Well not so good news - Raven has lymphoma...


So after the major surgery last fall to correct the herniated disk in her neck, she had recovered and was mostly back to normal, but we noticed recently she had swollen lymph nodes, lack of energy, and loss of appetite. Checks of fluid drawn confirmed a type of lymphoma, so we had her into the vet again today to talk about the next steps. We decided to start her on the chemo today, so she is there getting her first course that will conclude in 25 weeks. At first it will be every week, then after 6 weeks it goes to treatments every 2 weeks.

We are hoping that this will help get her appetite back and get her back to being her normal self, stalking me for my lunch and keeping Remi company on the couch...



The vet says that the success rates are pretty high for remission, and that the remission period often lasts a year, so this will give her some better health we hope and add some time on for her. She's such a good dog and we were hesitant to put her through any treatments considering all she's been through, but the vet said they focus a lot of improving quality of life, so the goal is to make her feel better and not feel more sick.

Hoping for the best! She was a bit of a miracle dog last year as we didn't think she would make it through the spinal surgery, so hoping we can repeat that again here!

 

So sorry to hear this, hoping for a good outcome.

 

Liking for the hope of good news and the photos!

 

Old boy feeling the heat but still his happy self

 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for Raven.

 

The younger Hooligan, feeling fussy.







Steve.

 

the celebrity daughters visiting from university......Cat is not content to say hello to one at a time. She hopped up onto one shoulder and called the other daughter over for a nuzzle.

 

Came across this image of the wee boy not long after he joined us, obviously settling in fine.

Terrible pic. but

 

@Archer, keeping you, your family, and your pet in our prayers.

Previously I mentioned that our sheltie (Shetland sheepdog) passed away 2 years ago, on the day that my son was leaving for his first yr of college, and that we'd been reluctant to get another dog and endure the heart break later when our next dog would get old or sick. But I was distressed by the recent prospect that my son would take his cat to college with him this fall (he needs an ESA).

Well, last Thursday a family for whom my wife's job provides services needed to put up their 9 month old mini Australian shepherd "Addie" for adoption asap, due to extenuating circumstances. Word came down to my wife, who let me know, and we adopted her that evening after an hour long visit.

The puppy's family was overwhelmed with 3 young children, health issues, divorce, job loss, and foreclosure - so "Addie" has rarely gone on walks or had a chance to socialize with other dogs, and was kennel trained but still not potty trained properly. Addie spent a lot of time in a backyard with some native grass and dirt, barking at their neighbor's or their dogs, or 12 hours overnight in the kennel. But when indoors she'd often have a potty accident that couldn't be dealt with properly. She didn't even know how to signal to anyone that she needed to go potty.

Addie and her crate, leash, collar, toys, treats, and food were being offered for free "to a good family". Still, we gave the owner a handful of cash, only to then find out tearfully that she was down to $0.82 in the bank and the money was a blessing. I was impressed with the owner's desire to find her a good new family, rather than trying to get money when her own family was in crisis mode.

So, it's been a very busy past 4 days. We're working on her training and socialization, which has been confusing sometimes. We introduced her to our son's cat, and Addie wants to play with the cat while the cat isn't having it. But on neighborhood walks Addie seems to want to play with overtly hostile dogs, and sometimes she growls and bares her teeth at other's that do want to play.

We spent Sunday with Addie getting to know and playing with our middle daughter's Australian shepherd. They got along great, and Addie's such a smart and loving dog. We've taught her to fetch and sit already, are working on stay, and hopefully she'll be fully potty trained within a couple of weeks. But previously she'd spend 12 hours in a crate each day and has learned how to hold it forever.

We took her to the vet for a visit the day after we got her, and with no plans to breed her the vet strongly suggested getting her spay'd before she went into heat for the first time, for health reasons. She's recovering fairly well from this AM's procedure, but hasn't started drinking water yet. So, it might be a long day still.

She's a "lap dog", so I'm in conflict with my wife's desire for her to stay off the furniture (obviously I prefer to sit on furniture if Addie's going to be in my lap). So don't tell my wife about the last photo.

 

All you need is love (2)

 

Just hanging out under the desk as daddy plays on OF.

 

Soaking up the late evening sun

 

So quick update on Raven. We are following the "CHOP" protocol, and so far it seems to be working quite well. More information on this can be found at this link:

https://caninelymphoma.com/canine-lymphoma-chemotherapy-madison-wisconsin-protocol/

Last Tuesday she was at the vet and was given intravenous drugs, plus we were sent home with a whole bunch of extra meds for her, some to treat possible symptoms from the chemo and some that are ongoing (prednisone) as part of the treatment. Over the last week the large visibly swollen lymph nodes on either side of her neck have pretty much gone back to normal, and we've seen an increase in energy, appetite, and a pick up in her general mood. Early days still, but so far we are pleased with what we are seeing.

I just finished giving Raven her second course of chemo, which can be done at home orally...with some peanut butter to help of course.

The one thing we are having some difficulty with is finding a cardiologist for her on short notice. Since she already has heart murmurs, we want to get a review of the heart function before we hit a point in the protocol where some dosing decisions have to be made that may affect the heart, and we are having trouble finding someone to see her within the time frame, so the treatment may have to be given in a more conservative way at that point.

One thing we didn't really think of much, but have to contend with is that after each course of chemo she and all the things that come out of her, are toxic. Since we have another dog we are trying our best not to have too much exposure between them, but for example they both drink out of the 2 water dishes we have, and it would be difficult to prevent that unless we kept them completely apart all the time. If you know dogs, you know that if one throws up their breakfast, and they don't eat it, the other will, so these are concerns we are having to potentially deal with. There are also concerns for humans as well, and in particular for me due to some of my own health issues and the drugs used to treat them, so in case of accidents (none yet!) we have to be quite careful with clean up.

But so far if anything, other then maybe a bit of the runs after the first treatment, she has done nothing but improve and feel better on this treatment.

Thanks for all your good wishes folks!

Cheers, Al

 

Sounds like good news, thanks for the update.

 

Good news indeed.

Procrastinating hard today. This is his favourite game
* puts on Tommy Cooper voice
" Stick ball ball stick. Stick stick ball stick. Sticky ballie ballie sticky"

 

Caption this

 

I always enjoy checking here every few days for a heart warming

 

Absolutely gutted. RIP Chunky.
He was a brilliant dog and the best companion and friend my family and myself could have asked for over the past 11 years. Always happy to see us wagging his little tail. The house seems empty now without his constant noise whether it be him snoring, grunting or knocking things over whilst playing football.

He was always a youthful old boy but we had seen a downturn in him since the start of the year and then this hot weather of late seemed to knock the stuffing out of him. He had a fit on Monday when he lost the use of his back legs for about 30 minutes so we took him to the vets. From the symptoms they thought it was a mass of some kind on his spine but the only way to be certain was an x-ray which meant a general anaesthetic which we weren’t willing to put him through. A course of steroids and water tablets to reduce the swelling in his stomach which had ballooned up were dispensed. There was a vast improvement in him so when we went back to the vets 2 days later he had lost 1.6kg of water from his stomach. A higher dose of steroids were prescribed. I’d been sleeping on the sofa downstairs next to his bed since the Monday and on the Wednesday night he had another fit for 30 minutes so I rang the emergency vets to make an appointment to put him to sleep, the worst phone call I have ever had to make. We were due to take him on the Thursday at 9:20am.
My wife then slept on the other sofa next to Chunky and at about 5:00am he got up and slowly walked to the patio doors to be let out. Chunky then walked over to his favourite spot in the garden which was underneath an Ash tree where he always slept in the summer when he got too hot. He stayed there about 1.5 hours then walked back into the house where he had a drink of water. I then gave him a bone to eat which he did and then walked over to his bed, wagged his tail one last time and laid down and fell asleep where he then passed away in his sleep peacefully at 7:00am.

I am just thankful that he went peacefully in his sleep and we didn’t have to make the trip to the vets.

We gave him the best life any dog could have asked. Plenty of walks, holidays with the family, meals out to pubs and restaurants and most importantly a lot of love from all of us.

This is the last picture I took of him 11 hours before he passed away.



PS, keep the pictures coming

Ian, Sarah, Autumn and Meadow

 

Speechless - so sad

 

A like for one of the loveliest boys on this thread, gone but never forgotten.
Every evening when Chunky made an appearance I had to call my wife to come and see as she also loved Chunky, now I have the sad news to break to her and I know she will not take it well.

Our best to you all at this sad time.