Broccoli and Blankies

Sheba loves her veggies, particularly broccoli. When I finished giving her all the broccoli tops I was left with this big, thick stalk and it seemed like such a waste to toss it out. 
After some champion google searching, I found that the stalk has just as many vitamins and minerals as the tops and has tons of fiber. Yay! As a special treat I've started giving Sheba the stalk to chew on like a bone and she loves it. All the fiber also helps to clean her teeth. 

This past weekend I went to my mom's to house-sit. When I got there she had the sweetest little surprise for me. She's a talented quilter and whipped up a little Sheba blanket! Sheba and I did a photoshoot this morning.

So cute!

Supplements

In my last post, I wrote about a couple books I had gotten on dogs/holistic living/cancer etc. In this post I want to talk about the supplements I have decided to put Sheba (in addition to her Fish Oil) on based on the information I got from The Natural Vet's Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs by Veterinarian Shawn Messonnier. 


Burdock Root - This is a supplement used to boost the immune system and help cleanse toxins found in the blood. It also works as anti-fungal and anti-bacterial. Burdock Root (according to the book) will not effect her chemotherapy treatments and is considered very safe. 


Astragalus membranaceus - or simply "Astragalus" contains powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants are those terrific free-radical scavengers, meaning they hunt free-radicals that cause cell damage. Astragalus is also thought to boost white blood cells, this is very important. In a week or two Sheba will head back to the vet to check her white blood cell count, the chemo can lower them heavily, leading to infection or a compromised immune system. 


Turmeric Powder - Turmeric is that strong spice that gives curry it's bright gold-yellow color. Along with dying food, Turmeric has been used for centuries as a medicinal spice. Turmeric's antioxidant content helps protect the liver, and works as an anti-inflammatory but more importantly Turmeric has been found to slow cancer growth in Lymphoma as well as other cancers. It also induces apoptosis (cell suicide) a good thing for those mutated cancer cells. Learn more about Turmeric here. 


Rather than buying the Turmeric supplement, which was rather expensive, I bought organic Turmeric powder which was much cheaper (and I can use some too!)




Costs
Astragalus Supplement (100 caps) $12.00
Burdock Root Supplement (100 caps) $8.00
Organic Turmeric Powder $5.00


TOTAL: $25.00 + tax

I ♥ The Library

"You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." -C.S. Lewis


When something major happens in my life, or I am going to make a big decision I feel most proactive, most responsible and most well informed when I read books pertaining to the subject. Though the internet has a wealth of information, you could never compare it to a well written book. 

After our initial visit to the vet, I searched on Amazon for a few hours finding books on dogs and cancer. Some were very cheap used, others were a little more pricey. Luckily, as a frequenter of the library I know that there's a very good chance the book I want will be there. 

So I headed out to see if the vast hall of the written word had the books I wanted and sure enough they did!

These were the first three books I picked up. 

Dr. Pitcairn's Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats Is a large book with a terrific amount of information regarding the negative aspects of conventional dog food, easy to make homemade recipes and nutritional information of whole foods. This is a great book but only had a small section on treating cancer.

The Complete Holistic Dog Book: Home Health Care for Our Canine Companions Written by Jan Allegretti and Katy Sommers, another great overall guide to caring for dogs in a holistic sense. It covers food, exercise, supplements, caring for older dogs and a couple chapters about when it is time to let your dog go. While those articles are written with great care, I admit I couldn't get through them without a few tears. 

The Natural Vet's Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs This is without a doubt the most helpful book I borrowed for obvious reasons. While the other books only have a few sections about cancer this book covers various types of cancers, conventional and complementary care, the effects of chemo and other cancer fighters and a large chapter devoted to supplements and their effects. I honestly read this book cover to cover within a few hours. My next post will detail the supplements I decided to purchase for Sheba with help from this book. 

If you are looking for books regarding dogs and cancer, I first suggest going to the library. There is a huge dog section at mine and I will continue to post book reviews as I read them. 

Chemo: Dogs Vs. Humans

Chemo for dogs is not typically to cure, rather, it is used to extend your dog's life by putting the cancer into remission for a period of time. There are two reasons for this -

Dog chemotherapy drugs (although they are technically human-grade) are not given at their maximum dosage. Most owners would not be willing to give their dogs such a high dosage as it would inflict the terrible side effects we associate with chemotherapy: nausea, vomiting, hair loss, etc. and as owners, we are responsible for their quality of life, we cannot ask what they want. Humans can decide for themselves if they willing to deal with the side effects.

The trade off of minimal side effects is the cancer becomes resistant to the chemotherapy. The cancer cell is able to code it's genes to make "protein pumps" on the cell surface, which pump the drugs out of cell. The pumps are known as MDR (multiple drug resistance) This is also the survival mechanism of a normal cell, the cancer is pumping the poison (in this case chemo) out to detoxify.

(This is why the use of multiple chemo drugs, like CHOP, are the best weapon for cancer in dogs.)

Effects

The morning after Chris and I gave Sheba her first chemo treatment her swollen glands had noticeably reduced, we wanted to wait a day before writing to track the trend, but good news, this morning her glands are even smaller and the red spots on her belly (associated with the Lymphoma) have disappeared!


It seems the drugs are working! 
Unfortunately, around dawn Sheba starting clacking, meaning she was walking around and the noise of her nails on the floorboards that makes you want to tear your ears off, meant she had to go to the bathroom. 


Chris took her down and reported that she had diarrhea and had to go to the bathroom several times. This is most likely a side effect of her medication. We need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get out of control. 

I modified her food today to hopefully, relax her stomach. Along with a cup of boiled chicken, Sheba received her vegetables and half a stalk of celery pureed with chicken broth. The broth added more fluid to her system and the celery stalk should balance her pH levels. I also removed the garlic for now, I'll try to reintroduce it in a couple days. 

Her 'Prairie Dog' Stance - note the swishy tail

It looked rather unappetizing to me but Sheba heartily disagreed.

Chemo and Other Drugs Part II

While Sheba has squished herself next to me on this small armchair and naps with her head on my leg, I type this post. 


We came home from Dr. Kane's office and gave Sheba her first round of Lomustine and Prednisone. The Lomustine is actually an off-brand human chemo drug. Dr. Kane told us that cancer drugs are simply to expensive to produce for cats and dogs.


The Prednisone was given first. The small white pill is cut in half and given once a day for three weeks. This was rather simple because it was so small. I simply pushed it down her throat and she swallowed. The Lomustine was not so easy. 

The red and green long oval must be handled with gloves because it is a chemo treatment and by extension: toxic. Our doctor advised that Chris handle the chemo as it can be very dangerous for women if they are pregnant (I'm not, it's just a precaution.) He donned the thick blue gloves and shoved it down. Sheba coughed it up. After a couple repeats of this, Sheba bit down and broke the pill in half. This is not good, we need the treatment inside her, not on the floor. Luckily it seemed the treatment was stuck to the sides of the pill and didn't spill out. We managed to get it down after a few more shoves. 
That was the hard part. 
After all the abuse, you might think Sheba would be flustered, angry, even confused? Oh no, not this dog. She just stared with a big goofy grin and wagged her ever swishing tail. 

I asked Dr. Kane about supplements and he suggested Fish Oil which we picked up at the pharmacy. While he did not believe it had an effect on cancer, he did believe it helped the heart, brain and circulatory system which can in turn help the whole body. 



Turns out.. Fish Oil smells like Fish! Sheba could not have been happier to lick up the oil I broke into her food bowl and chew up the little soft pill. It must have been delicious the way she inhaled it. 

Chemo and Other Drugs

Chris and I got a call from the vet and he gave us the results from the cytology smear. Sheba has high grade (large cell) lymphoma. Not what we were hoping for, but it's alright. The good news is, high grade lymphoma is more treatable than low grade. The high grade has an 85-90% chance of remission while low grade (small cell) is around 60%. The bad news is the survival rates or length of remission isn't as long. 

Doctor Kane gave us a couple treatment options:

1: CHOP - the "gold seal" for chemo treatments in dogs. The C, H and O stand for different drugs in the P -Protocol. The point of giving different drugs is to keep the Lymphoma from becoming resistant. With this treatment the average survival rate is 1 year. The cost is $3,500 for 12 months. This is also the most aggressive treatment, drugs are taken once a week for 25 weeks. 

2: COP - Two drugs rather than three, it's a little less expensive. Survival rates are 9 months on average. Cost: $3,000 for one year. 

3: HP - Again, just the one high grade drug. Cost is $1,500. Survival rates are 5-7 months. 

4: Lomustine - An orally administered pill given every 3-4 weeks. Survival rates average 3.5 months. The cost is $150 a pill. This pill is typically administered 6 times. 

5: Prednisone - An anti-inflammatory aimed at suppressing and hopefully killing cancer cells. This has the lowest survival rate alone (between 1-2 months) and is often given in addition to the other chemo drugs. The cost is $11.00

Here's the hard part. Chris and I are college students. Very poor college students. We both work while going to school but loans, textbooks, rent and bills add up and at this point in our lives we simply can't afford the best treatments. 

We do however have a plan. Our oncology vet works with a foundation called Frankie's Friends a charity that helps families cover the cost of cancer treatments who otherwise, would not be able to afford it. Our doctor spoke with the manager of Frankie's Friends and she said while they didn't currently have money for Lymphoma, they were running a few fundraisers and will hopefully have money by the end of September. 

If that is the case, they maybe able to help us pay for the CHOP treatment. 

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

We are also looking at a list of other foundations that may be able to help. 

Until then we got prescriptions for the Lomustine and Prednisone. In the next post I'll talk about giving Sheba the drugs. 


Costs:
Lomustine - Typically $150.00, The doctor had a sample so this round was FREE (we were so grateful!)
Prednisone - $11.00
Fish Oil (1000 mg) 120 softgels - 9.50
TOTAL: 20.50