Mets Update

Hairless Pup, Little sisters, Metastasis, Metronomics, Soccer balls

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.
Me & Lola. She HATES Stays.
Desperately Seeking Scraps

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

Belated Hoppy Halloween!

CDSP, Little sisters, Loungin', Metastasis, Rally-O, Soccer balls

Hey everyone, it is me again, Butchey Hudson.

Just a quick check in to let everyone know we had a Hoppy Halloween. Hope you all did, too.  No dogs got into any candy here at our household.  Chocolate is bad, bad for us dogs.  Just ask my Momma and Dada.  A long long long long long time ago, they FREAKED when I got into a chocolate cake on the counter.  Momma didn’t have a happy birthday that year.  The frosting was delicious though.  It got stuck all up in my gums and I thought I’d be snacking on that for a while, but then they made me throw up.  That was not fun.  Anyway…no issues like that this year.

If anyone was wondering…yes – they did make me and Lola dress up.  How humiliating.  I won’t post the pictures, I am so ashamed.  But here is a nice one of me and the pesky little sister.

So things have been going well.  I’ve been doing really great and feeling good.  I did some Rally-O and CDSP Obedience the past couple of weeks.  But I’ve been running out of the ring again because I am just sooooo goofy.  Momma still loves me though.  I still had fun.  I earned my first qualifying score in the Rally Veterans class (which I can now enter because I’m 8 years young now!)  Momma says “Old Dogs Rock!”

So, you know those Boppy things they make for babies?  They are pretty comfy.  They aren’t just for babies anymore, they are for Butcheys, too.

So in a couple of weeks I get another set of X-Rays on my lung mets and see what they are doing.  Hopefully nothin’.  But we will let you know.

Until then…keep on keepin’ on hoppin’!!

 

My 16 Month Ampuversary *AND* My 8th Birthday

Ampuversary, Birthday, Cousins, Hairless Pup, Hemangiosarcoma, Little sisters, Soccer balls, Supplements

Yeah!  Back to back milestones baby!  Butchey Hudson here.  Hope everyone in the New England area survived the earthquake last night.  Momma says I am not a good watchdog because I didn’t even stir on the couch when the shaking started.  Well what did I know, it sounded like that hairless pup ripping those big belches like she does.

Anyway – Yup, last Sunday I celebrated my 16 month ampuversary and then on Monday, I turned 8 years old!!!  Momma and Dada went to some big place called Ikea and got me three of my very favorite soccer balls.  I love them!  I have them in all 3 colors, black, blue and red.  Momma said my old ones were getting much too gross.  She calls them “slobber sponges”.  They had been washed, and sewed at the Stuffectomy Triage Center too many times.    Here is a picture of me with my new red one.

Momma says I like to suckle them.  She has a funny nick-name for me when I chill out on the couch with them, but she says that the name is inappropriate to be repeated here on Tripawds.com.  I’m not sure what inappropriate means…because I like to smell butts.  I guess humans think that is inappropriate, too.

I really really really love my soccer balls and I can’t go to bed without at least one of them.  But sometimes I like to take other toys to bed.  I really like big stuffed things.  Last Easter, Momma got me Big Blue Bunny.  He spends a LOT of time in Stuffectomy Triage, but he has it coming.  Him and those big floppy ears of his, he is just asking for me to rip them off!  Now, I have a little reminder for all you folks with Tripawds.  Sometimes we need help getting up the stairs with our big toys.  Of course, I can easily get up the stairs with my soccer balls.  But Big Blue Bunny is big, and I have tripped going up the stairs when I drag him up to go to bed.  So I have learned to whine at the bottom of the stairs and either Momma or Dada will come back downstairs and carry him up the stairs for me.  I am not sure why they don’t carry him up in their mouths like I do.  Must be because they have those thumbs.  Sometimes I wish I had thumbs…but whining does work.

So what else…Oh Yeah.  So my Auntie from Virginia came up to see ME, and I suppose Lola and the hairless pup, too.  But she brought my cousin Charlie with her.  (Big grumbling sigh).  Momma says I was not on my best behavior.  In fact, she says I was very rude to him.  Well in my defense, he came in here with MY Auntie and then he tried to play with Lola.  She is MY sister.  MINE.  He even posed for this picture with the hairless pup.  The nerve!

Charlie and Tessa – Hmmmph – She is MY hairless pup

So I fixed his butt.  Or at least I tried to.  I tried to start a fight with him, but he wouldn’t partake.  So I woofed at him, and then I dropped to the floor like my 1 back leg went out from underneath me.  I figured everyone would think he was a bad boy and knocked the 3 legged dog with cancer to the ground.  But he scooted off too quickly when I feigned my fall, and I think everyone was onto my clever ruse.

Momma wants me to mention that I am taking a new mushroom product to fight my cancer.  I’ve been on it for about 3 weeks now.  It is called I’m Yunity.  There was a study released by U Penn in September I think.  The study was done on 15 dogs with splenic hemangiosarcoma and had very good results.  The mushroom is specifically Coriolus versicolor.  The press release link is here, and the study link is here.  She says we will keep posting in the blog about how I am doing with it.

Well that is it for now!  Remember to keep those Halloween chocolate candies away from all your dogs when it is trick or treat time soon.  Did somebody say TREAT????!!!!

The M Word

Hemangiosarcoma, Metastasis, Metronomics, Momma says, Palladia

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.

The Hairless Pup and Palladia update

Hairless Pup, Little sisters, Palladia

Hey everyone, Butchey Hudson here.  WELL!  Life sure has been bizarre here at the house.  Let me back-track a bit…

 

So then a few weeks ago, Momma and Dada left for a while, but Nana AND Mimi were BOTH here while they were away.  Don’t ask me how many days, I’m a dog – I don’t have a good concept of time….Maybe 3 or 4 sleeps.

Then Dada came home and had this hat and blanket for me and Lola to smell.  Hmmm…

THEN, FINALLY, Momma and Dada came home with this….this THING.  I think it’s a “she” and she sure does scream an awful lot.  Momma and Dada call her Tessa, and I guess she is “the baby”.  At first, I liked her better when she was still in Momma’s belly.  But now I am used to her.  Although, she doesn’t look like a baby human, she doesn’t walk, or talk, or even crawl.  She looks like a hairless pup.  And she just yells a bunch.  Especially in the middle of the night.  She disrupts my beauty sleep.  But Momma and Dada seem to really like her.

Here is the official “fur-amily” photo

Me, the Hairless Pup, and Lola

So, some might say, that now with a baby in the house, there is less time for the dogs.  WELL – Somehow Momma still finds time to brush me out and trim my nails!  I wish she’d have less time to trim my nails – and maybe forget to clean my ears. 

I guess she is OK.  She smells like poop a lot, so that isn’t so bothersome.  Here’s another pic of me and her.

“Guarding Tess”
Momma says I’m cooler than Nicholas Cage

Enough about her, because, you know, this is MY blog.  She can get her own blog.  (I hope she doesn’t, Momma barely finds time to write what I tell her to)

So more about me.  I am on Palladia now for about 3 weeks, and I’ve been on and off it because I keep getting *The Runs*.  You know – when you have to RUN outside (or where ever you all poop) because the urge is just THAT intense.  So now I’m also on Flagyl to get rid of that, but we are trying to find a balance on dosages.  So I was on 80 mg of Palladia, and now I’m going down to 65 mg.  I was at my doggie oncologist yesterday and that’s what they decided.

And Momma has got me back on my PT workout.  We weren’t doing much because Momma wasn’t feeling well towards the end of her carrying around that hairless pup inside her.  (Momma wants me to mention she was 8 lbs 15 oz when she was born c-section.)  But now that Momma is feeling better, she’s up my fluffy butt again with all these discs and the bosu ball.  Core training she calls it….I’d call it Bore training if I wasn’t getting treats while we were doing it.

So that’s what is going on here.  Oh, yeah, and Lola is still a pesky little sister.  Almost ran me down on the back deck stairs the other day.  As if my confidence wasn’t shaky enough!

Another picture of yours truly

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

Chemo, Hemangiosarcoma, Metronomics, Momma says, Nice people

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!!

 

I need a new barber!!

Hemangiosarcoma, Nice people

Hey everyone – Butchey Hudson here.  So last Wednesday, Momma and Dada took me up to see some people I know.  Now, all these people are very nice, but I’ve never gotten groomed there before.  Well I hope I don’t get another grooming there, because look what happened!  They took too much off the back! 

I need a new barber

 I feel a breeze on the back of my neck and something is very itchy now. 

Anyway….Dada says I had another tumor that had to come out.  The report came back and it is a confirmed hemangiosarcoma tumor.  So it would appear my cancer has now traveled.  Momma and Dada are very sad.  I see them crying even though they try to hide it from me. 

Lola just thinks I look funny, and she keeps trying to smell me on my bad haircut spot.  But for the most part she is being very nice to me.  But she’s suspect…something must be up.

Nana has been here a lot, and Mimi was here the other day, too.  Momma has been smelling funny for quite a while now and she has….well….she’s put on a lot of weight, especially in her belly.  Lola has been a bit clingy with her, too.  But Nana and Mimi have been here helping Momma and Dada out.  Nana ALWAYS makes sure I have my food cooked for me.  I am happy she is here to look out for me.  She gives great massages, too.  Here is a nice picture of her and I.  She was laughing about her shirt, but I can’t read, so I don’t know what it says.

So maybe it is a coincidence, but right after the haircut, the pink elephants came back for a visit.  But they are not as numerous as my big surgery a year ago.  Momma says it is Tramadol.  I am doing quite well now though.  But Momma makes me wear a sock on my back leg so I don’t mess up the spot where I they gave me the bad haircut.

Momma says that this Tuesday we go to see my oncologist to see what she says. 

Oh my….I need to go, there are a lot of fireworks going off now and I need to try to sit in Momma’s lap.  It is hard now with that big belly of hers….

We will write more later….I have the shakes and can’t type very well.

 

 

 

1 Year Ampuversary!

Ampuversary, Eggs

Wow, it has been a while since we posted.  I’ll have to bug Momma about that.

Today is my one year ampuversary!  Momma & Dada are real emotional about it.  They keep telling me how much they love me….AND I’ve gotten more belly rubs than Lola today!  Ha!  I wonder…how long is a year anyway?

In traditional fashion, we celebrated with some Cheesy Eggy Goodness.  Lola got her own plate, so she wouldn’t try to thieve mine.  Momma made us wear party hats.  I’m not sure who Sponge Bob is, but Momma and Dada wore them, too.  Me & Lola weren’t happy about the hats, but we kind of forgot about them when we got to (finally – after ALL the picture taking) eat our C.E.G.

  So, things have been good.  I had clean scans the beginning of May.  Then I had a bout of some vomiting.  That seems to be squared away now, or so we hope.  Momma tells me to keep my paws crossed for good luck, but I can only cross the front ones. 

I wonder…now that this big year has passed, will I continue to get special treats on the 14th of each month…..?  I sure hope so.  But maybe somebody could remind my Momma and my Dada, though please!

Here’s some more pics of me.  I like stuffed things, especially big stuffed things….like my Big Bunny.

 

 

OK – Got to go.  Momma says she promises to post more later, but right now she is wanting some cuddle time with me.

 

8 Month Ampuversary

Eggs, Momma says

Happy 8 Month Ampuversary to my best buddy! 

Tonight we enjoyed some cheesy eggy goodness and made a wish.  I know what I wished for.  Butchey’s wish was for me to stop taking pictures so he could eat his cheesy eggy goodness.

Thank you to all who replied to yesterday’s post on what never gets old!  I loved all of your stories – keep them close in your heart.