Well, Scooter gained back all his weight and was doing pretty well with his first two treatments – Although his white cells dropped and he needed to go on antibiotics both times – they did eventually come back up.
This week he was due for his third treatment but his white cells hadn’t climbed back fast enough so they wanted us to come back in a week. I had this bug in my gut that told me to ask for a chest X-ray. He had not shown any mets to date.
He showed two small mets- Now we are deciding what to do. Since the mets grew while he was on the carboplatin treatments we felt it did not make sense to continue to treat him using this drug. He had some mild lethargy, lack of appetite, diarrhea and low counts all which lifted with meds.
The are recommending we try two weeks of paladia. They feel the side effects will be minimal and if they do upset his belly etc. we can always stop.
I am not sure what to do. He is playful and seems happy but is short of breath on walks – short walks. Do I try this other treatment or just leave him be now. I want whatever life he has left in him to be a quality life.
From all I read it is rather unusual once the mets are shown on X-ray for any real remission
Any feedback appreciated.
Pofi is really suffering no ill effects from Palladia 3 x weekly for a few months now. He does not have mets yet, but we are hoping to keep them at bay (along with recurrence of the STS at amp site). We do give him Cerenia on Palladia nights to offset what might have been mild nausea the mornings after. Send me a message if you want to know any more! It is a deeply personal call, but you surely could try it!
Lisa and Pofi
Pretty sure we will try this. Thanks so much. Great idea about the cerenia with the palladia.
Are you also wearing gloves when you give the Palladia? What is STS? Wishing you many many months with Pofi!
Sorry to hear this news, but you have great instincts! If it were me, I’d probably want to follow the vets advice and see what Palladia does. If it causes problems, then I’d stop…good luck in your decision.
Paula and Nitro
Bummer. Not the news anyone wants. The bliss of being dog…the bliss of being Scooter…is that he doesn’t give a rip about any ole xrays! NOTHING has changed in Scooter’s world!
Jist to remind you that Jerry, and another Angel, Sassy, got many, many extra quality months long after mets were discovered.
Both did metronomics for awhile. It’s a combo of daily meds you give at home.
We have another member here, Otis, who is just now starting Palladia after small mets were found.
I don’t have any really good insight to offer on either. If you search the forums for Palladia you’ll get more jnfo.
Jist a 2¢ worth, if the vets can offer a lot of reassurance that there won’t be any side effects, it may be worth a try. I would want reassurance that having side effects from the Carboplatin would NOT be an indicator that Scooter would be more likey to have side effects from the Palladia.
It’s hard to say if being tired is just from the heat and the exertion it takes to hp around on three legs, or the mets.
I can tell you that being “tired”, regardless of the reason, is not a painful condition!
Regardless of what you decide treatmentt wise (and using supplements and a more holistic approach is still a “treatment”), staying in the moment is so important! Always has been on this jourw!
Let NOTHING rob you of your time together! Let NOTHING take your focus away from the present and continuing to build happy memories together with Scooter!
Scooter does NOT have a timeframe stamped anywhere on his cute butt!! He is not a statistic! He is Super Dog Scooter!!
Oh Scooter, precious, adorable Scooter! That picture of you in your Super Dog shirt is the best ever!!! 🙂
Just like you have everyday of your life, continue to make every day SCOOTER DAY!! Make everyday even better than the day before (and that may be a challenge)!
Scooter is with you now, and will be with you for a long time, and he feels great…and that ks all that matters!!!’
Can’t wait to see more pictures! Scooter is just so darn cute 🙂 🙂 🙂
Lots and lots of love
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
PS. You obviously are very intuitive and connected to Scooter a d what’s in his best interest. Do yiur research, gather your info and have a “chat” with Scooter. He’ll let you know how he would like to proceed!
I’m also emailing Michelle (Sassy’s mom)’as she can give you links on metronomics and Palladia. Her Sassy developed mets avout the same time as your Scooter. She got al.ost eight months of great extended QUALITY time!
Thank you so much!!!!
As noted above, we started Palladia yesterday. Otis completed 4 rounds of carbo, and had mets on his second post-chemo follow-up.
Otis also pants a lot and breathes heavy on short walks. The onco told me this is not due to the mets, but the heat and exertion.
We are also on a two week trial period to see how he does. We do a verbal follow-up then, and an onco re-check in a month. (But, our onco clinic is not too far away and so far, going is not horribly stressful to Otis). You have to wear gloves when you dispense it, a bit odd to stand in your own kitchen with gloves. I found the allergy free pill pockets (pea flour) which are perfect for giving him the pills – Otis gets 4 plus a Pepcid AC.
For me, doesn’t seem like there is much to lose in trying it? And, Day 1 went great (we give the Palladia M, W, and F). He actually had more energy and seemed to be feeling great (but I suspect that is more because it was a milder day than Palladia being a one day miracle).
The most common side effect is digestive, but you can use the same meds as for carbo if that happens.
Hi, and I am sorry to hear about Scooters diagnosis of mets. Sassy was diagnosed with mets between her 4th & 5th chemo of Carboplatin so we stopped and did a Metronomic therapy of Cyclophosphamide & an NSAID (like Rimadyl). Sassy was 128 pounds so with all the labs and meds it was out of my price range to do the Palladia. I wish I could have tried it.
Here is a link to a great converstation about Cyclophoshamide (cytoxin)vs Leukeran. We did both of these. The reason we stopped cytoxin was because one of the side affects is UTI and Sassy got one after 5 months of taking it.
http://tripawds.com/forums/treatment-and-recovery/cyclophosphamide-cytoxan-vs-chlorambucil-leukeran/
by the way Sassy survived almost 8 months with mets
hugs
Michelle & Angel Sassy
Oh that sounds so great – I would take 8 months in a jiffy! I just look at him and can’t imagine life after scooter….he is my ‘person’. Only dog people get this! I will look at that info for sure.
Hi – Pofi’s cancer is a Soft Tissue Sarcoma as opposed to Osteo. It was specifically a nerve sheath tumor in the brachial plexus (arm pit) that necessitated his amputation. So of the standard Onco approaches, IV chemo, radiation and low dose oral, IV chemo has very little evidence of efficacy for STS. We therefore started on the low dose oral Cytoxan almost immediately post surgery. We then started Palladia 3 x a week and the Cytoxan the other 4 x because a CT scan showed what could have been micro mets in lungs (now we no longer believe that with second scan) and because it seems to have efficacy against local recurrence of the STS (very likely).
Last night I was out of Cerenia and worked too late to get to the clinic to refill. We just used Pepcid and he wanted treats right away this morning, so a good sign. About to offer breakfast!