5 Month Update

Well, it as been just over 5 months and Addie is still doing amazingly well. She still has energy and playfulness. Her Kong Wooba is her newest and greatest toy. She loves that thing! I had to go to PetsMart the other day and buy a few more "non-destructible" squeak toys for Christmas for her, just because.

Her cousins Mazie and Lucy are coming tonight and staying with us through Christmas. The puppy is growing up quickly and knows not to irritate Addie too much. She still jumps all over Shep, but knows not to do that to Addie. Addie lost patience for puppies a few years ago :-)

Wishing everyone a wonderful, healthy Holiday Season!

Post Thansgiving Update

Addie, Shep and I went to my sister's place in Buena Vista for Thanksgiving while Rob traveled back to Indiana to visit relatives (including his 102 year old aunt). Addie and Shep got to visit, yet again, with Mazie and Lucy.

It is snowing here in the mountains of Colorado and it has been pretty cold as well. Addie just doesn't like to be outside much when it's like this so she has been spending most of her days lounging inside and playing with what is left of her Kong Wubba (the interior rubber squeaker).

We have some new neighbors below us and they have a Lab mix named Jack. He seems to be Addie and Shep's new best buddy. They have been running up and down the mountain together with tails-a-waggin...good to see them having fun.

There have been no major issues with Addie's health over the past few weeks. She did have one day with a bout of cold paws and pale gums but a couple Yunan pills seemed to have solved that problem. We also discovered some new fatty deposit lumps under her skin near the base of her rib cage. No cause for alarm at this point but we will continue to monitor just to be sure they don't get bigger. Another interesting issue is that about 2 weeks ago, her tongue went back to a darker red like it was prior to the surgery.Perhaps she is not so anemic, but perhaps this is unrelated.

We have also started to mix some Orijen kibble into her food to cut down on the amount of work related to cooking, chopping, and storing the meat we feed her. Now she gets 1/2 cup each of Orijen, meat, and veggies at each meal. The Orijen costs just as much as the meat per pound but saves us quite a bit of work.

Orijen is a Canadian dog food that has only meat, vegetables, and fruit as ingredients. Perfect for keeping wheat and by-products out of her system. We have also started feeding it to Shep in hopes that he won't develop cancer or have other such problems in the future.

Busy Few Weeks

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Wow, it has been a busy few weeks.

Last week, Addie cycled off of the Neoplasene for 1 week (she goes 6 weeks on - 1 week off). This was her 2nd time of cycling off. The first time, we were on vacation, so we were curious how she would react. We expected her energy level to increase. However, it seemed to have the reverse effect. She seemed more lethargic and not herself. She also had 1 incident of cold paws. Once she went back on the Neoplasene, her energy level seemed to increase. This was not what we expected.

Aunt Amy came to visit for a long weekend. We had a great time!

Aunt Janet and Uncle Jeff left their dalmatians, Mazie (deaf) and Lucy (geriatric) with us for the week while they enjoyed a much needed vacation. Addie is dealing pretty well with the "puppy-ness" of Mazie. She has been playing with her, sharing the finer points of sit/down/stay, and having a great time.

While everyone was here last Sunday, Addie celebrated her 11th birthday! We are so thankful that she is still here and we are looking forward to #12.

So far, things are still looking very good for her and we have seen no negative signs.

The picture above is her with her birthday present - a Kong Wubba. We thought it would be indestructible. We were wrong :-)

3 Month Mark

It has now been exactly 3 months since Addie's diagnosis and the resulting dire prognosis.

We are celebrating!

We apologize for posting less frequently, but the good news is that she is still doing very well. We have not had a follow-up vet appointment yet, but she is eating well, her activity level is great, and she does not seem to have any negative conditions. Her paws have been consistently warm now every day!

Back in August, we decided to do a photo shoot with a professional photographer. Although we take a million pictures of the dogs, we wanted to have some professional shots with all of us in the pictures. It's nearly impossible to get everyone to look in one direction if we try to take our own pictures using the timer on our camera! We just got the CD containing all of the photos last week. The pictures on this posting are from that shoot.

Addie's birthday is coming up later this month. We feel very fortunate to still have her around for her 11th birthday. We will celebrate with Addie's cousins Lucy and Mazie when they come to stay for a week while their parents get a much needed vacation in Mexico!

Still Doing Awesome!

Yes, it has been a few weeks since the last posting but, in this case, no news is good news!

Addie has really adapted well to the new diet and medication and she seems to be doing great.

Her energy level is good and she still enjoys our weekend hikes. We haven't done anything too strenuous (just 2-3 hours one day each weekend). The leaves are really starting to change here in Colorado and it was a gorgeous day for our latest hike.

I had a comment last week from someone asking about Addie's diet. I did respond directly but realized that we have tweaked her diet over the past few weeks. So, it probably would be helpful to post the entire diet plan again - just in case anyone was interested.

2 Times per day:
1/2 C. cottage cheese 15-20 minutes prior to items below (to coat stomach from Neoplasene)

1 C. cooked meat
1/2 C. cooked green veggies
1 scoop Fractionated Pectin (Thorne)
1 capsule Hepagen-C (Thorne)
2 cc Neoplasene (Buck Mountain Botanicals)
Krill Oil (1000mg)

1 Time per day:
CoQ10 (100mg)
Chondroitin(1500mg)
Glucosamine (1200mg)
1 Vitamin B complex tablet (not within 2 hours of the Neoplasene as it can counteract effectiveness)

Although I know others with Hemangiosarcoma use Yunnan Baiyao every day, we only use it when we notice cold paws, pale gums, etc. It has only happened once since her diagnosis, but we keep a supply on hand.

Until next time!

Week 9 Update

This was Addie's first week back on the Neoplasene after her break last week. Early in the week, she did have an upset stomach. We backed off the morning dosage from 2cc to 1.8cc and left the evening dosage at 2cc. That seemed to help. Her stomach calmed down and seems to be doing better.

This weekend she definitely acted like her old self. We split wood for about 5 hours on Saturday and she played with her ball outside the entire time, chasing it up and down the mountain. Sunday we did a short 1.5 hour hike and she did wonderfully. She seems a bit tired today, but it was an active weekend for her, so not unexpected. It was great to see her playing so much this weekend!

Week 8 Update

It is now week 8 of Addie's 6-10 week life expectancy diagnosis.

We decided to go on vacation (planned about 6 months ago) and left both Addie and Shep with Aunt Janet and Uncle Jeff. I did feel pretty guilty for the first few days because this would be the first time we had left Addie overnight since she was diagnosed. Plus, we would be gone for a total of 13 days. It is a lot to ask of someone to take on the supplements, meal plans, and a dog diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma- especially when they have 2 dogs of their own (one being a puppy!).

Everyone did excellent! After a few days, everyone got into a routine and things ran smoothly. Addie did get the nickname Emo (short for Emotional), but she always is that way when we leave her, so nothing new there. Janet came up with some great shortcuts in the feeding method that we plan to steal.

We decided ahead of time to go ahead with the holistic veterinarian's recommendation of stopping the neoplasene for 1 week after 6 weeks on the medicine. So, on day 6 of her stay, Addie was able to come off of the Neoplasene for the following week. Janet told us that she seemed a bit brighter during that time, but still moody and slow due to being away from home.

We returned home this morning and she is happy to be in her comfort zone. We did feel like bad parents as we forgot we didn't have any cottage cheese for her and forgot to have a meal prepared for her... amazing what 13 days away will do to your memory!

Thanks again to Janet and Jeff for letting us relax on vacation and taking awesome care of our two babies!

Week 5 Update

It has now been 5 weeks since her diagnosis. We are in a routine and things are going well. She had a great visit with the Grandparents last week!

She has been off the Yunnan for several days as her paws seem to be staying warmer. She still has great energy.

Yesterday we found a Natural Dog Food Store in town. They carry some very good products. We picked up a bag of Orijen kibble for Addie in case we can't cook her a meal here or there. I don't want to start using it fulltime yet, but for the occasional meal, it is really good food. 70% meats (no by-products), 30% fruits/vegetables, 0% grains. We did get another brand for Shep (our other dog) - Canidae. That one does have grains, but he is cancer free, so not bad for him. Also, no by-products.

Next week will be tough as we have decided to go ahead and take our planned vacation. Both dogs will be going to Aunt Janet and Uncle Jeff's. It will quieter there than their typical boarding place. They will also be able to play with their cousins Lucy and little baby Mazie. In preparation for their stay, we have prepackaged Addie's cooked meals into individual baggies to make it easier to prepare. She will also be off the Neoplasene for 7 days while there as we will be cycling her off: 6 weeks on/1 week off. We will be worried about her, but know she will be in good hands.

Supplement Update

We made a trip into the holistic vet yesterday to pick up some refills. We were also able to speak to the vet for awhile in order to question him about Addie's progress. He suggested a few changes for her and answered some more of my unlimited questions:

1) We discussed Addie's upset stomach after meals. He suggested that we reduce her Neoplasene from 2.4cc - 2 times per day to 2.0cc - 2 times per day. It actually seemed to help this morning!

2) He verified that it is good to keep giving her cottage cheese 20-30 minutes prior to meals to minimize stomach irritation that might be caused by the Neoplasene.

3) Vitamin-B complex can negate the effects of Neoplasene if both are given at the same time. We will start to give her the B-complex at least 2 hours after the Neoplasene.

She is still having slightly cold paws, but the Yunnan and/or Vitamin-B do seem to help. Approximately 30 minutes after taking, she warms up.

She is in great spirits and has good energy, so all else is going well!

Iron, B-Vitamins, and Yunnan Baiyao

The holistic veterinarian called us back yesterday evening.

He told us that cold paws may not only be a sign of internal bleeding but of low iron levels or of low red blood cell production from the bone marrow - all of which cause anemia.

To counter each of these possibilities he suggested Yunnan Baiyao three times daily (for only the next three days) and adding a B-vitamin complex to her supplements.

We also decided on our own that we will start feeding her more chicken liver which is iron rich.

This morning her paws were warm and her gums were pink. We will keep a close watch and update if anything changes for the better or worse.

Over the past several days Addie has had very good energy - almost to the point where she was prior to her spleen surgery. She does seem to tire easily if she exerts herself at a high level but if she is more even-keeled she seems to have longer lasting energy.

We are in the 6th week after the initial surgery and prognosis. This is the beginning of the range we were given for probable death. If we can make it 5 more weeks we will know that all of this has had some positive effect.

Cold Paws

Recently, we have noticed Addie's paws getting cold sporadically. Since this is a sign of internal bleeding / anemia, we have given her three doses of the Yunnan Baiyao over the past two days. Early this morning her paws were good and warm but shortly after she got up we noticed they were cold again. We are going to call the vet this morning to see if he has any suggestions. Will post more after we talk with him.

Small Update

Addie has been taking neoplasene for almost 3 weeks now. So far, so good. We have made a few small changes with her diet, but otherwise, all is the same. Over the past week, she has had great energy (8/9 out of 10) and has enjoyed the Grandparent's visit. Yesterday she went on a small hike with them, Dad, and Shep and had a wonderful time!

We are now giving her cottage cheese (1/4 cup) about 10-15 minutes prior to her meal. We are hoping that this is coating her stomach and protecting it against the neoplasene. We also stopped trying to inject the neoplasene into her cooked meat, and are now just mixing it with her powdered supplements and some liquid (grease, water, or a little yogurt) to make a paste to coat her food. She loves it anyway we serve it. We are very thankful that she is not a picky eater!

We also purchased some Yunnan Baiyao online "just in case". It is a Chinese supplement that is supposed to help stop bleeding. I wanted to keep some on hand in case we notice her gums turning white or her paws getting cold both of which are signs of internal bleeding and are common with HSA. Other people have recommended this for dogs with HSA. I figured it couldn't hurt to have it handy.

Finally, after reading all of the differing opinions on feeding garlic to dogs we have decided that it's not worth the risk to continue with it. So, no more garlic in her diet.

Tucker's Site - Another Dog with Hemangiosarcoma

Tucker was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma at about the same time as Addie. Tucker's family posted a blog for him here: http://lifewithtucker.blogspot.com/. Hopefully by sharing more information, we can all learn.

Another Hemangiosarcoma Blog Site

Dozer was the inspiration for Addie's blog. When I came across his site, I too wanted to get more information out there to help others. Check out Dozer's site and what he and Jen are doing to help win the battle! http://caninecancerdatabase.blogspot.com/

Bed and Breakfast Get Away

Aunt Janet and Uncle Jeff thought it would be nice for all 4 of us to get away for the weekend, so they got us 2 nights at the Courtyard Country Inn in Westcliffe. What a wonderful gift! It was nice to relax, see some new areas, and do a couple of hikes.

We took it easy upon arrival on Friday. We did try something new with her meals. Upon several recommendations from the Neoplasene Yahoo group, we added a bit of yogurt after her meal. Although she hadn't shown signs of stomach issues, we felt better if we gave her something to help coat her stomach. She seemed slightly nauseous Friday, night, but never got sick. We tried the yogurt again with Saturday's breakfast.

After breakfast, we set out for what we thought was a short, easy hike. We figured whenever Addie showed signs of tiring, we would turn around and head back down hill. She made it all the way to the lake - 5 miles in! We did make sure there were streams along the way and shade. She lead the way and did not act tired at all. It was amazing! Not sure if she was just more recovered from the surgery, was having an extremely great day, or the yogurt gave her a bit of a pickup. She went back the 5 miles and was still doing really well.

Sunday, we did a shorter hike. Only about 4 miles. Once again, plenty of water along the way to cool off in. She didn't seem tired, but we knew we should keep it short as she had about a 3 hour ride home.

Tonight she is tired, but she always was after a long fun weekend. For Sunday night's dinner, I switched to cottage cheese vs. yogurt afterwards. I am a bit concerned with the amount of carbs in the yogurt if she is not going to burn it off right away. We will see how that goes for her.

Holistic Vet Consultation

Took Addie to the new holistic veterinarian yesterday, Dr. Friedly in Falcon, CO.

He was briefed on Addie's condition, diet, and supplements. He told us that the basic diet we are using (see previous posts) is a good 'anti-cancer' diet. In addition to the supplements we are giving her (also outlined a few posts ago), he suggested Hepagen-C, which is primarily for Milk Thistle (liver support) and Fractionated Pectin (for anti-metastasis).

In his experience with neoplasene, some animals do have digestion troubles. To counteract this, he suggested keeping her on the drug for 6 weeks and taking her off of it for 1 week then repeating this routine for the rest of her life. This is a little different than the instructions provided by Buck Mountain. We will see how she does at the six-week juncture and decide what to do at that time.

He also told us that some of his other patients with cancers as bad or worse than Addie's hemangiosarcoma are still alive 18 months after his initial visit with the animal. This was very encouraging and gave us hope that what we are doing will not be in vain. It sure sounds a lot better than the internal medicine veterinarian's prognosis of death in 10 weeks.

As far as her general state of being is concerned: from the last post up until 2-3 days ago she has been pretty energetic in the mornings but seems to have a significant drop in energy in the late morning and early afternoon. We think this might be her body trying to adjust to the lack of carbohydrates and beginning to use fat for energy. The past 2 days have been better with the late morning crash not seeming to be as drastic.

We plan to take her on a couple of hikes this weekend. Hopefully, she will be able to do a little more than she has over the past couple of weeks.

Camping Trip

Addie had been doing pretty well last Thursday and Friday (7 out of 10), so we decided to take her and Shep camping for the weekend. We didn't go far from home in case she had any issues. We thought it would be good for her to get out, sniff around, and take some walks. We also wanted to test prepackaging her meals in order to see if she would eat her new food cold. We precooked everything and put 2 meals in each baggie.

We got to our site on Friday at about 6pm. She was happy to run around, play in the creek, and smell "stuff". She enjoyed her campfire warmed dinner! We took some extra bacon grease to help her want to drink water after eating.

She slept well Friday night and was up at her usual 6:40am (not 6:39 or 6:41), ready to go. It was her first time with her new food cold. She had no issues. We went on a leisure 2 hour hike, and she did well. We did take some lunch meat as a snack since she is no longer allowed the carb-loaded, standard dog treats. She kept up and had energy at the end. We all took a couple hour long nap, then went on a short 30 minute walk around the area. Again, she had good energy. She actually played very puppy-like with a stick.

We had been concerned about the lack of carbs in her diet. She does get tired in the afternoons, but has shown good energy in the morning and pretty good energy in the evenings after a day of napping.

We are looking forward to her appointment with the holistic veterinarian on Wednesday as we have all kinds of questions: supplements, is the neoplasene causing stomach issues, what about internal bleeding, etc. I already have a long list prepared!

Stitches Out

July 23, 2008

Today was a pretty good day for Addie - 6.5 out of 10. She is still a bit lethargic, but otherwise OK. She has taken 5 doses of neoplasene after tonight's dinner. We find that adding some bacon and warming up her dinner in a little bacon grease definitely encourages her to drink a lot of water after she eats which is a good thing...

She had an appointment with the Internal Medicine veterinarian today to have her stitches removed. She was quite feisty when they tried to take her temperature - they gave up :-)

She weighed in at 64.8 lbs. Rob contributes the majority of the weight loss (about 5 lbs) to the spleen and tumor. (I'm not sure about that...) She wasn't happy about the stitches being removed, but still did OK. The area healed pretty nicely.

The veterinarian had not heard of neoplasene. Since it is a 'holistic' remedy we were not surprised but were disappointed. We had hoped that another one of his patients may have tried it and that he might have had an optimistic story to share, but it was not to be. We do have an appointment with a 'holistic' veterinarian here in Colorado Springs on July 30th. He has treated dogs with neoplasene (he carries a supply in stock). We hope to get some insight and more reasons to be hopeful from him.

Afterwards, we took her on a little walk at a nearby park - she did really well.

We are still optimistic - her food and medicines are becoming routine now....

July 22: Day 2 of Neoplasene

July 22, 2008

Addie hasn't quite had the energy over the past 2 days that she had Friday - Sunday. It could be that we overexerted her this weekend, or that we didn't feed enough carbohydrates. We aren't sure. She isn't bad, just not full of energy.

Today was her first full day ( 2 meals) with the neoplasene. So far there have been no issues. We did cook up some bacon this morning and mix that and some of the resulting grease into both meals. This helped considerably in that she drank quite a bit of water afterwards. We also took away all water outside of 30 minutes past meal time per Dr. Fox's instructions. That too helped her drink right after both meals.

She did run a bit this evening and even played a little ball. She does not seem anemic but her gums and tongue are not quite a red as they were previously. Her stitches are due to come out tomorrow -- yea!

We plan to speak to the veterinarian about his thoughts.

July 21: Neoplasene Arrives

July 21, 2008

Addie had great energy this weekend. We couldn't even tell she was sick. We hiked short distances both Saturday and Sunday with her. It was great to have her back to her old self!

The neoplasene arrived this afternoon! It was like Christmas. We are putting a lot of faith into this small bottle.

We served Addie her standard meal (standard for the last 5 days), and injected 1.2cc of the neoplasene into a few pieces of the chicken (we read that neoplasene has a horrible taste).

She didn't even notice. She consumed the meal in her standard 20.5 seconds. We tried our best to get her to drink as much water as possible afterwards per Dr. Fox's instructions. This is to help with absorption of the drug.

We were concerned because some dogs do have vomiting as a side effect, but she was good.

First dose down!

July 17: New Diet

July 17, 2008

In all our extensive research, we found much proof that typical dry dog food is very bad. I could go on and on, but to make a long story short, we decided that we would cook meals for Addie starting that day.

We had been primarily feeding Iams which we thought was "high quality" food. We were sadly mistaken. For Shep, our other dog, we will be purchasing alternative dog food.

Effective today, Addie's meals consist of:

1.5 C. cooked meat (chicken, pork, beef)
1/2 C. veggies (chopped broccoli, zucchini, etc.)
Some Sardines with oil
Olive Oil
Above is sautéed together until warm - veggies cooked
Served 2 times per day

Once a day - add the following to the mix:
Garlic
Fish Oil
Glucosamine (for joints)
CoQ10
Vitamin C

She absolutely loves her new food - garlic and all!

July 16: Little Ray of Hope - Neoplasene

July 16, 2008

After crying and feeling hopeless for most of 24 hours, we decided to do some research on Hemangiosarcoma as well as any alternative options to chemo.

Rob came across a drug called Neoplasene. It reported some amazing results in dogs with all types of cancer. He made a call to Dr. Fox at Buck Mountain Botanicals to purchase some of the medicine but was told that only a veterinarian could order. On Thursday, he had our local veterinarian order it for us for Monday delivery.

I still researched all weekend. The bad news was that there was not much information about neoplasene being used on dogs with Hemangiosarcoma. There were very few cases to be found.

That is the reason for this blog.

We want to post about how we are attempting to improve the quality and quantity of Addie's remaining time with us.

Our hope is that it will help others that follow with our same struggle.

July 15: The Worst Day!

July 15, 2008

We were pretty happy with her progress after coming home from the hospital. She was eating well, and although still seemed anemic, was getting her energy back.

I called the vet to make an appointment to have her stitches removed and to discuss our concerns about her gums and tongue still not being as red as they should be. The vet seemed strange so I asked him if he had gotten Addie's pathology results back. (We had originally told them that we didn't want it sent in as we didn't want to know - chemo wasn't an option and we didn't feel there were any other alternatives, so there was no point). However, they accidently sent it in anyways.

He told me the most horrible news: Addie had aggressive cancer of the blood vessels - hemangiosarcoma.

He told me that she only had 6-10 weeks to live and that the cancer would probably spread to her liver or lungs. He gave me several possible outcomes, none of which were even remotely above horrible.

For the next 24 hours we could't do anything but cry, especially when we looked at her. Our little girl was going to be leaving us soon and she didn't even know. We were not ready yet to let her go!

July 7: The Day it All Went Bad

July 7, 2008

Addie was having a perfectly normal, good day. At 3pm we decided to take her outside but she couldn't get up. Something was definitely wrong. Through tears, we carried her to the car and drove her to our vet. He wasn't sure what was wrong but noticed she was very anemic. He suggested that we take her to the emergency animal hospital.

Once there and examined, it was determined that she had a large tumor on her spleen that had ruptured and was bleeding internally. Emergency surgery was needed. By this time she could barely raise her head and there was no wag in her tail. We were devastated. We said our good byes to her while trying to stay calm (not at all possible) and waited for her to be transferred to post-op. It was 3 of the longest hours of our lives...

She came out of surgery like a trooper! Within 10 minutes of being out she wanted to stand up to greet us and the wag was back! At that point, the doctors did not know if it was cancer but did not see any signs of cancer in any of the other internal organs - a great sign. She was then transferred to the Internal Medicine veterinarian next door for 2 days of recovery.

She did very well and was able to come home on July 9th. It wasn't the best shaving job ever done, but she was happy to be home and we were happy to be with her again!!

Addie's Pre-Surgery Years

January 1998 - July 2008

Addie has been our little girl for so long. She has been with us through our many moves, our ups and downs, and yet always greets us at the door with the biggest wag of her tail and a smile (something she learned from cousin Lucy recently).

I swear, she was a human in a previous life. She totally understands everything we say. We catch her understanding more than she should (her previous life showing through) and then has that little look - like: oops, I wasn't supposed to acknowledge that!!

She is definitely considered our little baby and our parents' grand baby. She is loved by all!