Rylie has been doing great as a tripawd. She goes everywhere her brother’s go, runs down and back our acre fenced in yard, she has even started back hunting in the yard.. a mouse or 2.. Today I dropped her off at oncologist for her 2nd Listeria Vaccine. Ill say that the first vaccine dose did not go without side effects, however even though she ended up in ER vet overnight for fluids and anti nausea medications we still feel its worth doing it again. Our hope is that this vaccine will target any osteocarcinoma cells and kill any micro -metastasis in her body. So to be sick with flu like symptoms for 3-4 days we can handle, plus since we went through it the first time I have plenty of anti diarrhea and nausea medications to pump into her for a few days . Here’s hoping we can not visit the ER for New years Day!
Month: December 2019
another decision to be made
Four weeks after amputation Rylie is getting back to herself. She is running and playing with the other dogs. She comes upstairs at night to sleep with us( well with some help from us and her harness).
She is eating on her own and everything looks great from the outside. But I know this cancer is deadly, I know its aggressive and fast moving and even though her lungs are clear in x-rays we did not do a CT so those micro-mets could be there..
I wake up in the middle of the night thinking how will i know before the pain strikes her so badly there is nothing that I can give her or do for her to keep it at bay. I dread that for her.
Rylie had an immune-mediated response last January where her bone marrow was wiped out by a de-wormer. We foster many dogs for a rescue group and one of our fosters had quite a few worms we were having trouble getting clean stools , so all dogs got treated asymptomatically. Rylie did not fare so well in this deal. Due to this I am hesitant to do the standard protocol for OSA which is Chemo.
My husband Paul and I had both decided we were not going to put her and us through that, besides the fact that she is a dreadful patient and the last 4 weeks of force feeding food and pills was something I was not wanting to relive.
But there is a new Osteo cancer vaccine and I have heard of an oncologist that will give the vaccine without doing chemotherapy first. This may be the answer to clearing up the micro-mets possibly.. At least I hope so. We have an appt for her first day of the vaccine next Friday Dec 13.. hoping its not a bad omen being Friday the 13th!!