Month: June 2016

Sadly little McCarthy was not well last week. He was admitted to hospital and stayed overnight on a drip on Friday night (20th June) and was given a course of anti biotics. He also had blood work done to check kidneys and liver. He picked up an infection of some kind – high white blood cell count. His immune system is likely compromised post surgery and he’s little body isn’t fighting fit.  😰

However, as the week goes by, he is looking perkier, which is great!

The specialist called this evening (14/6) to advise on the long awaited pathology report, which revealed that they got clear margins of the tumor when they amputated his toes but there was destruction to the bone in those toes (it’s an aggressive cancer), which means there might be microscopic spread, no one will be able to tell for sure at this stage. As a precaution he suggested four treatments of chemo over an 8 week period. Some dogs do fine on chemo, others not, and 1-2% can die from it. The other option is to leave it and do another CT scan in a few months to see if it has spread and only do chemo then. Amputating the leg isn’t recommended as we don’t know if there was microscopic spread, so that operation may not make a difference if it has spread microscopically which the scans won’t pick up. I’m glad we don’t have to amputate the leg. But now I must make the big decision on chemo as a precaution or not. It’s such a rare cancer so the specialist can’t even compare to previous cases and treatments as there aren’t any from his experience. Other cancers have had a good response to chemo in dogs. If I’m going to do it I’ll rather do it now than wait, but I need some wisdom and more prayer with this decision as I don’t want to ruin his quality of life if chemo makes him very sick, but dogs apparently respond better than humans to chemo. Regarding the weekend hospitalization and tests, his renal blood tests are on the high end of normal, but not abnormal. He might have to have

Regarding the weekend hospitalisation and tests, his renal blood tests are on the high end of normal, but not abnormal. He might have to have bloods taken again this week to make sure the infection from the weekend has cleared, if not, longer course of anti biotics will be necessary, but if he looks well enough, then probably don’t need to retest. He looks better tonight than he has since last week and ate well for the first time in a week, so hopefully the infection is clearing. It’s been such an emotionally stressful time.

If any of you have had any experience with a little dog with Eccrine Carcinoma being treated with chemo, I would love to hear from you as to the outcome…

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So, on the 18th May 2016 I dropped my baby off at Tygerberg Animal Hospital for his CT scan. I was advised that he would be on a drip before, during and after the procedure as some dogs react badly to the iodine dye they are injected with for the contrasted CT scan. I felt incredibly stressed as I’d already researched what could go wrong and I also knew that they stop the dog breathing for 30 – 45 seconds when scanning the lungs – this too freaked me out! I left there feeling emotionally drained and went for a drive to calm down before going back to work. It was the longest wait of my life to hear how McCarthy was doing and to find out whether his organs had been affected. I was so grateful to God to hear at 3:45pm that he was doing well and that the cancer hadn’t spread to his organs. When I fetched him at 8pm that night he was bouncy and happy – such a relief. He was then booked in for surgery to remove the two affected little toes on Friday, the 20th May. Another stressful day, but not as long a wait. By 11:45am I received a lovely message with a photo of my bandaged up little dog from the hospital saying he was awake and out of theatre. They said they would let me know how long he’d have to stay in hospital, but at 3pm I received a call saying he was doing so well that they were happy to discharge him. I couldn’t wait to fetch him. He was a little unhappy and unbalanced on Friday night and fell over when trying to wee, still getting used to using only one foreleg and holding the bandaged one up, but by Saturday he was hopping around so quickly – I had to run after him. He has been such a little trooper and I’m amazed at how well he is doing. Tomorrow he goes back to hospital to be sedated for the first bandage change. The amputated toes are currently with the pathologist and I will only hear in about two weeks’ time whether they got clear margins of the soft tissue and whether there is no cancer in the bones. I really hope and pray that they got it all, but if not, he will have to have that little leg amputated…