Caring for a Three Legged Dog or Cat
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I just got off the phone after an hour-long conversation with an online friend I made through Luke Robinson (2 Dogs 2000 Miles). Don't you just love how our pups bring people together?! She is from Colorado (Fort Collins area) and is the pawrent of a 12-year-old Great Pyrenees with osteosarcoma who is NOT a Tripawd. She opted for a different treatment than amputation because of the age of her pup and the fact that he already had issues in his rear legs that would have made a front amp difficult. It's called Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS). Has anyone ever heard of this as a treatment option for osteosarcoma? I never have.
http://www.cvmb.....S.IMRS.htm
I know this is not Tripawd-related, but it is osteosarcoma related, and we have a lot of osteo dogs on here. Perhaps it's been discussed before, but I did a search and couldn't find anything. She had it done last fall at CSU, and followed up with a couple of rounds of Carboplatin. Her pup ended up with a skin met that turned out to be an osteosarcoma met. So CSU suggested Doxirubicin and her boy had awful side effects, so she has made the difficult decision to stop chemo. Chest x-rays remain clear though. She is very interested in alternative treatments, and I have been trying to encourage her to come here for help and advice with the alternative side of things.
Dane Mom Sue at nova.tripawds.com and Mom to Beautiful Great Dane Queen Nova, a Blind Tripawd, who kicked cancer's butt from 11/08-03/13. The Queen is Spirit Nova now, but her legacy lives on here at Tripawds!
Wow - that's interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing it - I hadn't heard of it before. I think it would be great for your friend to join our site - she could learn stuff about alternative treatments, and I imagine we could all learn lots from her.
Holly joined the world of tripawds on 12/29/2009. She has a big little sister, Zuzu, who idolizes Holly and tries to make all of her toys into tripawds in Holly's honor. And she's enjoying life one hop at a time!
http://anyemery.....ipawds.com
This is a totally relative topic! It's amazing stuff they're doing at CSU. Don't miss Jerry's post from our tour of Colorado State University's animal cancer care facility which discusses their Stereotactic Radiosurgery treatment options ...
A Look at Colorado State University’s Animal Cancer Center
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi, I'm the person Dane Mom is referring to, and my 12 year old Pyr's name is Maxx. Maxx had SRS the first week in October 2009 at CSU. I live in the Boulder area, about 45 minutes from Fort Collins/CSU. Maxx has lumbar sacral disease, and wasn't a good candidate for amp. He is not a Tripawd, but had he been younger, I wouldn't have hesitated.
What brought me to Dane Mom and to this forum is because after two rounds of Carboplatin and three rounds of Doxorubicin, I think I'm done with chemo for Maxx. This last round of Doxorubicin kicked his butt horribly, and put him in the hospital for three days. I'm looking for alternate therapies, perhaps holistic, just don't know enough yet. If I am posting this in the wrong place, apologies - I'm new... Just let me know.
I'm looking for anyone to share anything with me that they have found to be helpful or that they have integrated into their dogs' care that doesn't involve putting poison in the body, if you know what I mean. I'm open to new ideas.
Thank you for your thoughts, references, and advice.
Marcia
Maxx the Wonderful Boy's Mom
Maxx the Wonderful Boy's Momma
Hi Marcia and Maxx
Welcome. Nice to see a Pyrenees face – not too many of them around here (probably a good thing for them!). My Tazzie was supposedly half pyre, although I guess you never know with a wonderful mutt. I'm sure you will get good info, but this post has to do with the SRS.
This topic did come up before, as Jerry & Admin just said. Timber the malamute (timberkins is the name if anyone wants to search the archives) from Colorado had SRS because he had OSA in both legs, poor thing. Anyway, they did about three rounds of SRS and he perked up right away after each. Of course there is only so much one dog can take in terms of radiation, but he did make it for at least 9 good months due to the SRS. Amputation was not an option for him of course. You can find his info if you do a search (if anyone wants to see an example of SRS).
I tried to get Tazzie down to CSU for SRS in early-december. We did not have regular old-fashioned radiation where I live, or else I would have done that, and radiation might have alleviate pain and possible shrink his subcutaneous met. But it was too late by then and we didn't finish the trip. It probably would have been the right thing to do two months earlier.
Basically, they can be more accurate with SRS which means they can give higher dosages with fewer side effects on non-target areas. (I realize you know all that already Marcia. I am mentioning it for people who might not know about it.)
Tazzie's Susan
p.s. One thing that brightened Tazzie's last few months, after he already had his large SQ met, were Power Mushrooms. I would not consider them a treatment for cancer, but they sure gave him energy. He was so happy and lively until the very end.
Welcome Maxx amd Mom! I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this. I'm sorry I can't offer any advice because I've only dealt with hemangiosarcoma (well, for only 3 hours). But I wanted to welcome you and your baby boy to the site and send my best wishes on you getting some ideas and help.
You are posting in the right place.
I know this is not Tripawd-related, but it is osteosarcoma related,
I would have been kicked off a long time ago if we were only talking tripawds and cancer!!!
Comet - 1999 to 2011
She departed us unexpectedly  January 23, 2011 at the age of 12 1/2.
She was born with a deformed front leg and a tripawd all of her life.
Hi Marcia and Dane's Mom and everyone else:
I'm Rosie's Mom from Central Florida. Another member told me you all were talking about Stereotactic Radiation also known as (SRS). So I thought I'd check your discussion out and tell you our experience if it might help.
Rosie, my Golden Retriever had (SRS) Radiation last Sept 09. She was 11 1/2 when diagnosed with Osteosarcoma. She qualified for the treatment. They had to see if she had enough good bone left before they would treat her. The SRS treatment in Colorado University does do SRS treatment as well. It is a little different than the one we got at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida. According to my Dr. at UF if I understand correctly. He told me was a Dr. at Colorado University for awhile and now he's at Univ of Florida. He is an excellent surgeon. Anyway, he told me at Colorado they do more than one radiation treatment with the SRS there. But at University of FL he said they are the only ones doing it with one shot of SRS Radiation. It's actually done at the Brain Institute the same place where they use this same machine on humans!! It's one powerful shot of radiation circumfrancing the tumor and the location of cancer on the leg where the tumor is on the leg gets hit from all angles. And the outside circumfrance, where it goes thru the skin only gets hit once. Only the tumor gets the mega dose of radiation not the other areas around the tumor. He showed me pictures on a computer of how it works. He said it was a Gamble. We tooks it. Rosie was old and we couldn't bear the thought of amputating at her age. He said the bone will be dead in that spot after the radiation. They radiate a margin around the cancer too. So a good part of the bone dies. The bone does not live again, it's just dead bone. But if there was a good portion of healthy bone around it it can work well. That's why your dog's leg has to qualify for the treatment. Rosie qualified. So I had high hopes. However he did say there was a 30% chance that the leg could fracture as the bone becomes brittle. 70% of the dogs they had done had not fractured! So I thought those were pretty good odds. So I took it.
Unfortunately Rosie's leg did develop a hairline fracture 2 weeks after her SRS treatment. She walked really good right after the SRS treatment we were so happy. But then suddenly she developed a limp. Upon xray they discovered she had a hairline fracture. She could still walk and put weight on the leg. So we began chemo. She just finished her chemo in Jan. But her limp has become much worse. So now they want to amputate to relieve her of her pain. So SRS can be wonderfull if you don't have the fracture. In our case it has not worked as well as we had hoped. We paid a lot of money for it and now we're going to end up where we started having to face Amputation after all. We hope that she can make it thru this at her age. THey say she would. So we'll see. But The University of Florida has a wonderful Small Animal Hospital. They are in the process of building a whole new hospital will be done latter this year. 24hour care!
However as far as Homeopathic options I saw the other day on someone elses forum this Homeopathic Dr's website. I have used him personally before for my cat. He is very good and he has a wonderful website with tons of information. Maybe this will help you if you're looking for natural cures. http://www.char..... He is in North Carolina and he does appts on the phone. He will mail you natural remedies. I did it with my cat who had mast cell cancer. It didn't cure him I started to late. But perhaps he can help you.
Also I give Rosie that K-9 Immunity you see advertised on the front page of the Tripawd website. I started her with it right when she started Chemo. She never got really sick with Chemo but we only had Carboplatin. Her blood counts went low but she never vomitted. So maybe the K-9 stuff worked. It is expensive. But I was willing to do everything both Eastern and Western medicine to help her.
Hope you find some answers for your pup. Sorry Maxx had a hard time with Chemo. I had Doxorubican myself as I had breast cancer 5 years ago and that stuff is tough stuff. It made me feel awful. But it took out my cancer. So I just got thru it. But a poor animal, well I can't imagine how hard it is for them. I think they give a lower dose.
Take care.
Rosie's Mom
msiemsen said:.. I'm looking for alternate therapies, perhaps holistic, just don't know enough yet.
Be sure to check the Tripawds Nutrition Blog for lots of information about natural supplements and links to more resources. Specifically, review the posts about Dr. Loops and homepathic canine cancer remedies.
Many have also found Power Mushrooms to be very helpful in improving quality of life for their cancer pups.
Also, Dr. Dressler's Canine Cancer Book is an excellent resource for alternative care.
Thanks for joining! Maxx is beautiful.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Hi Rosie's Mom, I was thinking about you and Rosie's SRS when writing in this thread yesterday. Glad to hear from you but sorry it has not turned out the way you had hoped. Still, I bet the radiation and chemo prior to amputation will increase her odds of survival by a long way compared with if she had amputation first. Best of luck with that.
msiemsen said:
Hi, I'm the person Dane Mom is referring to, and my 12 year old Pyr's name is Maxx.
Marcia, I just wanted to say "Thanks" for coming here (and thanks Sue, for starting this topic and encouraging her to come here!). I missed your original post because Admin beat me to it and I never saw this topic come up. So, I'm sending a big welcome, and we hope that we can be of some help. Tripawd or not, it's only about the dogs here and helping them live better even with cancer.
Please try not to feel badly about stopping the chemo. You're doing what you feel is right for your pup, and that's all that matters. Decisions that come from the heart are the best ones we can make.
Many, many hugs to you and Maxx.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
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Our 10-11 yo mixed breed dog, Benny, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in his front leg in October, 2009. He had the SRS treatment, followed by 6 rounds of chemo, a few weeks later. We can't say enough about the great treatment and care that he has received from the wonderful vet team at CSU. Benny's happy and energetic, with no signs of cancer in his leg. (He returns to CSU for chest x-rays in a couple of weeks.) We are very pleased we opted for the SRS, and that we live close enough to CSU to avail ourselves of their services.
Thanks for the feedback! FYI: If you register as a Tripawds member your posts will appear immediately without requiring moderation.
Tripawds Founders Jim and Rene
tripawds.com | tripawds.org | bemoredog.net | triday.pet
Question for Benny's Mom:
What chemo did Benny have?
Maxx had SRS. Was supposed to have 5 rounds of Carboplatin, but after round 2, found a skin met, so we switched to Doxorubicin. After Doxorubicin round 3, he was so sick, in the hospital for three days, I decided no more IV chemo. Going to CSU tomorrow to investigate metronomic protocol and alternative treatments.
Maxx the Wonderful Boy's Momma
Maxx - you are lucky you get to go to CSU. Everyone loves it there. One other type of chemo suggested when Tazzie had the SQ met was mytoxatrone, because he was already on Doxy when he got the SQ met. I think it is similar but perhaps slightly more gentle than Doxy (you could ask). But I know what you are saying about quitting the regular chemo route. You want his time to be the very best.
Can they use SRS on the skin met or did they already? You are fortunate to have access to options there. Good luck Maxx! You too Benny!
Maxx was on Carboplatin when we discovered the skin met. So at that time, we immediately went to Doxorubicin.
We had the skin met removed, and we were lucky that we had significant, clear margins. We know we need a little bit of luck here, but like you said, "Tazzie", what matters most is quality. It has been almost 4 weeks since his last (and final) chemo and I can honestly say that he just recently is finally back to himself. So I'm not taking any chances with any more IV chemo.
There's actually a little more to this... After each and every chemo, after he came out of what I call the "chemo doldrums" from days 2 - 7, on about day 10, he'd spike a fever, was depressed, and became inappetant all over again; and after each chemo, these symptoms got worse and worse until this last one landed him in the hospital for three days. Doctors said it's not a typical chemo reaction, but for Maxx, it was typical. The doctors kept saying "oh, he must have eaten something bad" or "this must be something totally unreleated"... but the timing is such that the pattern was obvious. Happened five out of five times, didn't ever happen before, and so far, knock on wood, hasn't happened since.
LOL, Maxx apparently didn't read the chapter on typical chemo reactions... 🙂
Maxx the Wonderful Boy's Momma
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