Time to add another pet to the mix, this time it's Norman.
A.K.A. - Norman the Puker.
$1000, a variety of tests and a x-ray and ultrasound later, it turns out he has signs that are consistent with primary G.I. disease.
Possible causes are inflammatory bowel disease, early lymphoma, ulcers or parasite/motility disorders.
Please shoot me now.
Since Norman is a pain in the ass to medicate orally, he is going to be introduced to the evil world of performance enhancing drugs.
In this case, steroids.
And, unlike the folks at W.W.E. and Major League Baseball, my pets don't have multi-million dollar contracts that I can use to soften the blow to my wallet.
He got the shot today so I need to keep an eye on him for a week or two and then we'll discuss the options for ongoing medication.
One other thing I wanted to quickly jot down was the fact that Baxter has random drool episodes and is going through one right now.
Imagine a canine vampire with drool instead of blood slowly dripping from his lower set of fangs and that's kinda what he looks like.
Sexy!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
1 Week Later
Well, this post may not be as exciting as 28 Weeks Later but I'll do my best.
So we went to the vet on Wednesday of last week and got the all clear re: CBC so it was on to the CCNU drugs.
As a side note, my medical lexicon has expanded quite a lot recently so next up for me is a guest appearance on Gray's Anatomy.
I will play the disgruntled ex-husband of the redhead chick who used to be on the show.
I believe the Knocked-Up gal and I would make quite a pair.
Anyway, back to the CCNU protocol.
The delivery of it was pretty quick and easy (just like me) and consisted of a pill hidden inside a pill pocket.
Baxter swallowed it down and that was it.
Next day we took a visit to the holistic vet where he got some acupuncture and we talked about herbal supplements for a while.
Currently he is on 2 types of pills from her and then another 4 pills, including some powder that he hates, prescribed by a canine cancer specialist up in Plano.
Fortunately I've been able to sell my body at night so I can afford the exorbitant prices that these supplements cost but if I wasn't so damn sexy, it would be tough to afford all of it.
After that we stopped by Pet-O-Rama (gay name, good store) and picked up some Nature's Variety Frozen Goodies as well as some grain free dry food manufactured by the good folks at Old Mother Hubbard. It's called Wellness and appears to be made up off all sorts of good stuff.
I mix that along with some lunch meat, Science Diet's Canine N/D and A/D and the odd piece of chicken.
It takes some coaxing but is gobbled up pretty quickly once he gets going.
So we went to the vet on Wednesday of last week and got the all clear re: CBC so it was on to the CCNU drugs.
As a side note, my medical lexicon has expanded quite a lot recently so next up for me is a guest appearance on Gray's Anatomy.
I will play the disgruntled ex-husband of the redhead chick who used to be on the show.
I believe the Knocked-Up gal and I would make quite a pair.
Anyway, back to the CCNU protocol.
The delivery of it was pretty quick and easy (just like me) and consisted of a pill hidden inside a pill pocket.
Baxter swallowed it down and that was it.
Next day we took a visit to the holistic vet where he got some acupuncture and we talked about herbal supplements for a while.
Currently he is on 2 types of pills from her and then another 4 pills, including some powder that he hates, prescribed by a canine cancer specialist up in Plano.
Fortunately I've been able to sell my body at night so I can afford the exorbitant prices that these supplements cost but if I wasn't so damn sexy, it would be tough to afford all of it.
After that we stopped by Pet-O-Rama (gay name, good store) and picked up some Nature's Variety Frozen Goodies as well as some grain free dry food manufactured by the good folks at Old Mother Hubbard. It's called Wellness and appears to be made up off all sorts of good stuff.
I mix that along with some lunch meat, Science Diet's Canine N/D and A/D and the odd piece of chicken.
It takes some coaxing but is gobbled up pretty quickly once he gets going.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Cancer Protocols - Decision Time
Well, since this is my 1st post and all, I should probably give some background.
Baxter is 11 and a half years old and was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the beginning of the month, completely out of the blue.
I was pretty much a basket-case for about 24 hours but talked to my folks and decided that if I was going to make a decision about his future I wanted to do it with them around so I headed on down to Houston.
While I was there I received a 3rd opinion via another vet and we got some good news for a change and we decided to try and fight the cancer while also trying to maintain a good quality of life.
We started on Prednisone and Pepcid AC (for the digestive probs) and saw a remarkable improvement in terms of appetite and also demeanor.
I started to do some more research on chemo and got to see a couple of canine cancer specialists up here in DFW.
Eventually I was referred over to a specialist who gave me 3 options re: potential chemo protocols.
I thought about it over the weekend and made the decision to go with the CCNU protocol vs. the COP and VCA protocols.
It's a rotation of every 3 weeks (starting Wednesday) which sucks because it means that we're going to have to fit one in during Thanksgiving while down in Houston but I think we can get it done.
My main reason for going with CCNU was due to the fact that it's a pill vs. an IV and it allows us to only have one visit every 3 weeks vs. multiple visits with the other protocols.
Actually, the doc's pretty hot so perhaps I should rethink the opportunity to have weekly visits?
I'll sleep on it.
Baxter is 11 and a half years old and was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the beginning of the month, completely out of the blue.
I was pretty much a basket-case for about 24 hours but talked to my folks and decided that if I was going to make a decision about his future I wanted to do it with them around so I headed on down to Houston.
While I was there I received a 3rd opinion via another vet and we got some good news for a change and we decided to try and fight the cancer while also trying to maintain a good quality of life.
We started on Prednisone and Pepcid AC (for the digestive probs) and saw a remarkable improvement in terms of appetite and also demeanor.
I started to do some more research on chemo and got to see a couple of canine cancer specialists up here in DFW.
Eventually I was referred over to a specialist who gave me 3 options re: potential chemo protocols.
I thought about it over the weekend and made the decision to go with the CCNU protocol vs. the COP and VCA protocols.
It's a rotation of every 3 weeks (starting Wednesday) which sucks because it means that we're going to have to fit one in during Thanksgiving while down in Houston but I think we can get it done.
My main reason for going with CCNU was due to the fact that it's a pill vs. an IV and it allows us to only have one visit every 3 weeks vs. multiple visits with the other protocols.
Actually, the doc's pretty hot so perhaps I should rethink the opportunity to have weekly visits?
I'll sleep on it.
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