Category Archives: Metronomics

Hoppy New Year 2013

January 13, 2013CCNU, Chemo, Hairless Pup, Hemangiosarcoma, Little sisters, Loungin', Metastasis, Metronomics, Soccer ballsdoggiemomma9

Hi everyone, it is me Butchey Hudson. I hope you all had a Hoppy New Year! I thought New Year’s was fine, but Momma says we got some bad news on New Years Eve at our doc appointment. It would seem my latest X-Rays show that although Felix is stable, Oscar is still growing. Quite a bit. And now I have lumps under my one of my ears, too. The Doc aspirated them and they came back positive for hemangiosarcoma. Phooey.

So now I am on a new drug, CCNU, in hopes that this will slow things down on the cancer front. Momma and Dada decided to stop the Cytoxan and Doxycycline because it didn’t seem to be doing enough. We check back with the doc 3 weeks after that New Years Eve appt. My CBC 1 week post CCNU came back OK. So I will probably have another dose of CCNU at my next appointment. It is in pill form, so no IV which Momma likes. We will do X-Rays again 6 weeks after last ones to see what the Odd Couple are doing, and we will monitor the size of my ear lump.

Momma and Dada are very sad, but hopeful that the CCNU will help me. Meanwhile, I just do what I do best: LOUNGE!

The trick is to become one with the pillows

For any of you wondering, the ~~gray~~ red soccer ball has been my favorite lately. It has the most flavor stored up in it.

I still like to be near the Hairless Pup a lot. She’s alright. Even though despite all the promises made to me, she has only just started to drop some food my way.

Lola just walked into the picture to get her self in the photgraph

Did I mention Momma had gotten a new camera? She likes this black and white stuff.

Me smelling the air. I LOVE sniffing the air. Tells you a lot about what the neighbors are eating.

The Hairless Pup complained to me about the Tutu. Just wait until they put her in the Cone of Shame!

Here is our official Christmas Picture for 2012. We only stay for CHEESE.

Here are me and Lola opening up our presents on Christmas morning.

Santa Paws brought me an Indoor Chuck-It. Yeah…Like that WON’T break anything in the house! And that floppy green dog behind me is Roofus. He get’s a whipping when he’s been bad, but I still like to hang out on the couch with him.

So that is it for now. Or so I think. Momma has seemed a bit giddy the past couple of days. She says she has a secret that I will like a lot. But she says ‘contractually’ she can’t say anymore….yet. What the woof is ‘contractually’? So I guess – Stay Tuned!

Mets Update

November 21, 2012Hairless Pup, Little sisters, Metastasis, Metronomics, Soccer ballsdoggiemomma9

Hi everyone, Butchey Hudson here.

Momma says we ought to post an update on how my last NEVOG appointment went. I feel fine! I don’t know what all this fuss is about!

Anyway, Momma says we need to name these 2 nodules that are in my lungs. Momma was thinking an evil duo, but at the risk of antagonizing them, we’re just going to call them Felix and Oscar. You know, like the Odd Couple?

So it appears that Felix hasn’t changed much in the past 6 weeks or so. Still about 8-10 mm. But Oscar is putting on some weight. He was 6mm last time and is now 1.2 cm. Momma says we have to think and stay pawsitive!!

So we are adding doxycycline back into my metronomic protocol. Our doc also mentioned a drug called Leukeran, but we are hesitant to change drugs after what happened with Palladia. But if anyone has any experience with it, we’d love to hear about it! But for right now it is Cytoxan/Deramaxx/Doxycycline. Plus the I’m Yunity mushroom.

Momma says that this metronomic protocol seemed to work for us for a while before. It is just that the Piroxicam took its toll on my tummy the last time. We are hoping the doxy doesn’t bother my tummy. So we are taking it on a full tummy full of food.

Well Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Don’t forget to be thankful that you are pulling dog hairs out of your gravy!

PS – Dada and Momma also found a lump on my side, but the doc thinks it is just a fatty lipoma. Definitely a different feel than the lump on the back of my neck.

Here’s a few pics, because Momma got a new camera. She’s always shoving it in somebody’s face!

Slobbery, Squishy Soccer Ball. How I love you.

And because people just BEGGED for them, here are the humiliating pictures from Halloween:

Lola as the Jedi Knight, and me as Chewbacca (raaaaar!)

The Hairless Pup (aka Tessa) as Princess Leia

The M Word

September 14, 2012Hemangiosarcoma, Metastasis, Metronomics, Momma says, Palladiadoggiemomma9

Butchey Hudson’s Momma here. As many of us know here on Tripawds.com, one of the words we hate to encounter after a cancer diagnosis is Metastasis. It is a nasty word, and unfortunately we have it.

One of Butchey’s chest x-rays back in May showed a spot that would probably be on the lung. About 6 weeks later, the spot had doubled in size. That growth spurt happened while we had him on Palladia, so unfortunately the drug didn’t slow the growth of the nodule.

August was not a terrific month for Butchey, but so far September has been much better. It seems the Palladia didn’t agree to well with Butchey. We posted before about his bowel issues with it. The pigment also lightened on his nose and on his paw pads. Whether a coincidence or not, his paw pads also got really soft and he began to lose traction on his feet. Not a good thing for any dog, but especially not good for a Tripawd. At first it was issues with the doing stairs. Then it was issues on the floor, even though most of the floor is covered with carpet or throw rugs. Then he was even slipping on carpet. He also seemed to have some weakening in his remaining back leg, which would flop out from under him quite a bit for about a week in August. He barely played with Lola. Then he stopped eating.

So away the Palladia went. Bye-bye. After giving him some time off from meds to clear out his system, we are going back to a modified version of his previous metronomic protocol. We started with Deramaxx (replaces the Piroxicam as the NSAID) and we are also back on Cytoxan. Holding off on the Doxycycline for now. He had vomitting issues several months back, which led us off the old metronomic protocol. We are hoping it was mainly the Piroxicam that caused that issue, and also hoping that where Deramaxx is supposed to be easier on the stomach, we won’t have any vomitting issues. He wasn’t on the Doxy for quite a while, so we know that wasn’t causing the last bout of vomiting on that protocol. But we know it can cause stomach upset, so we are holding off on Doxy for now.

So this modified metronomic protocol was one of the choices available to us. We also had a couple of chemotherapy options. But we felt that after 5 rounds of Adriamycin last year, we had given him all we really wanted to on that front. Keeping quality of life a top priority, and we were already quite concerned after the setbacks in August, more chemo just didn’t seem right to us. We had a good 6 months on the old metronomic protocol before, and it kept the cancer at bay for that time period. It did seem like the lump on his neck and the nodule on his lung happened while we were off the protocol and trying to get the other issues worked out. We are hoping the Cytoxan can slow this nodule on his lungs, or even better – stop it from growing. We rescan in another few weeks and will see what the size is then. We are keeping our paws crossed.

So, after the Palladia dry out, things did return to normal. Thankfully! Gradually, the strength returned in his back leg. We used Pawz Boots in the interim to help with the slipping issue, but eventually the pigment started returning to normal and we now have traction again. With those improvements, his confidence has returned. He started doing some stairs again. Then one morning last week he went down the long flight of stairs off of our back deck, just like that. All by himself, no harness, no boots. I can’t really explain the sense of relief we felt. After that he initiated a tug game with his leash after a #2 in the front yard. So we knew he was feeling much better.

We did manage to get some swimming in during August and September.

And some cuddle time with Tessa…

Trying to enjoy each day and not spend it in tears thinking about what is ahead of us. Hemangiosarcoma, you suck.

Coming off panic mode….for a few days at least

July 3, 2012Chemo, Hemangiosarcoma, Metronomics, Momma says, Nice peopledoggiemomma9

Butchey Hudson’s Momma here. Just a quick update, as we are fresh back from our visit from our oncologist to consult on the Hemangiosarcoma tumor removed from Butchey’s neck last week.

First the good news: No metastasis to spleen or heart. They did new ultrasounds and x-rays and no masses were found in those areas. For this we can feel like we can come off of panic mode, at least for a little while.

There are a few routes we can take for treatment. We could do chemo treatments using ifosfamide or dacarbazine. Or we could use Palladia, Palladia/Deramaxx/Cytoxan as maintenance, or go back to metronomic protocol but replace Deramaxx instead of Piroxicam. Let me footnote this with I am pretty sure I have all the drugs correct, but the brain is swirling and we agreed not to make a decision right at this point in time. She is going to consult with her other veterinary oncologists and we are going to discuss again maybe this Friday.

We have some concerns with going the chemo route again, after doing the Adriamycin last fall. We also have some concerns with GI upset after having some vomitting issues under the metronomic protocol over the past couple of months.

So our heads are spinning on a decision of what is the best route to take. A difficult aspect of this is that this isn’t a textbook case of Hemangiosarcoma (HSA). While we are extremely happy that the HSA hasn’t acted like it normally would and have gone to his organs (and have a much poorer prognosis) there really isn’t much to compare it to. I believe she told us 5% at best of HSA show up subcutaneously. But to have two spots is quite unusual. Her concern is that this is metastatic, of course. The thought that this was a separate HSA tumor is just too coincidental. I almost feel like we might be playing whack-a-mole with HSA. Where will it pop up next? But these are my own layman’s terms.

In other news, he is doing very well recovering from last Wednesday’s surgery. He is off the Tramadol now and seems to be in no discomfort, other than itching at the incision site. We had a bad bout of Montezuma’s revenge over last weekend following the surgery, but that seems to have been resolved. We are trying to contain his energy and keep him from whipping his toys around and playing too rough with Lola. However, we think that he might end up being a little sore tonight though, from wrestling with the vet techs for his ultrasound. But so far, so good. He is a happy boy, feeling well and still doesn’t know he has cancer (of course). He thinks life is grand and he’s most concerned with where and when his next piece of cheese is coming from or which squishy ball to choose to lounge on the couch with.

So that is it for now. We are going to take a long nap now and try to have a relaxing 4th of July holiday. Well as much as we can with the Butchmeister hating fireworks and thunderstorms. =0/

Hope everyone is enjoying a well deserved day off! Thank you all for your good thoughts, emails and kind words. Time is precious; enjoy EVERY day!!

Catching up…Sleepovers and Scans again

November 10, 2011Hemangiosarcoma, Little sisters, Metronomics, Nice peopledoggiemomma9

Well, we’ve had a lot going on here at the Hudson household. First we got a snow storm in late October!!! Yipee, I love snow!!! But because all the trees fell down, we lost power for several days. But it was OK, because we packed up and went to my Nana’s. Ugh…Monkeybutt Lola came with us.

So Nana is Momma’s Momma, and she is lots of fun. She hides cheese around the house for us, but we have to wait to find it until she tells us to. We had a sleepover at Nana’s for about 4 days. Now Dada’s Momma is Mimi, and we went to see her too when we didn’t have power. My “cousins” Kayla and Tori were there at Mimi’s, too. They lost power as well. We played and I gave them lots of kisses. They are a lot of fun.

So now we are back at home and all is good. We did have to throw out a lot of food from the fridge. I could have cried. What a waste. But it is all restocked now. My food, my cheese sticks, and of course….My Eggs.

So this past Tuesday I had my belly shaved (I hate that) and ultrasounds and a chest xray. They didn’t find anything, so Momma & Dada were very relieved. Momma says she’ll trade a shaved belly for clean scans any day. Now I am on a metronomic protocol. I get Cyclophosphamide 1x day, Piroxicam 1x day, and Doxycycline 2x day. But it is all in my food, so I don’t notice it.

I have a busy weekend coming up. Momma has entered us in another CDSP Obedience trial on Saturday. I’m not sure why, but Lola is coming with us.

That is it for now. Hope all you Tripawds and Monkeybutts are having a nice autumn. The weather here is warm again. But it is rainy here tonight.

Oh, Momma’s camera was broken and in the shop…so no new pics.