Porter’s Chemotherapy Journey

It has been far to long since my last blog entry. I have been waiting for something good or significant to say. Or, I am just procrastinating… To catch you up, I’ll begin with a synopsis of our journey so far and then continue to the present. We are living in Germany until the end of August and our adult son, Konrad is caring for Porter until our return. Our dog, Porter, is a 13 year old golden retriever with very limited vision due to ulvitis. He is otherwise healthy and has adapted to his slowly progressing loss of vision. He had been limping on and off since June, treated with rimadyl with intermittent relief then the limping became worse. An X-ray confirmed the suspicion of bone cancer, the amputation of Porter’s right front leg on July 19, a good recovery with the usual ups and downs, biospsy report confirmed osteosarcoma, no signs of metastasis, incision healing well, staples removed and then the consultation with our oncologist. We made the decision to give our Porter a chance at a longer, healthier life that chemotherapy might provide. On August 6, Porter had a CBC which was norml and was given his first dose of chemotherapy. The plan is to have 5 treatments every other week of doxorubicin. His first dose was given and except for lack of appetite he seemed to be doing fine. By Friday he was eating small amounts of rice and boiled chicken but still refusing his dog food. The complication to this was that we had, prior to Porter’s diagnosis and surgery, booked a trip for Konrad to visit us in Germany before his college classes resumed in late August. Porter was booked in our local kennel where they all love him. A kennel visit at this time did not seem right so my married daughter, living in MA, agreed to care for him during Konrad’s absence. We had a CBC done on Friday evening to be sure Porter was okay for the trip. The CBC was normal. Konrad drove him to MA on Saturday morning, August 10. Everything seemed fine. Our daughter, Kristina, had gotten cottage cheese, rice and rotisserie chicken to encouage his appetite. He loved the chicken to much as you will see… On Sunday morning, he peed on the kitchen floor without asking to go out. He has rarely done this and only when sick. He was alone for several hours and did fine. He ate dinner that evening. Sometime during the night, he pushed his way past a chair blocking the doorway and had diarrhea over all of the dining room carpet. He has never been incontinent in the house before. What a mess for my daughter to find in the morning! She cleaned up Porter and took him outside while she worked on cleaning the carpet. Porter was not himself that day. He was lethargic and wouldn’t walk without much assistance. I called our vet to check on appropriate anti-diarrheal meds for him. We gave him one dose of Immodium, 2 mg. In the meantime he had had 2 more episodes of diarrhea, with specs of blood visible. His urine was also dark yellow-orange in color. After calling around to area vets who could not fit him in as he was a new patient, Kristina loaded him in her car and drove to the nearest emergency animal hospital in the next city. He was seen there, a consultation made with his oncologist in PA and blood work done. His WBC was low, he had a bacterial and yeast infection in one ear and his liver enzymes were elevated. He was given simplicef, an antibiotic, put back on tramadol instead of rimadyl, given metronidazole for the diarrhea and his ear cleaned and treated with oti-clean and oti-max. 3 hours later, Porter and Kristina were on their way home. Today Porter seems a little better. He slept through the night without incident. Normally you withhold food for 24 hours to treat diarrhea but because he needs the above meds, the vet wants him to eat. He ate a breakfast of rice and boiled hamburger and has been out to the bathroom with only a small amount of diarrhea. We’ll see what today brings. I am wondering if this will be the case with every chemo treatment or if it is an isolated event. I’m sure the change of environment did not help the situation and maybe also the rotisserie chicken. We so hope Porter is back to his old self very soon…