Please say a prayer for my boy - HS

[djpohn]

I pre-treat Rainer with Cearnia before his chemo treatments and 2 - 3 days after to keep the nausea away and keep him eating and drinking. He also takes Gluta DMG for immune and liver support, dha and a mushroom supplement too. Good luck with your boy! I hope things continue to go well for you - we will keep you in our thoughts and prayers!

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Awww, thinking of you guys-all of us here, plus Angie, I am sure (BORK!) so that would be 9 beads more to his jar. Does he need more beads?

I am glad that he is doing well.

I love DMG in general. I think it's great for healing but am not even sure if that's what it's for-I just know that when Nina had that abcess the hole healed so quickly.

Mario has taken Cerenia for his car sickness, and Kyah got it for vomiting-seems like a very effective med.

Take care of yourself.

[moei]

Add 5 chunky beads from my gang.

[RebelGSD]

BoBo is thrilled about the beads and we talk about the people wishing him well in bed before we go to sleep, he sends kisses to everyone (I can tell you, he is a great kisser ). He decided that my bed is the place where he sleeps when he first came home at 7 weeks of age. He made this clear very loudly from his crate, and this remained his place over the past nine years.



He was prescribed Zofran, a medication used by human cancer patients too, for nausea. We had a drama with that one last week. We paid $30 for 20 tablets at UPenn. When we ran out of it the vet called in a prescription into my Rite Aid. I went to pick it up and almost passed out when they wanted to charge me $328 for 12 pills of the generic ($800+ for 12 pills of the brand name). I was shocked. I had no idea how people without insurance/prescription plan are being ripped off by these places. Ripping off cancer patients who are probably too sick to stand up for themselves is just the lowest.

Does anyone know how Cerenia compares with Zofran?

First treatment they told me not to feed him anything the from 10PM before the chemo. I have to ask whether it is OK to premedicate him? He has loose stools (not the runs, but loose stools) and the Flagyl that was prescribed does not help that much.

It seems his appetite is back seven days after the second chemo. he did lose three pounds since his last labwork before the second chemo and we hope to make up for some by Wednesday. I would gladly give him and the Warrior Princess some fat transplants, but I was told that it does not work that way.

We developed a healthy lunch routine. We get a nice burger (they only sell "deli" at work), BoBo eats the meat and mom the veggies.

[Woodreb]

Add 3 beads for me, Rica and Aodhan.

[djpohn]

Our Oncologist is Greg Ogilvie he is the head Oncologist at the CVS Hopsital in California. He used to work at CSU and big wig in the oncology field. We originally used reglan, but my dog had a reaction to that. Since our 1st round of chemo (in 07) they are treating more dogs with Cerenia , finding it more effective with less side effects. It's not cheap, but it isn't that expensive. You might ask them if they can prescribe this for you. The injectable is very expensive, but the pills are reasonably priced.

Rainer will occasionally have soft stool, but since part of the reason dogs have diarrhea in the first place is to rid the body of toxins, I let nature take it's course. I feed raw and have found that if I feed pieces with more bone I can usually prevent or stop the diarrhea. I have also found after some treatments he won't eat food with a higher fat content.

I haven't found that feeding him in the morning before or after makes a difference. I usually feed him the night before, he gets his supplements and anti nausea in the morning and them has food in the afternoon/night after his treatments. His protocol rotates 4 drugs over 25 weeks. He is currently 3/4 of the way through his 2nd protocol. He had the 1st of the last 4 treatments yesterday.

He has had Doxorubin (Adriamycin) 7 times so far (4 times in 2007, 1 times in 2008 after beginning chemo again and 2 times so far this year). Knock wood, he has tolerated this drug very well. The vincristine seems to be harder on his system for some reason.

I would ask about them about the cerenia it is great because it lasts for 24 hours! Again you and BoBo are in our prayers.

[RebelGSD]

Thank you so much for the great advice. We learn as we go.

I will ask about the Cerenia. I was told that the diarrhea comes from the damage of the cells of the intestines. The chemo destroys fast growing cells, and the cells of the intestines are fast-growing. Since the intestines are damaged in this way they are unable to abosrb the nutrients as they pass through the intestines. The Flagyl he takes is supposed to slow down the passage of the food so that more of it gets absorbed. I have to work on figuring out what he is willing to eat. BoBo is only getting Adriamycin, every 12 days. They tried every 10 days with other dogs earlier in the study and the dogs could not handle it, their blood cell count was too low.

[Amac]

I am so sorry to hear about your boy! I hope good things for him. I've only had my boy for a week and would be devistated so I can't imagine what you must be going through. Good luck to you both!

[LisaT]

Originally Posted By: RebelGSD.....He was prescribed Zofran, a medication used by human cancer patients too, for nausea. We had a drama with that one last week. We paid $30 for 20 tablets at UPenn. When we ran out of it the vet called in a prescription into my Rite Aid. I went to pick it up and almost passed out when they wanted to charge me $328 for 12 pills of the generic ($800+ for 12 pills of the brand name). I was shocked. I had no idea how people without insurance/prescription plan are being ripped off by these places. Ripping off cancer patients who are probably too sick to stand up for themselves is just the lowest.

Does anyone know how Cerenia compares with Zofran?

First treatment they told me not to feed him anything the from 10PM before the chemo. I have to ask whether it is OK to premedicate him? He has loose stools (not the runs, but loose stools) and the Flagyl that was prescribed does not help that much.......

My Dad takes Zofran on his chemo days. He has strict instructions to take it at least a couple of hours before the infusion. Part of the infusion is also a steroid which helps his naseua, but also to help his body not reject the meds. He is supposed to take the Zofran for a couple of days after the infusion, but he doesn't. Luckily Dad doesn't have the nausea at this point, and it can cause very painful constipation, which he said he would rather vomit. It must be painful if vomiting is a better option

Zofran is the new wonder drug for anti-nausea, and therefore still under patent and VERY VERY expensive. They also prescribed him an older one (can't remember the name of it) - the nurse said that in many people the older one works just as well, and for people who have to pay their own prescriptions, the older one is only $15 without insurance. The Zofran, as you see, is hundreds of dollars for the same amount. Dad is lucky on both accounts, he doesn't seem to be having the nausea problem, and he has good insurance (I think he pays $15 for either of the meds).

If the flagyl isn't helping with the loose stools, I wouldn't use it. Right now, the less drugs the better. Some of the chemo drugs can cause loose stools; some of them destroy the mucous membranes in the body (chemo kills cells that multiply rapidly, even the good ones), the stomach lining being one of those. You might try some l-glutamine and see if that helps.

Did you mention what drug they are giving him? I didn't catch it.

[djpohn]

Bobo is getting Adriamycin also called Doxorubicin for his chemo.