Category: Chemotherapy

Yesterday, April 12th, Ellie had her first dose of Carboplatin. It was a big day as she also had to go in for the clinical trial side of things for an 8-hour serial blood draw and a skin biopsy to measure the effects of the Vismodegib. Thankfully this is the last one for 6 weeks.

The vet informed me that she is a total lightweight when it comes to sedation (I 100% agree after the trazadone incident) and that she will probably feel loopy for up to 24 hours.

Poor thing was so so so drunk! when we got home she wanted nothing to do with any food, wanted nothing to do with me, wanted nothing to do with the world… she was over it… but did take a few laps of chicken broth so I called that a amazing success. I was informed she didn’t go potty all day, and she wouldn’t for me either so I got some towels under her backend while she snoozed since this is exactly how she was when she came back from her surgery the first time. It’s amazing how quick we adjust to our new normal, since I had been through this before I wasn’t anxious or worried and I had an internal timeline of how long things usually took for her.

Later in the evening she perked up a little bit. We went out a few times and she really wanted to poop, but not much was coming out- what did come was awfully loose. At 11PM I went ahead and gave her 80mg of Cerenia in case she did indeed have diarrhea and/or to help her appetite, she ate up a little bit of chicken and rice and we went to bed.

This morning she is still tired, but she ate her normal kibble w/water, and went outside to pee, so all good things. I was so relieved to see her appetite back, I wasn’t surprised that it was gone after the sedation, but I was worried if the carboplatin would make her not feel great. I’m cautiously optimistic.

In preparation for her maybe not having a great appetite I made a whole chicken and some rice to offer as a replacement. Whenever I make a chicken I also make a bunch of broth in my pressure cooker. Since I make it in the pressure cooker once the broth is done all the bones crumble under a little bit of pressure (versus splintering), so for years I’ve saved all the leftovers from the broth (sans onions and garlic) and would make dog treats. I used to just stuff kongs with it and then freeze them, but now with the pupsicle I can make perfect little molds of them. one chicken makes around 20 of these treats to feed whenever.

I know it’s not the most appetizing, but Ellie sure loves them! These treats have been so helpful for when I need Ellie to be still or a little distracted so I can to cold and hot heat compresses, stretches, massages (usually she just falls asleep to the massages, haha).

That’s about all I got for now, it’s been blissfully boring 🙂

It’s been a couple days since Ellie rejoined the pooper club, and it’s gone pretty dang smooth… Except for it freaking snowing every other day (Spring pleeease hurry up).

We have our routine worked out, and there have been no accidents since. She has also started laying on the carpet again (but still says no to her fancy bed). She’s moving around fantastic, but definitely tires out pretty quick. She will need to stay pretty mellow for the next week, but after that we will start going on short walks, and slowly increasing the duration (vet said to start with 5-10 minutes, then add ~5 minutes a day, but watch carefully and pull back if she shows any signs of being uncomfortable that night or next day). Since she’s bound to get a little cabin fever over this next week I’ve made sure to have a selection of mental stimulation toys on the ready. I’ve already shown ya’ll the woof pupsicle, but I also made a snuffle mat for her to search for bits of her daily meal. I made it out of one of the sides of those metal cubes that use to be all the rage because you could arrange them however you wanted? along with some scrap fleece and t-shirts. I think I’ll have to make a few more, she loves the current one, but it only takes about 5 minutes to find all the goodies. Any other ideas for mental stimulation? I’ve hidden food around the house/wrapped it in a towel for her to find, but always looking for more ideas!

Yesterday we went for a little car ride, because I wanted to test if I would need help getting her into my SUV for the appointment we had today. I got this ridiculously long (7.25 feet!) ramp. Glad I did, because it’s still a decent incline, but Ellie (with my guiding/supporting in the harness) gets in semi-easily. It really shines when she gets out, I’m able to support with a harness so no heavy bounces down. Anyway, so since I already had her loaded up we went for a drive. She tried to stand for a little bit, but thankfully laid down and enjoyed the views comfortably.

Today is exactly a week since Ellie’s amputation and she is currently at CSU for the first step in the clinical trial she is in. They are giving her the study drug called Vismodegib orally and then doing an 8 hour serial blood collection to evaluate the safety and molecular effects of the drug. Vismodegib is currently used to treat humans with basal cell carcinoma that has spread to other parts of the body. From the study: “It appears that canine and human osteosarcoma, like human basal cell carcinoma, rely on a cell signaling pathway called the Hedgehog pathway (which is inhibited by vismodegib) for cell growth, survival and spread, treatment with vismodegib results in delayed osteosarcoma spread.”. In 2 weeks she will start the traditional chemotherapy Carboplatin, while also taking vismodegib daily. This study is top heavy- we will be going in every week for the first 5 weeks to do blood work, most of these will be short 1 hour visits except for her carboplatin days which will be closer to 4 hours every 3 weeks. I do feel anxiety about putting her in more stressful situations than necessary, and fear that this drug will have adverse effects. With that said, I never want to say no to treatment based on financial costs. Full disclosure between the diagnostic testing, surgery, and hospital stay I am close to spending $6,000.00 already. For a dog Ellie’s size chemotherapy would be over $5,000.00. This clinical trial will allow me to go ahead and get a PT appointments for Ellie without having to crunch numbers as well as taking some well deserved time off for her and I to enjoy whatever time the world decides to give us. It also allows for money for future appointments as well. Even if everything goes swimmingly, Ellie will need x-rays multiple times a year to check for lung mets so being prepared for that is necessary. Another alternative reason I went with the clinical trial was it bumped me up the lists. When I originally called CSU for an oncology consult they were booked out almost a month, but when I did a consult for the trial, I was able to get in, in less than a week and her amputation a week after that. It also gets Ellie seen by some of the best veterinarians in the country. So yes I am anxious, but also very confident in my decision.