GARDENING
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SPARKY
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SPARKY'S HOME
sparkyfenton @ mindspring . com
It turns out that it really was the right time. If I had done it sooner, I would probably had a nagging little doubt of having ended her life prematurely. It turns out that, if I had done it later, I would have felt guilty for waiting too long. It was confirmed by the vet, before the injection, that she was starting to bleed -- well, ooze -- internally. The tissues in and around the tumors were starting to lose integrity.
We will remember very, very fondly always.
steph
This periodic update is also included below with all the previous updates.
The weekend before Sparky's annual checkup her mom discovered a lump on her butt. Of course her mom and her vet, Dr. Kureshi, decided to remove this lump. Initially they thought it was an abscessed anal gland. Once the surgery began it became apparent that this was not an abscessed anal gland. The mass was about the size of a skinned tennis ball. The vet and Sparky's mom decided to send the lump to the pathology lab. (Her mom strongly suspected cancer because the lump had appeared and grown to this size in a matter of days and the tissue of the mass looked to her like undifferentiated epithelial tissue.)
The pathologist's report came back on 3 April 2001:
DIAGNOSIS:
PROGNOSIS:
COMMENTS:
APOCRINE ANAL SAC ADENOCARCINOMA.
- Can be guarded, with potential for local invasion and distant
metastasis.
- The large specimen ... is a fairly solid
epithelial tumor of apocrine anal sac origin. These tumors are
locally aggressive and can metasticize regionally. They are
frequently associated with hypercalcemia, and monitoring the
surgical site is advised.
In the meanwhile Sparky developed a large fistula at the surgical site and had to go in for a second surgery. A week later she developed more fistulae and had to go in for a third surgery. The day after her stitches finally came out she sprouted another apparent fistula that turned out to be a pocket of infection that healed up after another week on antibiotics.
In the midst of all this, Sparky's mom got several recommendations for a veterinary oncologist who practices at Pacific Veterinary Specialists (PVS) in Capitola - Dr. Linda Fineman. Unfortunately, the oncologist couldn't see Sparky for the initial consult until she was all healed and her stitches were out. Sparky and Dr. Fineman finally met on May 2nd.
The first visit involved getting acquainted, checking Sparky's general health, drawing blood for a complete panel ("Health Check"), a few x-rays of her chest and such, and to schedule an ultrasound. These diagnostics are of prime importance because the course of treatment (or lack of treatment) depends on how large the tumors in her abdomen are; her blood-calcium level; and whether the cancer had metastasized to the lungs, liver, kidneys or distant lymph nodes.
The x-rays showed that Sparky's lungs were free of metastases. The blood chemistry showed that Sparky's calcium level was normal. This was the best news we could get. Based on my research so far, elevated calcium levels would have decreased her mean life expectancy to six months from time of diagnosis.
The following Monday Sparky had an ultrasound performed on her abdominal cavity to discover whether there were metastases in her liver, kidneys, spleen or lymph nodes. While her organs appeared clean, multiple masses were discovered in her sublumbar lymph nodes as expected. Based on this information we scheduled Sparky for a series of seven radiation treatments with Dr. Geri Carlson at the Veterinary Tumor Institute (VTI) beginning the following Tuesday. At the same time we scheduled her first chemotherapy for that same Tuesday at PVS.
22 May 2001
Sparky had her Carboplatin chemotherapy this morning at PVS and her first radiation treatment at noon at VTI. To line up the radiation beam precisely they have to make specific marks on the skin. Since Sparky is covered in fur, this means that they had to shave her in a few places. Now she's lookin' like one punked-out dog. While Sparky was unconscious her oncologist did a needle aspirate biopsy of a lump that magically appeared in Sparky's groin over the weekend. This evening she's feeling pretty spry and spunky.
23 May 2001
Sparky didn't want to get up this morning and stayed in bed till the last possible minute. Her second radiation treatment was mid-morning at VTI where she was greeted by a really nice woman named Laura of the Santa Cruz Veterinary Hospital. Sparky felt kind of oogie all afternoon and evening and didn't finish her dinner.
24 May 2001
Sparky turned her nose up at breakfast this morning and was "not very perky" the rest of the day according to Bob. She did eat her dinner, but was still quite lack-luster all evening.
25 May 2001
No breakfast for Sparky today because she got her third radiation treatment. (They anesthetize the beasties for the radiation treatments because the beast must hold perfectly still.) She ate all of her dinner and went to bed early.
26 May 2001
Saturday, the first day of a three-day weekend and Sparky wants to lay out in the sun and work on her little-dog tan. Unfortunately she's not allowed to spend any time in the sun till after the treatments are over and her "punk" hairdo grows back. She's getting enough radiation without adding the sun's to it. Her mom kept making her get out of the sun and go lay in the shade till Sparky got completely tweaked and feigned deafness. Her mom finally let her lay out for a few minutes before sending her in the house. Sparky was then content to spend the rest of the day in the shade. Sparky and her mom had grilled salmon for dinner.
27 May 2001
The second day of the three-day weekend was overcast in the morning, but Sparky was again content to lay in the shade once the sun came out. Grilled salmon for dinner again, but Sparky ate very little of hers.
28 May 2001
A bright, sunny, extra-warm holiday. Sparky wanted to lay out again, so her mom gave her a few minutes before sending her into the shade. Sparky ignored breakfast and only ate a little dinner. She's still happy to chase tennis balls through the house and garage -- very alert and attentive for ball-chasing. Other than that she's inclined to go get into her bed and snooze unless, of course, her mom's on the sofa. Then she's inclined to want to snooze on the sofa.
29 May 2001
This morning Sparky and her mom stopped in at Sparky's regular vet to have some blood drawn for a CBC to check on how she's reacting to the chemo and radiation. She's doing remarkably well, especially considering the size and aggression of her tumors. The report on last Tuesday's aspirate showed the new lump to be of the same origin as the original tumor. *sigh* At least the lump hasn't grown any in the last week. Sparky was again uninterested in breakfast and ate only half of her dinner.
30 May 2001
Sparky had her fourth radiation treatment early today, so no breakfast again. She came through it exceptionally well and was quite sparky the rest of the day. She actually ate most of her dinner.
8 July 2001
Sparky's mom has been busy ferrying Sparky over the hill, preparing for vacation, going on vacation, recouping from vacation, ferrying Sparky over the hill, ...
Sparky spent almost two weeks playing with her vet and the staff at Cupertino Animal Hospital. By the time her mom got back from vacation she was running the office for them.
Sparky started dining on Hill's Prescription Diet n/d in early June. Its heady aroma has earned it the nickname "RoadKill Diet." Sparky LOVESher RoadKill Diet. Her mom's just happy she doesn't roll in it like most dogs do with road kill. Hill's Prescription Diet n/dwas developed based on specific research. (The n/dstands for neoplasia(cancer) diet.)
On July 2nd Sparky had a full blood panel done to check on how she's reacting to chemo and radiation as well as checking on her general health. Her calcium level is outstanding! It's still in the low end of the "normal" range. The bad news is that her neutrophil level plummeted from good to bad between June 20th and July 2nd. Her white count remains low as expected. The low neutrophil count means that we have to postpone the next chemo from July 3rd till at least a week later, depending on her neutrophil levels in the weekly (till it's better) blood counts. Poor, pin-cushion Little Dog.
Even though her chemo was postponed, Sparky went in for her "Met Check" (chest x-rays) and UltraSound. The results were good. Her lungs are still clear of metastases and the tumors are slightly smaller and are now fluid-filled (as opposed to solid tumor). This is all very good news. The bad news is that she's becoming thinner almost daily despite two cans of road kill (plus hi-protein snacks) daily and possible new tumors have been identified.
10 July 2001
Sparky had her CBC yesterday which showed her neutrophil levels back into the normal range. As a result of this good news Sparky had her third chemotherapy today. She's started gaining weight; she's over 51 pounds again. Finding snacks, tidbits and tasty things for her to munch that aren't high in simple sugars is a challenge. The best choice seems to be dried liver. Yummers!
7 August '01
Not good. Vomiting, colitis, diahrea, anorexia, inflammation and irritation of anything resembling a moist tissue in her hind quarters are the order of the day. She's lost 3.5 pounds in the last week.
The new perianal tumor(s) and the inguinal tumor are growing a lot quicker than previously thought and are hindering Sparky's ability to defecate. This in itself is life threatening. We've changed the chemotherapy drug and started a new, more complex course of radiation to try to arrest and, hopefully, temporarily reduce the perianal tumors. For more information, see The Sparky Report.
This latest development reduces her life expectancy even further.
8 August '01
Sparky had a particularly bad night last night. She spent most of the night pacing and trying to empty her GI tract without much success. She and her mom finally settled down to sleep around 4:30am. No breakfast today as Sparky's slated for radiation this afternoon.
9 August '01
Sparky and her mom both slept fairly well last night.
Yesterday's radiation went well. We stopped in at the oncologist's to talk about the problems of the previous night. She gave us some anti-nausea pills that should also help with what was probably cramping due to the colitis. (Happily, we didn't have to use them last night.)
While we were there, Dr. Fineman palpated the externally accessible tumors. She joyously reported that the inguinal tumor was much softer. I pointed out that the perianal tumor was protruding less and was also softer. So, the good news/bad news is that the latest radiation is already working on the tumors, but it's causing some pretty intense colitis. If it's really bad again tonight we're likely going to postpone at least Friday's treatment to give it a chance to heal a bit. (Think of it as waiting a couple of days for your sunburn to heal up before going out in the tropical sun for another day without sunscreen.)
11 August '01
Sparky had her fifth radiation treatment of the series yesterday. Between the aloe spray and the anti-cramp drugs, she's mostly doing OK. She's still got most of the problems surrounding the colitis, but the most-painful of the symptoms are diminished and she's starting to eat a little more readily again today. Hopefully she'll start gaining some of the weight back now.
15 August '01
Today is Sparky's "Designated Birthday" and we celebrated her seven [human] years with grilled T-bone steak.
Her colitis has become quite severe and her oncologist feels the risk/reward of finishing this series of radiation therapy is not worthwhile. We'll re-evaluate on the 27th as to the possibilities for a new series focused only on the perianal tumors. For more information see the latest Sparky Report.
23 August '01
Sparky had a really bad day on the 16th ...screaming, yeowling, crying, trying to run and hide from her swollen, red, weepy butt, ... We added prednisone to her meds that evening. She's been getting much better over the last week. She even has her appetite back. Monday her weight was down to 48.8 pounds. She seems to be getting thinner and bonier by the day.
So, you know I have a zillion nicknames for Sparky. Now I have a
zillion and one.
She has names like The Little Dog, The Beast, Beastie, Little Miss
Marker, Miss Marks-a-Lot, Dog Thing, Dog Butt, Dog Face, ... What with
her radiation-induced colitis and all, she has a variety of
gastro-intestinal distresses. One of these is, of course, flatulence.
She never has quite figured out what that's all about. Every time she
passes gas (which used to be quite infrequently) she looks at her butt
like something surprising happened ... like her butt just spoke the
wisdom of the ages. "Is your butt talking to you?" is the question I
often ask.
Lately her butt is very talkative, hence her new nickname:
Locutus of Butt.
27 September '01
Since the last update Sparky has opened a new perianal fistula.
Sparky still runs and plays and chases tennis balls, but she ends up in more pain after the play stops. She's in a certain amount of pain anyway and it's increasing -- generally slowly.
We're now giving her Rimadyl for the pain because it seemed to be affecting her appetite.
9 October '01
The good news is that the external opening of the fistula that opened a few weeks ago has healed and seems to be in good condition. The ulceration just inside her anus has also healed nicely. Sparky has been putting on weight, too. Some of it is of course tumor mass, but much of it is healthy tissue: her ribs have again disappeared.
The bad news is that her appetite is off again. She is now snubbing her peanut butter-dipped meds and her canned road kill. She will eat some of her food if it has a topping that suits her at the time. It changes. Today's Happy Sauce was plain yogurt.
She's still on Alkeran and Vinblastine. The tumors continue to grow, but not at the alarming rates we saw in the first few months. As always, she's on antibiotics. She also gets Rimadyl for pain and Metaclopramide for nausea and cramping, both on an as-needed basis.
15 October '01
Sparky's happy, playful and alert, but is disinterested in eating and taking her meds. We're back to the twice-daily battle of wills despite various inducements such as peanut butter or cheese.
*sigh*
21 November '01
Sparky's mostly happy, playful, and alert. She has her ups and downs, but most of her downs aren't very down when you consider...
For chemotherapy, we've taken her off Alkeran and Vinblastine and have started her on Lomustine. She's had two doses now, three weeks apart. This second dose slammed her white count: both leukocytes and neutrophils are really low, but especially the neutrophils. She's still on the broad-spectrum antibiotic Clavamox. The first dose of Lomustine apparently caused her a serious bout of nausea, so we pre-loaded her with the antipuke drug Metoclopramide. She was fine.
The bad news is that Locutus Speaks.
The rest of the bad news is that it's fall and she's shedding enough fur for twelve dogs. I've been bathing her a couple times a week, rinsing about three dogs-worth down the drain each time. Then there's the couple of bags of fur that the vacuum cleaner sucks up a couple of times a week. Then there's the... Suffice it to say that we're up to our hips in loose dog fur.
The good news is that she's back to just taking her pills without benefit of peanut butter or cream cheese. More info in the Sparky Report of 29 October.
25 December '01
Sparky seems even more playful and alert! The REALLY good news is that, for the first time ever, Sparky's inguinal tumor has shrunk by 2 mm in each direction! That was the news from her latest visit to the oncologist on the 19th. Her blood chemistries are still acceptable, but are less aligned with being exceedingly average. Her white count continues on the low side, but then she's still on antibiotics. Her diet is a little off again for the last couple of days, but she did just get another dose of chemo (Lomustine) on the evening of the 19th.
For Christmas Sparky got two new squeaky toys and a tub o' freeze-dried liver. Yum!!!
The other good news is that she's slowed down on the amount of shedding and scratching. The bad news is that Sparky has been having continence problems more often as well as some bleeding.
20 February '02
A new Sparky Report is available. Sparky is perky, lively, playful, and generally berzerk.
Her tumors have started growing again indicating that the chemo is no longer effective. We are now in wait and see mode.
4 March '02
Sparky is perky, lively, playful, and generally berzerk. Her appetite is excellent (1.5 to 2 cans of "road kill" a day -- without appetite-inducing "additives").
13 March '02
We visited the oncologist today and Sparky's inguinal lump is actually marginally smaller than it was two visits ago! To quote her oncologist, "What's up with that?!?"
She's been off all meds for four weeks. Sparky is perky, lively, playful, and generally berzerk. Her appetite is excellent (1.5 to 2 cans of "road kill" a day -- without appetite-inducing "additives").
2 April '02
Sparky's still a happy and berzerk Little Dog(TM), but her appetite is becoming snooty again. She's not interested in eating unless there's a substantial amount of tuna mixed in and a few liver snaps on top to get her started. She's also been leaving our bed in the night and laying in the living room or on the deck and has been a bit less willing to jump up on the sofa and the bed (by invitation, of course). She vacillates between being completely indifferent or completely indignant when it comes to the squirrels in the back yard.
Her inguinal lump seems to be growing again, but I don't get much opportunity to palpate it as she's less and less inclined to lay on her back and get her tummy rubbed. I suspect that the masses in her belly are pressing on important parts more and more causing more discomfort.
29 May '02
Sparky's mostly a happy and berzerk Little Dog(TM). Her appetite waxes and wanes. She started bleeding from her upper GI tract again, so I've restarted the Sucralfate to "put a band-aid" on it while it heals. She's quite displeased to be taking pills again. She would be a lot more comfy overall if she would be more willing to take a Pepcid and something to soften her stool (either prescription or dietary), but that doesn't seem to be in her plan. She's slowly losing weight and getting bonier.
She's been laying in dark corners around the house periodically. She used to do that only after getting overheated from lounging in the sun -- a former favourite pastime. She used to spend hours laying in sun too hot for me to handle for more than a few minutes.
When she would go out in the night to do what needed to be done, she used to return to our bedroom straight away. Now she's tending to lay in the living room till I come get her. She's happy to see me and happy to come back to the bedroom, but she's just not behaving like she always has.
11 June '02
Yesterday Sparky and I took a trip to the beach. Sparky's not big on beaches. Sand is wrong, but water is wrong-ger! We learned that a long time ago, but we still give it a shot every so often. Well, yesterday she decided that the beach was OK. She still wouldn't let the water come within a few inches of her feet, but she didn't shy fifteen feet in the opposite direction when a little foam started moving in her direction ...thirty feet away. So, we enjoyed a couple of long walks along the shore on Harbor Beach between stints of laying on towels and reading.
As one might guess, Sparky's tuckered out today. She slept quite soundly last night. But she's also disinclined to eat today. At least she ate three squares yesterday. On the other hand, she didn't eat much the day before. *sigh*
24 June '02
Sparky's appetite is careening downhill as is her ability to defecate. There's usually fresh blood on her stool. The masses around her anus are growing visibly -- to me -- tho' her inguinal mass seems relatively stable. The tissue on her abdomen in the mirror-location to the original inguinal mass is starting to get that "congested" feeling just like when the first one was developing. She starting to leak fluids from her butt that really don't smell right -- kinda metallic-y.
She's spending a lot of time in her bed. If I'm not on the sofa (where she can get an invitation to lounge with me), she goes to her bed in the far corner of the master bedroom at the back of the house. If I'm on the sofa when she comes back in the house from leaving me a present, she frequently goes off to lay in the back corner of the dining room behind the table. However, as soon as I call her name she trots right into the living room and asks for the invitation onto the sofa. She can still manage to jump up onto my bed when invited, but she'd mostly rather go to her own bed on the far side of mine.
So, it would be looking like we're getting down to the wire, except that she's still happy to interact with people, chase balls, go places in the truck, have me chase her down the hall to "git" her, etc. She's still mostly Sparky.
30 June '02
Sparky's appetite for her RoadKill is gone. It's quite a challenge to get her to eat a regular meal anymore. She's happy to eat any of the things that I've been adding to her food in an attempt to get her to eat by themselves, but she's quite disinclined to eat it with RoadKill. She still has major problems defecating and tends to bleed from her anus. She gets 2 or 3 Sucralfate each day to help keep her tummy happy in hopes that she'll be more inclined to eat. She's still spending time hanging out in her bed or in another remote location. She mostly prefers to spend the night sleeping in her own bed rather than sharing mine.
On the other hand, should someone come to visit or should we visit the dog park or someplace with other people, she becomes her former berzerk self. And I do mean quite seriously berzerk. It's just when were alone at home that she's all mopey. I think she's got cabin fever and is completely bored with her mom.
1 July '02
Sparky just got back from her latest checkup. This one included the works: chest x-rays, Ultra Sound, and full blood panel. The blood work won't be back till this evening or tomorrow morning.
Her weight is down 3 pounds from six weeks ago. This is NOT good. For perspective, that's like a human whose normal, healthy weight is 165 dropping from 159 to 150 in six weeks. Getting her to eat is still quite a challenge and getting more so every day.
The Ultra Sound results are a bit wacky. They've always showed three large masses in her abdomen with everything else looking normal (except a slight abnormality in her spleen in January). Well, this time everything is normal (including her spleen) except for two (yes, 2) large masses in her abdomen. We don't get it.
The chest x-rays show more metastases. The pre-existing met's are more dense and only slightly larger. The bad news is, of course, that there are more and they're bigger and badder. The good news is that they haven't grown explosively as is expected of lung met's and they're not to the point of impairing function.
She was all perky and dancing and lively at the vet -- except for when she was supposed to lie still for the procedures and then she was a good Little Dog(TM) and did just as she was told. She wouldn't take any treats from anyone till she finished and we got to have our consultation. Then she scarfed them like there was no tomorrow! Now that we're home, she just wants to snooze and not eat.
5 July '02
We started Sparky on Prednisone on 2 July as an appetite stimulant for her nearly-absent appetite. Her oncologist tells me that most of her patients can't hang with the RoadKill diet for more than a few months. Sparky's been on it for over a year! So, I've started feeding her food that I have prepared especially for her. Yummy things like liver and barley and yams, supplemented with flax oil and flax meal (for omega-3 fatty acids and fiber). Between the change of diet and the Prednisone, she's scarfing food like there's no tomorrow. I even tried an experiment with the canned RoadKill. After she ate several large meals yesterday I wondered whether she was still hungry and just how hungry would she be? I put a half a can of RoadKill in her dish. This morning it was half gone. So I mixed happy food with the remains of the RoadKill for her breakfast. She ate the whole thing. She also ate quite a large lunch -- then went and rolled in the living room rugs like they were dead fish.
Her blood work results came back. For a dog with no appetite and a rather large weight loss, her results were great! We still haven't figger'd out what happened to the third large abdominal mass in her Ultra Sound...
8 July '02
Still on the appetite rollercoaster. Saturday she was eating everything in sight. Yesterday she wasn't interested. Last night whe went back to eating. Unfortunately, her stools are all accompanied by fresh blood in varying amounts. Her midnight dump last night was accompanied by yeowling and crying -- her, not me ...yet. No more whole grains and no more flax meal for a while. Water-soluble fiber as much as possible. This morning she ate a pretty good breakfast.
14 July '02
Well, no appetite rollercoaster since we've shifted away from commercial dog food. I will still need to weigh her again next week, but she's starting to feel less boney again. She's also being more playful, springy, perky, peppy, happy, ... You get the idea.
Sparky invited a bunch of her friends to meet her at Las Palmas park for a picnic last Friday. Before her friends got there she and I played ball at the Las Palmas Dog Park. She ran hard, fast, and long chasing tennis balls as I kicked them for her. She didn't seem ready to stop, but we stopped anyway. As it turns out, she tore up her pads on both front paws. (She used to do that all the time.) She's pretty much OK already. She's a little ginger about walking on the bark nuggets in the front yard, but she's racing around on grass, carpet, and concrete chasing balls all over again.
She had a wonderful time at the picnic!
17 July '02
Sparky's still eating like a maniac. She's even more inclined to eat a Modified RoadKill Diet (i.e., part RoadKill, part new, happy food). We went to visit "that man" this morning (Cupertino Animal Hospital) to get a weight check. She's up a half-pound from last week!
She's also perkier, happier, and berzerker than she has been in a while. She's full of happy energy!
8 August '02
Since starting on Prednisone Sparky has been gaining about a half-pound a week! As of Monday she's up to 52.5 pounds! A couple of weeks ago I started weaning her off My Home Cookin'and onto commercial food. The commercial food is a combination of AvoDerm Puppy (chicken and rice) and RoadKill to which I add flax oil (for the omega-3 fatty-acids).
After consulting with Sparky's oncologist, we started backing-off on the dosage of the Prednisone. We stepped down from 10 mg once a day to 5 mg once a day to 5 mg every other day. Her appetite is finally slowing down, but just a little. She's less inclined to scarf her breakfast in one big sucking noise. I also stopped the Sucralfate just to see how that goes. It's supposed to be a tummy (upper GI) bandaid. Well, she's been bleeding (fresh blood) more from her anus. Like, a lot. I started her on the Sucralfate again just in case that's part of the deal. I should know within a day or so.
We've been taking at least a couple of trips to the dog park for a good chasing of tennis balls each week. She LOVES chasing tennis balls at the dog park ...to the point where she'll tear-up her pads and over-heat if I don't govern her ambitions. At least they have buckets and fresh running water for drinking and a hose at the entrance to hose-down your over-heated beastie on the way out. Of course, that means you're putting a wet dog into the car...
The bottom line is that she's happy and playful. Nobody believes that she's about to be 8 much less that she has cancer!
16 August '02
Yesterday Sparky celebrated her 8th brfday!
We never thought we'd see it, but she's again acting as though she hadn't a care in the world ...other than those dang'd, interlopin' cats and squirrels!
She had her latest 6-week checkup on Wednesday and her oncologist is completely blown away. It's been over a year since the first metastases appeared on her lungs, but she runs and plays like the berzerk animal she is. Since we put her on Prednisone several weeks ago she's gained a half-pound a week till she got to her present weight a week and a half ago. We've cut her dosage back to a maintenance level and she continues to eat, but not as though she's been starved. Her weight has remained stable.
The only down-side to her condition is that she is trying to defecate more often and is straining more and longer, but with little or no output ...other than blood. To help with this we have started her on Metaclopramide again as of Wednesday noon. This already seems to be having a really big positive effect.
To celebrate her brfday we went to the Mountain View Dog Park and chased tennis balls till her tongue was appropriately long ...and muddy. What a happy, happy doglet she was!
11 September '02
Sunday was challenging for us. Sparky developed a case of "Gastro-Intestinal Distress" in the night. Sparky spent Sunday making fast dashes for the outdoors or languishing about. I spent Sunday doing load after load of laundry, steam-cleaning carpets, and giving The Little Dog(TM) mini-baths. She was not at all interested in eating or drinking -- not even Liver Snaps!
The good news is that, once her system cleared itself, she was all better. Monday morning she was good-n-hungry and ate her whole breakfast in one sitting. She was interested in playing, chasing balls, going for rides, meeting people, etc.
27 September '02
Monday, the 23rd, Sparky had her latest checkup. The palpable tumors continue to grow and change in shape. She has also developed a very faint heart murmur. Given that she's had metastases in her lungs for well over a year, this is not so very bad.
Sparky's weight had gotten down to 51.2 pounds after the bout of diarrhea a couple of weeks ago. At the time of her checkup she was up tp 52.9 -- the highest it's been in many months!
One of her more recent developments was some urinary "dribbling" which her doc thought was from a urinary tract infection. She prescribed a course of Clavamox at 125% of the regular dose. Sparky's restlessness and "dribblage" stopped almost immediately. The down side is that she needs to eat a real meal to keep them down and her appetite has been off again. I had increased her 5mg Prednisone dose to daily from every other day for several days after the diarrhea to get her appetite back up. We may have to do that permanently.
Other than all that, she's still a happy, playful, loving Beastie! She's still chasing balls at the Dog Park like a maniac, loves going for rides -- especially in her grandma's truck, is happy to meet and greet people, ... Just now she's curled up at the end of the sofa.
11 October '02
Sparky's weight is still flirting with 53 pounds. This is happy news! Her suspected urinary infection has completely cleared up.
Sparky's still getting 5 mg of Prednisone at least every other day. Her appetite is still up and down -- down when she's only getting the Pred every other day and up when it's just a little more often, like 3 days on and one day off. She's currently eating two meals each day adding up to 1 can AvoDerm Puppy, 1 small can tuna, several tablespoons canned pumpkin, and a couple tablespoons of Flax Oil. In addition to her meals, she also gets a varying amount of freeze-dried liver and the occasional commercial doggie treat (at the latte drive-thru, the vet, ...).
What with her mom working again and her grandma out of town, Sparky's only been getting one or two trips to the Dog Park each week. This last Monday Sparky went on an evening hike with her mom the at Fremont-Older Open Space Preserve. Both mom and child were overly shagged-out come bedtime and moving a bit gingerly for a few days.
The down side is that Sparky's having more problems recognizing when the pressure in her abdomen is fecal or merely tumor. This is showing up as incontinence more and more frequently. It's at least as disturbing for her as for me. I know when it's happened cuz she lets out a little cry at that time. At home we've got all the old, dead electric blankets spread out on the living and dining room floors -- just like we did immediately after the surgery. That leaves laundry to do, but not carpets to clean.
3 November '02
Sparky's still behaving like the berzerk little animal she is. Her grandma is back in town and has been taking her to the Dog Park a few to several times a week for a good run. We haven't taken the Beastie in for a weigh-in in a couple of weeks, but she's been eating fairly well (mostly) since we increased her Prednisone to 5 mg daily. (It had been 5 mg every-other-day, then three days on and one off, then 5 days on and one off. Each of the last five "one off" days was accompanied by a big drop in appetite.)
That urinary-tract infection came back -- or at least the sypmtoms. We ran a test but it came back negative. We had put her on Clavamox again right after the "collection" as a precaution and the symptoms cleared up again. It's still probable that she had a low-grade infection, so we continued the Clavamox (she's still on it) for three weeks to make sure we kick its butt. Unfortunately, the " dribbling" started again last night.
Sparky also had a substantial amount of bloody discharge from her butt the other day. She has Metronidazole for colitis, but we hadn't been giving her that while she's been on the Clavamox. She's back to one a day in addition to the Clavamox (2 x daily) and Prednisone. The bleeding seems to have cleared up again. Neither of us is terribly happy about all the meds.
Sparky's still having problems recognizing when the pressure in her abdomen is fecal or merely tumor. This shows up as intermittent incontinence.
10 November '02
Still happily berzerk.
As of Wednesday the 6th, we switched Sparky to a different antibiotic for her urinary thang. We'll see how that goes. Her appetite is picking up a bit more. This is good cuz her weight was back down to 50.7 Wednesday morning. *sigh*
4 December '02
Still happily berzerk ...mostly.
Sparky was getting really ravenous and a bit restless and had started assaulting her toys in a most egregious manner. These are all behaviors that can be attributed to Prednisone. So I though we could skip one dose and resume, possibly with the aggression somewhat abated.
But noooooooo...
We skipped one dose -- one (1) dose -- Saturday morning. By Saturday evening she was all mopey, didn't want to eat dinner (even with Thanksgiving turkey bits dappled across the top), ... That night she was up and down all night. She'd go out for several minutes, come in for a few minutes, go out for several minutes, come in for several seconds, go out for a couple of minutes, come in for a couple of seconds, go out for several seconds, come in for a couple of minutes, go out for a couple of minutes, come in for quite a while -- but stay in the living room rather than coming back to the bedroom.
When she finally would return to the bedroom, she'd jump up a half-hour later and it'd all start again. Oh, and she had quite a bit of urinary dribbling.
This continued Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night and for the first half of Tuesday night. Hopefully she's back on the road to "usual" behavior. She's mostly eating again. Rather than moping all evening, she's playing with some of her toys. *sigh*
25 December '02
Still happily berzerk and having a Merry Christmas! (Does this look anything like a sick dog?)
She's acting like a mostly-normal dog. She's getting one antibiotic and one prednisone each morning.
30 December '02
Still happily berzerk, but got herself an infected toenail.
If I hadn't been giving her a pedicure Friday night, I wouldn't have known! No limping, no nothing. And it's pretty ugly. I trimmed as much of the nail and bad tissue off as she'd let me then cleaned and dressed the thang. We went to the vet Saturday morning and he was quite surprised that she'd walk on it at all. We've now added a 10 day course of Baytril and a directive to syringe the nail once a day with Nolvasan solution. (I've been doing it at least once a day and having her stand in a warm, Epsom salts solution for as long as she will (remembering that she's not big on baths or water of any kind) every other day. It looks like it's getting better, but she acts like it's bothering her more when I mess with it. She's still walking, running, jumping, spinning, ... on it.
8 Jan update- Since she finished the last of the Baytril yesterday morning her appetite is back. She was a little slow eating yesterday's breakfast, better with dinner, slow again with today's breakfast, BUT she asked for dinner early this afternoon and came looking for seconds -- which she scarfed up in short order.
7 January '03
Mostly happy. Her toenail is better, but not all better. And now her appetite is getting somewhat off again.
She gets all happy and excited at the prospect of going places and especially so if we're going in her grandma's truck and even more especially so if her grandma is going, too. She will do some ball-chasing up and down the halls in the house, but is less inclined to do so these days. She will do tricks for Liver Snaps, but generally less enthusiastically than a week ago. I'm hoping that the recent down-turn is simply due to the extra added antibiotics maybe upsetting her tummy.
Over the last week we've been cleaning out Sparky's infected toenail at least daily with a gentle jet of Nolvasan solution from a curve-tipped syringe. Most times I've gotten some sort of gunk out including dead tissue and apparent foreign matter. Since the quick has been retreating, I've also been trimming off more of the toenail so it will be less likely to be hitting the ground (causing more irritation) and collecting crud (causing more irritation and contributing bacteria to the infection). The toenail seems to be getting better, but is not fully healed as yet. Under other circumstances it would be. We can mark some of the slowness in healing to the Prednisone.
12 January '03
As of sometime in the middle of the night, Sparky is hobbling on three legs. I can't find anything specifically wrong with the fourth. I don't know what's wrong, but I suspect that she either twisted it badly OR that tumor pressure has finally gotten to her. The bad leg is the one opposite the funky toenail. The bad leg is the one that she has been turning outward more and more over the last year or so -- presumably to accommodate more comfortably the growing tumors.
Now what? Well, it's Sunday and her vets are off-duty. I refuse to take her to the emergency clinic I took her to nearly two years ago when she had the first fistula where they tortured her. Her immediate problem is not life-threatening and, other than not wanting to put weight on that leg, she doesn't seem to be too uncomfortable. We'll take her in to see Dr. K in the morning. With luck she'll feel better after a day of resting and that'll be the end of it.
*sigh* It's always something.
Update-
She's more uncomfortable than she's been letting on. She growled and snarled at me when I was trying to help her up. I have given her a Rimadyl to help cut the pain and lessen any inflamation.
Update (again)-
The Rimadyl seems to be helping. She actually got up on her own and wandered into the kitchen to say Hi. She finished off her breakfast, went out, and came back in on her own looking for more food. That's a good sign. (she says hopefully...)
15 January '03
OK. Rimadyl and Prednisone together is BAD. Don't do it. Don't EVER do it.
Yes, it seems to have helped alleviate the pain for that one day that I gave it to her, but it turns out that there is a grave risk of gastrointestinal ulceration. I don't have proof that the Prednisone-Rimadyl combination is at fault, but Sparky developed some fairly serious rectal bleeding for a short time last night. She didn't lose a lot of blood, certainly not as compared to the amount she loses daily when defecating, but it was appalling in concentration. She didn't seem bothered by it, but then she usually doesn't seem bothered by much.
We still haven't determined the cause of the limp. By yesterday afternoon she was limping less. She was using all four legs more, even at slightly higher speeds. No, I haven't been throwing tennis balls up and down the hall, but she's been following me around the house while I do chores. Sometimes she thinks she needs to catch up to me in a hurry.
On the other hand, she's limping more this morning and moving more slowly and deliberately. She is even standing with the bum leg retracted this morning. That's not happy. She also seems unable to sit and lay to the right, only to the left. (I just watched her spin around in excess of 15 turns in an attempt to sit/lay to the right before giving up and dropping to the left.)
*sigh* It's always something.
16 January '03
She's moving a little more slowly today and started the day more three-legged than yesterday. This evening she's still moving slowly, but is more inclined to use all four.
Gad! but she looks pitiful!
17 January '03
She's moving a lot more slowly today and started the day even more three-legged than yesterday. We had many discussions with various veterinary folks about the general state of affairs.
So, the state of affairs is:
Sparky's general attitude is fairly excellent. After today's day of rest, she has decided to be Little Miss Romper-Bomper Doglet. After I (repeatedly!) informed her that I was not going to participate in such horseplay, she turned her butt to me and sulked till dinnertime.
19 January '03
We seem to be falling into a pattern. Mornings are slow. After breakfast and the requisite trip to the great outdoors, much snoozing is had till mid-afternoon. Then it's time for another trip to the great outdoors. After that we're feeling pretty frisky and, apparently, hungry. I have to put her off on dinner for a couple of hours and try to get her to chill.
We're still limping, gimping and hobbling to various degrees, including a certain amount of three-legging -- usually after trying to be extra frisky or right after getting up from a long rest. Yet our attitude is still pretty good. She's not giving me the "Fix it, Mom" eyes. She does give me the "Come play with me, Mom!" eyes and the "Feed me NOW!" face. Last evening she pounced on a tennis ball and tried to taunt me with it.
So, other than being chock-full o'tumors and part lame, we seem to be OK.
23 January '03
We're still following the pattern ...mostly.
We're still limping, gimping and hobbling to various degrees, but almost no three-legging -- usually right after getting up from a long rest. Our attitude is still pretty good. She even chased tennis balls down the hall ...with great vigor ...on all four legs. Kinda reminds me of my aging body. I can hardly move when I get up in the morning ...or from the sofa, but I can usually manage to do the fun stuff once I get moving.
26 January '03
Whine! Sparky's butt has sprung a major, bloody leak. She doesn't seem to care, but I'm appalled by the amount of blood and clots around the yard, on the deck, on her rug on the deck, ...
I brought her in to give her a warm butt bath. It took a fair amount of doing to get the mess around her butt cleaned up. While in the tub she did leak a tiny amount of fresh blood, but very little, certainly, as compared to what was already adhering. Once I got her cleaned and dried, and no sign of more fresh blood, I let her out of the bathroom. When I caught up to her in the dining room (on a washable blanket, thank goodness) she was already covered in blood again. I cleaned it up as best I could with tissues and have her laying in front of the sofa (on multiple layers of washable rugs) with an absorbent pad of paper towels wrapped in tissue. Hopefully she'll clot over sufficiently to not re-rupture as soon as she tries to go again.
What happened? I don't know for certain, but I have my ideas. (We have an appointment tomorrow morning for her semi-annual ultrasound and chest xrays as well as her six-week checkup, so we'll see what's up then.) I suspect that the cancer has so thoroughly infiltrated her rectal wall that it has pretty much lost its intregity. (Yes, this means that it will blow out or fall apart. This is one of the failure modes that one can expect with this cancer.) I also suspect that the tissues she ate when she got into the wastebasket the other day may have added insult to injury when she tried to pass them.
*sigh* It's always something.
27 January '03
Sparky's still perky and happy, but things are looking really bad. REALLY BAD. How bad? Her oncologist did not reschedule for another 6-week checkup. This could be an oversight, but not likely. Read on to see why.
The rectal bleeding wasn't stopping (see yesterday's saga at the bottom of the page), so we took Sparky to the Emergency Clinic (South Bay) at 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Once we made their lobby look like the scene of an axe murder, they took us right into an exam room -- that we also made look like the scene of an axe murder.
Bottom line after 4 hours there: she stopped bleeding (on her own) around 7, her blood levels and clotting factors were OK, no sign of free fluids or gases in her abdomen, but the x-ray showed a lesion on the right side of her pelvis that was likely a metasasis to the bone. (That would explain the limping of the last two weeks.) Under instructions to do some checks on her after four to six hours and bring her back in if there's a problem, I got up at 2:30 (yes, AM) and did the checks. Her gums looked iffy to me, so we took another trip to the ER. They did a quick check and determined that she was OK. No more blood work needed. Go home and get some rest.
This morning we went for the big six-month checkup that we had scheduled seven weeks ago. The results:
For the bone pain, Linda offered a "patch" of a narcotic that would hold her for three or four days. I allowed as how she doesn't really act like she's in all that much pain other than favoring her right leg (the side with the lesion on her pelvis). She still wants to run and jump and play. She agreed that, if it were her, she'd wait.
I'm supposed to stay in close touch with Linda on how the beastie is doing. I'm going to take last night's x-rays to Dr. Kureshi this afternoon and give him a big data dump. She's snoozin' on the end of the sofa right now. Hopefully, I'll be joining her in a nap soon, too!
28 January '03
Sparky's a little slow and quiet this morning, but no more so than most mornings for the last couple of weeks. By last evening she was looking REALLY pained. She was really thirsty (I assume trying to replace fluids from all that blood loss), but was disinclined to eat for quite some time. I made her cozy on the sofa under a blanket and kept slipping her Liver Snaps. Finally, about bedtime, she decided to eat her dinner.
She has started mining the yard again and has NOT started bleeding again. *whew!* To make sure that she had an easy time leaving her little presents I added some Latculose (stool softener) to her dinner mix along with the usual dollop of pumpkin and flax oil. It's working just fine.
Sparky seems a lot less pained this morning and ate most of her breakfast right off. (There's a little left, but that's not unusual. She usually finishes it off by lunchtime.) Right now she's curled up under a blanket on the sofa next to me and twitching away in her dreams.
Afternoon Update-
Dr. Fineman called with results of yesterday's blood work. As could be expected from all the blood loss, Sparky's hematocrit is way down from what it has traditionally been. (Mind you, she hasn't had any blood work done in 6 months, but she had so much done before then that we have a pretty solid record of what's usual for the Beastie.) Her 'crit is still barely within "normal" range however -- probably thanks to all those Liver Snaps!
The bad part is that her calcium level is up -- just outside of the "normal" range. It's not stupendously high, but could cause kidney damage if this is a trend. On the other hand, it could be an anomalous, so we'll do a re-check in a week. This kind of tumor is one that can secrete a hormone that jacks the calcium levels off the chart. If that happens, the prognosis drops from what ever it was to 6 months ...with aggressive treatment for the elevated calcium. Considering the blood loss, the calcium thang is probably anamolous.
New occurrence: guzzling great volumes of water.
Possible causes:
Oh, and one of the treatments for elevated calcium is Prednisone ...which causes excess thirst and urination ...which helps flush the calcium out of the system. But this great guzzling just started Monday evening, so we're going to assume that it's due to 2 & 3 till we get next week's blood work done.
29 January '03
Sparky's again slow and quiet this morning, but no more so than most mornings for the last couple of weeks. That is, she's back to what has been "normal" for the last couple of weeks. She also seems to have slowed down just a tad on her water consumption. That is, she's not been spending a lot of time gulping down the mass quantities of water she has since Monday evening.
She also seems to be getting quite the sufficient sufficiency of fluids and humectants in her diet. She's leaving rather soupy ...ummm... leavings in the yard. We'll be discontinuing the Lactulose now, thank you. The so-called loose stool could be caused by an opportunistic bacterial infection that got started during her bleeding episode on Sunday, but that's less likely to be the cause. Sparky continues to get Metronidazole as a prophylactic against such possibilities. (BTW- Metronidazole also goes by Flagyl and Cipro. It's the drug they gave the Anthrax folks after 9-11 or if you get the Aztec Quick-Step or Montezuma's Revenge.) We'll see how she does after a couple of days off the Lactulose.
Sparky's still moving gingerly, but (after much self-debate) is interested in jumping up on the sofa to spend several hours at a time resting. She asks for the invitation, gets the invitation, debates a while, then jumps up. She makes the leap just fine, then curls up, goes to sleep, and starts twitching and twittering.
30 January '03
Sparky is actually sparky this morning! She jumped out of bed as soon as I got up (instead of waiting for me to call her to breakfast) and wiggled and danced for me to give her a good petting and a good skritching before heading out to take care of "morning duties."
She pretty much dove right into her breakfast (didn't finish it all, but that's normal for her). The massive water slurpage has abated a bit more -- another happy sign. When I got back from a quick errand, she greeted me vocally -- with a ball in her mouth -- like she used to. And she wants to play!
She's still limping and favoring her right leg, but seems to care less for the most part. The cancers aren't going to go away, but she seems to be feeling fortified enough to go back to being all sparky ...for a while longer.
1 February '03
Sparky is still relatively sparky ...not quite as sparky as the last couple of days, but then we're fogged in this morning. No special news. She's just being a dog ...a slightly limpy dog, but otherwise normal ...-ish. OK, so her belly is bald ...again (from being shaved for the ultra-sound). So she isn't running and chasing around in a berzerk fashion. She still wiggles and giggles and chirps and sings for her grandma and other visitors. She still tries to perform for Liver Snaps. She still likes to snag tossed Liver Snaps from the air.
She's quite the happy dog. She'd be happier if she could go running after tennis balls in the dog park, but that ain't happenin' any time soon.
2 February '03
Sparky is less sparky and more limpy today. Even with all the limping, she's following me all around the house if I leave her for more than a literal minute -- sometimes less than a minute!
She had a very exciting day yesterday. Her Uncle Mark came to visit her so she was extra wiggly and giggly trying to entice him to play with her. She even started doing her tricks for him. She didn't get up to go out quite as much last night as usual, but it was pretty cold out last night. (Hard frost on the neighbors roofs this morning.) When she came back in at 5 this morning she didn't return to the bedroom. When I went to check on her she was laying on the living room floor shaking intermittently. I gave her a rub down and got her to come back to her bed where I covered her in one of her blankets. She slept for another two plus hours that way.
Hopefully she'll just sleep while I'm out this afternoon.
3 February '03
Sparky is less sparky, but less limpy today. She apparently spent most of the time I was out yesterday resting as she was a LOT less limpy when I got home than when I left. She didn't clean her dinner dish, but she didn't get dinner till two hours later than her usual dinner time.
I got up a little early to turn the heat up (it was extra chilly this morning), pet the Little Dog(TM), and climb back under the covers till the chill was off -- BUT The Little Dog's hind quarters were shivering which can be a sign that she's guarding against pain. I covered her with a blanket and petted her a while longer. Occasionally a shiver would shoot through the rest of her body. I climbed back under the covers for a little while, keeping an eye on Little Miss. No more shivering that I could see and she slowly uncurled from being in a tight ball to less tight ball to not-quite-stretched-out.
At this point I got up and got her (and me) some breakfast. Just about the time her breakfast was ready, she appeared at the kitchen ...looking beleaguered ...and still wearing her blanket. I removed the blanket and she perked up and wagged at me. She's mostly conserving movement and is walking gingerly, but doesn't seem to be limping ...that I've seen.
4 February '03
Sparky is more sparky and less limpy today. By last evening she was feeling spritely enough that she brought me a tennis ball to throw. As I raised my arm she raced down the hall at full speed ...without a hint of limp. We only did that twice since I didn't want her over-exerting her hip into the kind of pain she was having of late.
She's eating well. We had a good trip to visit Vampira for that follow-up blood work. For the last few days her right ear has been starting to droop a tiny bit more each day. This morning she started flapping it gently. I would have medicated it, but we were about to see the vet and I thought it best that I not goober it up with Otomax before he had a chance to see it. The problem is not deep in the ear canal, but right at the base of the pinna (external ear). He was about to Otomax it, but I told him we could do that at home since I have the goodies. He thanked me for not goobering up the field before coming in.
More later when we get the results of the blood work.
6 February '03
So far I only have partial results on the blood work. No word on RBC, hematocrit, or calcium -- the ones we really want to know, the ones that were slightly out of whack a week ago. Well, the ones we know so far are right down the middle of normal except for amylase -- which is WAY high. Well, it turns out that the Prednisone she's been taking for these months could do it or the cancer that has exploded in her lungs could do it. So, no surprises so far.
Yesterday Little Miss was feeling spritely enough to actually chase s-words off the deck ...repeatedly. No limping. A friend came by last night and Little Miss was right in there greeting and playing rope and jumping about and... Eventually she chilled out and went off to bed. She got up long enough to help see my friend out.
This morning Little Miss is much slower -- slower to eat, slower to get up, slower walking around ...and limping a little bit. When she got back from going out around five this morning (there was ice on the bird bath), she climbed up her platform to my bed where we cuddled and warmed up for a couple of hours before getting up for breakfast. Later, on the sofa, she flipped over onto her back to do the Happy Upside-Down Dog thang.
More later, when I get more test results.
UPDATE FOR TEST RESULTS-
Sparky's hematocrit is back up into the "studly" range. Her calcium level is still slightly elevated. I still need to discuss with her oncologist just what this means. Dr. Kureshi is concerned that the elevated amylase really does mean she might have pancreatitis. The bad news there is that we would have to cut back on dietary fats which would contribute to it.
Why is that bad? Because of the way tumors metabolize "foods." Muscles use sugars and oxygen to get lots of energy with left-overs of carbon dioxide and water. Tumors use sugars without oxygen to get a little energy with left-overs of lactic acid. You know how your muscles burn and later ache when you've exercised too long or hard? That burn and ache are from the lactic acid that your muscles produced cuz they weren't getting enough oxygen while you were exercising.
That's what cancer tumors are doing to the patient ALL THE TIME. The body's normal tissues then have to take lots energy from somewhere to turn that lactic acid into something that can be safely eliminated from the system. That's why cancer is called a "wasting" disease. The cancer grabs the easy energy and mis-uses it, the patient then has to digest its own muscle and fats to get enough energy to detoxify the lactic acid and keep the heart beating, the lungs breathing, etc., etc., etc.
The tumor can use proteins for energy, but not fats. The healthy host tissue can use proteins and fats for energy. Certain fats (omega-3 fatty acids) can also inhibit tumor growth, so they are part of the dietary treatment.
So, if Little Miss has pancreatitis and needs to have the fats cut in her diet, how are we to get enough calories into her that don't go straight to the tumor? We will be discussing this with the oncologist.
UPDATE FOR ONCOLOGY CONSULTATION-
OK, calcium level is elevated, but not enough for us to worry about tinkering with at this time. It's probably the tumor releasing The Bad Hormone(TM), but not in large quantities ...yet.
The elevated amylase is sufficiently non-specific that she doesn't think it's pancreatitis-induced. Sparky's having a bad day today, but she's been having some pretty great days and she hasn't been having any vomiting and such. Unless and until she starts having a problem, we'll continue with things as usual.
...well... except for tonight. She's gonna get extra-added pampering on account o' her gimpitudinous leg.
7 February '03
Sparky had a sort of bad day yesterday. She spent most of it laying down. When she did get up she limped badly and even did some three-legging. She was a little slow on the uptake about eating, doing tricks, taking treats, etc. It was long about two or three that it flashed on me that I hadn't given The Little Dog(TM) her morning pills! I gave them to her right away. We're giving her Prednisone for her appetite (or lack thereof), but it's also an analgesic and anti-inflammatory.
Little Miss is better today. She's limping a lot less, but she's still being rather quiescent and slow on the uptake about eating, doing tricks, and taking treats. But she is limping a lot less. And she got her morning pills before breakfast!
8 February '03
Little Miss is better today. She's still limping occasionally and is mostly lounging about, but she became indignant about something in the backyard at one point and launched out her doggie door after whatever it was. She was slow to start eating breakfast, but she cleaned her bowl on the first pass. She was definitely interested in all the treats and snacks she could get today.
11 February '03
She has been quite ready and able to jump onto the sofa and to climb up and down to/from my bed using the platform. The problem is keeping her from jumping off the bed without using the platform! When on the bed or sofa she's inclined to flip onto her back and wiggle and snorf like a very happy doglet.
Her appetite is quite excellent. She eats right away and usually cleans her dish on the first pass. If it takes a second pass, she doesn't wait very long. She starts nagging me for dinner around four. Sunday she started nagging me for eats around one! I acquiesced and gave her a small scoop of AvoDerm Puppy kibble which she fell on like it was fresh meat! And, yes, she still started nagging me for dinner around four and ate it all. She still gets 5 mg Prednisone and 250 mg Metronidazole once a day.
We're basically in an uneventful holding pattern.
13 February '03
16 February '03
The down-side is that, by late evening, she was limping again. And she spent Saturday limping pretty badly and wasn't too inclined to lay still. At least today she's more inclined to languish about. She's still kinda limpy, but not nearly as bad as late Friday and Saturday.
Little Miss' attitude and appetite are really excellent. She's happy and cuddly without being clingy. She's insistently playful. She's ready to eat before I'm ready to feed her and she scarfs just about the whole thang down in the first pass.
Oh, but she's gone back to biting her toenails in the middle of the night. It wakes me up ...all that crunching and popping.
18 February '03
My issue is that the best thing for her hip and the pain level is to keep her still, down, relaxed, warm, and bored, but the best thing for her psyche is to let her play, run in the woods, chase tennis balls, and go visit all sorts of new faces and places. These two are diametrically opposed.
So, just how do I help her achieve a good balance for her quality of life? That's what we're shooting for, isn't it? Quality of Life?
19 February '03
Oh! And the closer it gets to dinner time, the more intense these machinations become. Oh, yeah. She's deathly ill, alright.
She's limping quite a bit less today such that it's looking more like she's barely favoring that right leg. She's still scarfing both meals. She's still drinking a fair amount of water, but not a startling amount.
Her hip is obviously bothering her, but she seems to deal with it much like I deal with my chronic back pain. (If it didn't hurt, I wouldn't know what to do. If it hurts extra-extra bad, do the special things that I've learned to do to hurt less or at least not hurt more.)
Other observances:
She's simply amazing. Less than a month ago things were going along just fine, then she sprung that huge leak. Not that she cared. Then we saw the bone damage and the massive growth of the mets in her lungs and the crab-like spread of the sub-lumbar masses. And she still just doesn't seem to care about it all that much. Two nights ago she even decided that she didn't want to bother with the platform and just jumped UP onto my bed. I was trying to get her to go via the platform, but she had other ideas. (Yes, she cleared the distance. Wacky dog.)
20 February '03
One of our errands was to her regular vet to pick up a Prednisone refill. While we were there we, of course, weighed-in. She's lost a little over a pound inthe last two and a half weeks! So, I guess we'll be increasing her rations. It's not like I've cut her rations any time in the last several months. This evening I added half of a can of tuna to her usual dinner. Very shortly thereafter her dinnier dish was quite shiney.
21 February '03
This morning she got a full can of puppy food (plus the usual portion of pumpkin and Flax Oil) plus some Liver Snap dust. She at almost 3/4 of it straight away, but she had the rest of it gone by 1pm. By 4pm she was all over me to fix her dinner. For dinner, like last night, she got a half-can of puppy food and a half-can of tuns (plus the usual portion of pumpkin and Flax Oil). It's gone.
She's one Hungry Dawg.
Her grandma "came to see her" twice today (once when she picked me up and once when she dropped me off), so Sparky's not having a boredom problem today. She's just being a regular dog.
24 February '03
Saturday, Sparky was a bit less active, but did happily chase a ball I had gently booted out of my way in the hall -- limp-free. Sunday she was mostly inactive other than going in and out her doggie door. But she was going out a lot and she was being "sloppy" about going through the door. One or the other of her hind legs didn't clear the opening the way they usually do, sometimes dragging in after her. She still wanted to be on the sofa with me much of the time and was quite full of spring. Still, she seemed to be favoring slightly, so no tennis ball-throwing.
This morning Sparky is mostly three-legging. She's even limping heavily at the slowest paces. So, what happened? All I have is guesses, but they tie into eating and weight. One guess is that she's putting on enough weight that it's more challenging for that bad hip to carry it around. Another guess is that she has put on enough weight that there's more pressure on the hip or on nerves that supply the hip. Yet another guess is that her bowel is more full and that is putting pressure on things. On the other hand, I'm feeling pretty crappy -- down-and-out -- today, possibly due to the weather system over us. Just guesses.
So, we'll give her a day or two of keeping her down and quiet to see what happens. (deep, cleansing breath) We've been through this before and it got better after a couple of days. Besides, the only other choices are more Prednisone or opiates ...or calling it quits. And she doesn't seem ready for that yet. She's still eating; she's happy, lovey, cuddly, etc. She's just limping badly. Yes, that means she's in pain, but it doesn't seem to bother her much in the overall scheme of things.
25 February '03
She's still interested in being on the sofa curled up next to me and is able to execute the jump (up and down) quite cleanly on three legs. Every hour or two she gets up to turn around and lay on her other side. That maneuver looks quite pitiful and painful.
She's still wagging her tail and actively participates in discussions*. Not really anything else to report since our days and nights are pretty boring right now what with all the resting.
EARLY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
EVENING UPDATE:
* I talk to Sparky all the time. I talk to her and ask her questions like I expect her to answer and participate. She participates by acting interested, perking her ears (or twisting them around in quite expressive ways), tilting her head, poking her face forward, dancing about or sitting down, dashing off to some relevant (yes, relevant to the conversation) location, ... She really is my Special Kid. She understands quite a fair amount of plain English, she just can't speak it. And, due to musculo-skeletal "deformaties," she hasn't been able to learn American Sign Language. :-)
26 February '03
So, she can't be feeling too bad. Mostly she's just bored ...again. We'll go run errands tomorrow. That'll help.
27 February '03
We just got back from That Man's (Cupertino Animal Hospital). We stopped by for a weigh-in while we were out. When we first got there , she "tipped the scale" at 52.2 lbs. That's up just over a half-pound from a wek ago.
Since she was wanting to play with That Man, she kept waving at him from the scale. (Have we mentioned that she just loves That Man to bits?) When the scale finally settled down, he took her into a room with treats and gave her several while getting her to do more tricks. While I chatted with him, Little Miss jumped onto the scale again. This time the scale read 52.6! (Man! are those fattening treats!) The latter weight is up a full pound from her weigh-in a week ago on the 20th. We'll need another prescription refill again next week, so we'll get another weight-check then.
She's been pretty limp-y all week. No three-legging the last two days (except for one quick bout at bedtime last night) and the general limping has been getting a bit better in the last two days. Today she's barely even favoring her leg and is all wiggly and happy.
The wiggly-happy started in the middle of the night last night. She came back in a little after 3 AM and woke me with great vigor -- tossed my exposed hand into the air, wiggled, danced, whooped the tar out of the bed with her tail, snorked mightily, ... After some butt-skritchin', I asked if she wanted to come up and cuddle with me. For the last few months she's mostly been sleeping in her own bed. She'd rather ignore me and she'd rather sleep in her own bed other than use the platform to get up on my bed. Well, not this morning. It took some convincing to get her to use the platform rather than jump the whole way, but she quite happily came up and snuggled in close. We stayed that way till we got up this morning and the limping was gone.
Now for the bad news, she's been producing blood clots and fresh blood with her stool again. Technical grossitudes removed for your enjoyment. They've been shared with her vet team via e-mail and can be forwarded to you if you want to know.
She doesn't seem to care about any bad news. She's still happy and wiggly. Well, she was till she laid down for a nap.
AFTERNOON/EVENING UPDATE:
It's time for me to wait for the other shoe to drop ...for the next emergency ...the next catastrophic event ...the next big downturn of the rollercoaster. What will it be this time?
28 February '03
Barely favoring her leg. Ate most of breakfast. Came in at 2am all wiggly-giggly and spent some time cuddling. But now she's just bored. Too bad the electronic baby-sitter doesn't work for her. Rocky & Bullwinkle are supposed to be on all day. :-)
1 March '03
Sparky's grandma came to see her yesterday and she was ecstatic to see her grandma. They played tug-o-rope -- grandma lost. They played tennis ball keep-away with Sparky keeping the ball away from grandma -- quite successfully. Of course, there were grievous amounts of butt-skritchin' and pettin' and more butt-skritchin'.
Today she is again barely favoring her leg and ate most of her breakfast on the first pass.
She's been spending more and more time licking her butt -- and with increasing vigor. I took a quick peek at it this morning and it seems to be ulcerating again. After I finish this I'll take a better look and treat it as needed. Not that there's much that I can do other than clean it thoroughly, put warm compresses on it, and put on some ointment.
The stuff I've used in the past has done a marvelous job of soothing and aiding in healing. The vets didn't prescribe it for this use, but they haven't pooh-pooh'd it. The ointment I've used is Otomax -- for ear infections. Why Otomax? Well, it can't hurt. And it's got both antibacterials and antifungals. (Doggie ear infections can go either way.) The most common fungus is Candida albicans -- the same stuff of yeast infections in humans. In humans, yeast infections can be brought on (or aggravated) by massive or prolonged doses of antibiotics. Little Miss has been on one antibiotic or another for almost two years now making her a yeast factory. More later when I know more.
UPDATE:
I gave her a full bath with extra attention to thoroughly cleaning and rinsing her butt so I could examine it more easily. It was after the bath that I discovered the extent of the damage. I put on a glove and slathered ointment all around the area then covered her back half with a warm towel to discourage her from licking while the medication has a chance to work. She's dutifully resting in that position now. She's not really happy about it, but she's not terribly disgruntled either. Don't worry, though. She'll have plenty of opportunity to be disgruntled later when we repeat this porcedure a couple of times a day for at least a few days.
2 March '03
Thinking "outloud" about the latest butt thang...
POST-PROCEDURE UPDATE:
After a trip outside, I got her into the tub for her butt-bath. After a good butt-rinsing, I let her escape. She ran up and down the hall like the berzerk animal she is, then re-attacked her breakfast finishing most of it. That done, her alimentary system re-activated and she had to go out a couple more times. Once finished, I got her to come take another butt-bath. This time she trotted straight into the bathroom and hopped into the tub -- probably confident that it's just be another quickie butt-rinse that would make it feel better without the annoyance of getting wet anyplace else. This time we rinsed off a fair amount of blood.
Once she was out and towel-dried, I got her onto the sofa for a close exam and ointment application. Things are still quite ugly, but it's still early in the process. I've applied more ointment and she's resting nicely. OK, so she's asleep and twitching and twittering. That's still resting.
3 March '03
I decided to change her diet. The "new formulation" of the canned puppy food seems to be contributing to her incontinence (constant oozing of fecal goo). The stickiness may also be contributing to apparent chemical burn where contact is prolonged. This could also contribute to ulceration internally which would contribute to bleeding and pain leading to the sphincter being less willing to cinch down tightly. The bleeding has been increasing. She's not hemorrhaging like six weeks ago, but she's bleeding pretty good each time she defecates.
We continue to give her several butt-baths each day. At least a couple of times each day she gets a good slather of Otomax after a butt-bath. The rash seems to be spreading, however. She's getting more pink-to-red spots over more of the area around her butt.
On a high note, her grandma came for a visit today. The Beast was ON. She twittered and danced for grandma. She brought grandma toy after toy to play -- which grandma did. Good grandma! Lots of petting and skritching. Hardly a sign of limping. Nothing but happy and playful puppy dog. Once grandma left, it was back to napping.
We're in a wait-and-see, one-day-at-a-time holding pattern. If the bleeding doesn't start to abate soon, we could be headed for another big bleed that won't be so inclined to stop. The Little Dog is spending her night and day making trip after trip out to struggle to defecate (and bleed) and licking her butt. The added feature for her days is less butt-licking but more butt-cleanings (both of the flowing water and the damp cloth sort) by Mom followed by ointment applications. Her muscles are wasting away more and more. She's spending more time just staring at me.
I'm getting the feeling that she's trying to tell me that it's getting to be time. Remember that she has cancer in her bones now -- one of the most painful things known. On top of that she now has a chemical burn on her butt -- and a rash on the burn. And massive tumors pressing on everything inside. If she has something quite fun to do, she seems fine. But I can't take her to do fun things like go for a walk because it would further aggravate her hip. Can't chase tennis balls for the same reason. Can't have prolonged sessions doing tricks for the same reason. *sigh*
4 March '03
Her external posterior is worse. What was pink-to-red with inflamation is now red-to-purple, swollen even more, and weeping. The rash is spreading rampantly up the underside of her tail and up and down the length and breadth of her posterior. Her normally white belly skin is also starting to turn bright pink -- in addition to the hematomas on and around the protruding lumps.
Her internal posterior is bleeding more and more. It's also weeping, so she's in a constant state of leakage of blood-tinged fluid. And it smells REALLY BAD.
While she was exceedingly happy to see the folks at the vet today ...doing tricks, taking treats, being wiggly-giggly, yerping and yarfing, etc... once we got home she just wanted to lay down and rest. She turned down the first Liver Snap and grudgingly took one a little later.
Allow me to repeat that last line: She turned down the first Liver Snap and grudgingly took one a little later.
If you're thinking "Who are you and what have you done with Sparky?" you're not alone. At bedtime last night she wouldn't chase even one tennis ball all the way down the hall -- not even at a walk. She was willing to hang out in mid-hall and shag ground balls for a couple of minutes, but then just let them go by after the first few.
She was up almost as much as she was down last night. I spent most of last night "sleeping" on the floor next to her bed. I say '"sleeping"' cuz she was up on average every hour (for the first half of the night it was every 45 minutes). Every time she spent at least 5 minutes at least attempting to defecate. Every time she came in her butt was dripping with blood. Once she was cleaned up, she mostly just wanted to lay in place on the living room or dining room floor or go curl up in the corner behind the dining room table. It took some petting and cooing before I could convince her to come back into the bedroom.
She's also in increasing pain. (See also notes on ball-playing above.) Even walking around the house she's starting to waddle-limp in her compensation. Some of the stuff she does that you'd think would be really bad (jumping up and down from the sofa, in and out of the tub, etc) she actually does on three legs -- when she does it. She used to ask to get on the sofa ALL the time. Now she turns down invitations frequently and lays on the floor instead. She RARELY gets on the bed, virtually always turns down the invitation up. The only thing we can do for the pain at this point is keep her permanently wacked up on opiates.
I just feel like we're on a slow, torturous death-slope now. There's not likely to be a clear signal unless and until she ruptures. So, I'm gonna start making final preparations this week. At one point last night I was ready to have it done today cuz she was in such bad shape. I'm playing phone-tag with Dr. Kureshi now.
UPDATE:
5 March '03
Last evening her Uncle Jeff and her grandma came to visit and play. She was pretty up for playing ...within limits. As long as it didn't involve chasing too many tennis balls down the hall, she was perky, playful, talkative, ... I was starting to second-guess my decision for her, starting to feel guilty for calling a halt to such a happy life.
Once they left, however, she virtually collapsed. The rest of the night was pretty much a nightmare of guilt in the opposite direction, that maybe I should have had her put to sleep that afternoon instead of going through the torture she was now going through. Eventually she got a little better -- better than during the night, not better than during the day yesterday.
Today she's limping severely, her butt just keeps getting worse, and she's trying to hide in out-of-the-way corners like never before. She ate breakfast fine, but then it did contain a whole (cooked and chopped) chicken breast. She just has that "go away and leave me alone or fix it" look about her. She's taking Liver Snaps very gingerly, setting them down, examining, sniffing, and re-examinging before eating in a very considered fashion. Today she's not the happy, playful Sparky we know.
FINAL UPDATE:
It turns out that it really was the right time. If I had done it sooner, I would probably had a nagging little doubt of having ended her life prematurely. It turns out that, if I had done it later, I would have felt guilty for waiting too long. It was confirmed by the vet, before the injection, that she was starting to bleed -- well, ooze -- internally. The tissues in and around the tumors were starting to lose integrity.
We will remember very, very fondly always.
6 March '03
I've begun the task of turning the house from being a nursing home to being a home. The floor (living room, dining room, most of the main hall) had been covered with old blankets, towels, throw rugs, and such for much of the last two years due to her various health issues that required washability. I picked up all the floor coverings and have finished laundering a little over half so far. The blankets will be donated to Pacific Veterinary Specialists -- Sparky's oncology team.
I've started collecting all the various doggie paraphernalia. The prescription left-overs will also go to Pacific Vet where they have a "donations" cabinet. They use these donated drugs for folks who can't afford to pay for the meds to help their pets. I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do with toys, dishes, houses, bedding, doggie door, and whatever else I come across in the coming days.
As I was vacuuming today (all the areas that haven't been thoroughly vacuumed in months due to the coverings), I kept remembering Sparky's last days and last minutes. Her last minutes were very, very happy. She had three of her favorite people around her, on the floor with her, petting and skritching her while swaddled in big, fluffy blankets -- including one of her favorite fluffy blankets, one with her name on it. She had a big load of a terrific pain killer in her, so she was no longer in pain. (That injection was not unlike getting a rabies vaccination -- just a quickie shot into the ruff of her neck.) She spent several minutes in a state of too-mellow-for-words. Her face was relaxed, but happy. She was still alert and attentive to her three people. Then she just got relaxed, laid her head down, and went to sleep. She was still breathing. She was just asleep. After several more minutes her vet gave her the final injection that she never noticed in a vein in her leg. In a couple of minutes she stopped breathing. Her vet checked for pulse and heart sound and gave me a nod when it was over. There was really no change. She had just gone to sleep so very peacefully and happily with three of her favorite people petting her. She went happily and without pain.
But I can still feel her at the other end of the sofa even as I type this. I turn my head almost expecting her to be there ...and again I cry because she's not.
16 March '03
I obviously still miss her, but I'm not crying at every turn ...anymore ...much.
27 September '08
Little Miss has cabin fever. She's getting bored out of her little mind. It's been sunny and relatively warm (mid-day) the last several days, but she only lounges in the sun for a few minutes at a time. Then she comes back in and wants to play. She wants to chase tennis balls, play tug-of-war, and generally rough-house. She's still favoring her right leg, but she's not being all gimpy.
We're basically in an uneventful holding pattern. See 11 February notes.
Sparky had a very exciting day Friday. She was so very cabin-feverish, so I took her with me on a bunch of errands including a stop at her grandma's. While at her grandma's she decided to chase a squirrel through and over a backyard steeple-chase. Hey, at least she still gets excited about chasing the occasional squirrel! When we got home she was still quite high on life and kept bringing me toys and bouncing around the house.
Sparky's bored again. Happily, her grandma came to visit her this morning, so she was extra perky for the first half-hour of the visit. Then she just lounged for most of the rest of the time. I'm pretty sure the deal is that her hip/leg is getting to be more painful, but she wants to be the happy dog she always has been. So, she's ecstatic to see her loved ones and to do interesting things despite the pain in her hip.
Sparky's still bored and getting dang'd insistent about it. She keeps showing up at my knee exuding great expectations. She gently rests her chin on my knee (OK, she slams her head down on my knee) and starts spinning her tail about like a great propeller while pinching her eyebrows and ears up high. When I start speaking to her, her entire body gets into the wagging and, though it seems entirely impossible, her eyebrows and ears lift even higher -- sometimes taking her head with them. If I make anything that wishful thinking could interpret as "a move," she starts dancing or jumping toward the area where her toys, Liver Snaps, and dinner dish live.
Little Miss is less bored today. We went out on two different batches of errands, so she had plenty to see if not a whole lot to do. After all, just riding around in her grandma's truck is enough to get her giggly.
Little Miss Hungry Dawg is definitely eating. As a continuing part of the plan to put some weight back on, I've increased her rations. Her usual daily diet (for the last several months) has been 1 can of high-protein, high-fat puppy food, a couple of tablespoons of Flax Oil, and several tablespoons of pumpkin divided over two meals, plus assorted Liver Snaps. Several months ago it was taking her till after 2pm to finish her breakfast rations. More recently she's been cleaning up her bowl pretty much right away.
Since the last entry, Little Miss has been getting a full can of Puppy Kill each morning and a half-can each evening. She's eating it all. It takes her a couple of passes to eat the whole of the breakfast, but it's usually gone by noon. She still nags me about dinner, but not as insistently nor as early as she had been.
I suspect that Sparky's in a fair amount of pain. Why? Well, beside the point that she's still doing a fair amount of three-legging and always limping badly, she's spending most of her time laying still and her appetite is slightly off this morning (she only ate half of her breakfast). If I'm around when she decides it's time to go out, I open the sliding glass door for her in lieu of having her jump through the doggie door.
She's still limping, but a little less, and hasn't been doing much three-legging. She waited till about 1pm to finish the other half of breakfast, but she did finish it. She was also quite anxious to be waving for Liver Snaps. She's still doing a lot of resting, of course.
After more napping this afternoon, she got up and was walking without limping for the most part. She was walking really slowly, but without limping. She also started nagging me for dinner shortly after 3pm. After dinner she started limping again -- a lot. She hasn't done any three-legging that I've seen, but she's limping pretty badly ...except that now she's resting again.
Today's been a better day: less limping first thing this morning, ate more breakfast straight away, no three-legging. She's still limping some, but not nearly as much. And she keeps anxiously asking for Liver Snaps. She comes to me and starts the old "Come quick! Timmy's fallen in the well!" dance. Nine times out of ten today Timmy had fallen into the Liver Snap bin. When I ask her what she was thinking, she starts going through her tricks -- all those things that normally elicit Liver Snaps from a human.
Little Miss Sparky is much happier today -- even before the errand-running which has perked her up even more.
The Sparkster has spent most of the afternoon napping -- or giving me the big "I'm BORED" stare ...unless I make a move like I'm getting up from my seat. Then she's on full-alert for signs that I really AM getting up, in which case she's on her feet and looking to be fed or, at the very least, get some Liver Snaps. That is to say, she's looking and acting like a regular dog.
Bored again.
Still bored.
What a mess! The skin in and just around the anus is, indeed, quite ulcerated. Additionally, much of the skin in the whole area is trying to slough and peel. Farther out there are spots that start bleeding (slightly) when only slightly abraded with a warm, moist cloth. There are also a few hot spots at the base of her tail, probably from licking.
Still bored. Still slightly favoring right leg. Ate some breakfast, but not much and not with any enthusiasm. Hmmmm... Cursory butt exam looks a bit better than yesterday. After I post this we'll do The Procedure -- clean, clean, ointment, moist heat, rest, ...
The canned food seems to have changed processing or formulation or both. We just started this case a few days ago, on Wednesday night. It's been since then that the licking increased. It's also been since then that the consistency of her stool has changed slightly. (Also the ...um ...scent... is more ...um ...well ...scented.) Both the new food and the new stool seem to be more sticky. I'm wondering if more sticky goo is clinging to the skin and giving her a horrid case of diaper rash-equivalent.
For a dog that's supposedly part Lab, this beast sure hates water. After having gotten a full bath yesterday, I had to drag her to the bathroom for her butt-bath this morning. Once she's in the bathroom she's resigned to it all and just jumps into the tub.
Still bored. Limping more. Butt is still a mess.
Sparky's condition -- or at least Quality of Life -- is careening downhill. *sigh*
We've made the "final arrangements." Tomorrow, Wednesday, will be Sparky's last day with us. I'll be there to hold her and say goodbye. She'll be cremated, but first they'll make an impression of her paw in a clay tile that will be fired. The paw tile and her cremains, in a clay vessel, will be returned to me later.
Today is Sparky's last day with us and it's definitely time.
Sparky is in doggie heaven.
steph
She's everywhere, but she's not. I feel her presence. I hear the familiar, faint sounds that indicate her presence. I expect to turn -- and sometimes I do out of reflex -- and see her, but her body is not where I feel it is. This is so odd.
She's still everywhere, but not. I keep expecting her to show up, to appear around the corner when I make noises in the kitchen or go to take a shower or go to pay bills. I knew she wanted to do things with me and be near me, but I guess I never really realized how much that really happened. It's kind of surprising how much she's not physically where I've come to expect her to be.
I still miss Sparky, but I'm feeling much better now. My heart is still sufficiently broken that I haven't yet dared to think about getting a new doggie companion and I've had plenty of excuses like long working hours, long commute hours, my own battle with cancers, ... Maybe someday.
