than carboplatin.

  

Ciara doesn't have osteo, she was diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma....we were going to do the carbo until that diagnosis officially came in.

  

I see.  I looked back to see what you were treating, and it must have been before the Chondro diagnosis.  So, back to my key point . . . efficacy.  You need to use what works, just like what works for hemangiosarcoma is doxorubicin.  Jet, Bode and I went to a steeplechase course with 140 fenced acres today.  I walked 1.6 miles, and the dogs must have run 5.  Jet would likely be gone now had our oncologist not known that the right drug for hemangio is doxorubicin, and life is worth some temporary fur loss.