Tuesday February 1, 2011

Piper had a big day Saturday; she went to the park and even got frisky enough to run (for a few strides LOL) a couple of times with some other puppies. Yesterday we went to a different park where our other doggie companions wanted to walk around some trails. Piper thought it was a bit excessive and let me know so we went to the lake and she did her favorite past time, dunking her face in the water. She then let me know it was time to go with a look and a whine. When we got home she was exhausted and this morning doesn't seem to feel well. There's a delicate balance to enjoying life and wearing her out that I am trying to find. It seems that Saturday and Monday park visits were too much. I can tell she doesn't feel well. She's less interested in food, thus it took some really good stuff to get her to eat, and she's not breathing well. Her breathing seams to get slightly worse every day and really makes mama sad. BUT I would rather have a few fun days at the end of my life than a lot days of laying in bed. So she's gonna keep on having fun, maybe just with less walking and more riding in the truck.

Thursday January 27, 2011

Just when I let myself think Piper is doing well there's a setback. Her lymph nodes are notably smaller thanks to the increased Prednisolone. She’s breathing much better, though still a little labored. And this morning she even ate plain dog food. So with things improving I thought maybe I could take her off the incontinent and anti-nausea meds. The vet keeps telling me the less medication she's on the better (meds upset tummies). But of course, just when I get a little optimistic there’s always a reality check waiting just around the corner. Piper dribbled on her bed showing me for the first time in about a week that she still doesn’t have control of her bladder.

A few weeks ago Piper’s incontinence really got out of hand. She would pee while running to the door to go out, or while standing or sleeping. She didn’t even know she was peeing. This was mainly due to a urinary tract infection, which I thought we had gotten rid of. Luckily, I was able to take up an area rug and she wasn’t peeing on carpet. I waterproofed the stuffing to her bed by covering it in heavy duty garbage bags and duct tape and began rotating 3 blankets every day, sometimes more than once a day. The laundry load was a nightmare for a while but I thought the incontinence med had nipped it in the bud. I guess not. . . On the bright side I guess a little dribble is better than a full on pee. Big dog = big pee!

To catch you up to date:

Piper is a 150 lb English mastiff with all the typical attributes; loving, lazy, and in general the greatest dog you could ever have. She listens so well I don’t have to put her on a leash, except, at times, for other peoples’ comfort. And she loves me so hard all it takes is for me to look her way and her tail wags. I got her when she was 5 weeks old and the size of my size 9 women’s shoe.  She turned 6 years old the same day she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer.

                                                        
Friday December 17, 2010

Vet visit shows Piper to have an eye infection and ear infection. She’s put on eye and ear drops.

Vet calls that evening with blood work results. Piper has EXTREMELY high liver enzymes and white blood cell count.

Saturday December 18, 2010

Vet puts Piper on liver meds and liver diet food and strong antibiotics in addition to the drop.

Vet says this could be indicative of cancer or it could just be a really bad infection. He wants to treat her for infection to see if everything clears up before we do expensive tests to see if it’s cancer.

The cancer scare begins. I trust my gut and my gut told me this was cancer.

Wednesday December 29, 2010

Piper has a checkup and appears to be doing much better. The vet gives us another round of antibiotics for good measure. I’m leaving Piper with a trusted friend/dog sitter and leaving town for 4 days. The vet says Piper looks like she is getting better and she can start the antibiotics when I get back.

Sunday January 02, 2011

I get home around 7 PM and notice Piper is making a funny noise (it sounds like a loud snore) when she breaths and her neck appears swollen. I feel her neck and it feels like there is a water balloon in it (see picture below). I also see blood on her bed which is coming from her hind end. Piper was fixed so I know it’s not her period but I am not sure where this is coming from. It’s Sunday so I take her to the Emergency Animal Hospital.

The vet tells me that all of Piper’s lymph nodes are swollen. There are 5 lymph nodes in a dog’s neck and Piper’s are swollen and choking her. Piper stays in the hospital over night receiving IV antibiotics, fluids, etc.

Here we are at the Animal Hospital. 

You can see the "ball" hanging under her neck. 

That is her lymph nodes. 

Monday January 03, 2011

I have to pick Piper up from the hospital and take her to her vet clinic. At the hospital the vet shows me x-rays which show that a lymph node is swollen in her chest and pressing on her heart. He also tells me that the bleeding was coming from her liver and that at the vet clinic he will aspirate Piper’s lymph node and send off the sample to see if this is cancer. The veterinarian that worked with her over night at the hospital happens to be working at her vet clinic the same day. This is a huge relief because he already knows what’s going on and what’s been done.

During the drive I realize Piper’s breathing is no better than the night before. Piper stays at the clinic all day.

I’ve been trying to give facts and leave sentiment out of all this but let me tell you, Piper is the biggest mama’s girl I’ve ever seen in a dog. When we go to parks she wants little more to do with other dogs than to get one sniff of their hinny and pays no attention to people. She just wants to know where mama is and be by my side. She looks like a lost toddler then runs to me if I walk 20 feet away while she’s distracted.  So spending the night in the hospital, away from me was hell for her. While checking her in at the clinic she wouldn’t take her head off my leg. When the vet tech tried to take her she hid behind me and wound up sticking her face between my legs trying to hide. It was one of the hardest moments of my life. All that puppy wanted was to be with me and I was leaving her. It broke my heart and I broke down balling at the counter.

This puppy will follow me anywhere . . . even up an 8 foot slide. 

And YES, she did slide.

 

When I picked Piper up the vet told me that when he aspirated Piper’s lymph node a lot of puss came out. He said this is UNcommon for lymphatic cancer/lymphoma so this could all be a terrible infection! OH MY GOODNESS the joy! For the first time since 12/18/10 I felt like there might be some hope that this wasn’t cancer. I actually allowed myself to get my hopes up!

But Piper was very very sick and hadn’t eaten in 2 days. The vet expressed the gravity of her eating to me and told me he didn’t care what she ate but if she didn’t eat then she was as good as dead. He was letting me take her home in hopes that she would eat for me. This motto stuck with me from that moment on: “If she’s eating she’s living”.

I got Piper home and she wasn’t interested in eating her food. I got her to eat a bunch of lunch meat and then she slept for the next 20 hours. . . .20 VERY stressful hours! But the next day she was rested and ready to eat!

Friday January 7, 2011

The vet calls with the results or the lymph node aspiration. Piper has lymphoma. We know her liver has been affected and this means she’s already in stage 4. We don’t know if any other organs are affected but if they are then she is in stage 5 (the last stage). Lymphoma hinders immune systems so Piper’s body can’t fight infection.

The vet and I discuss our options and jointly decide that Piper’s cancer is too progressed and her temperament not that of one that would do well with chemo. The vet said on chemo she would likely spend some time in the hospital and she doesn’t deal with that stress well. It would be too much for her. After the way she reacted the last time I had to leave her at the clinic I swore I'd never let her spend another night away from me or outside of our home. She’s a happier and healthier puppy here.

The vet put her on Prednisolone (a steroid that will shrink her lymph nodes and hinder the cancer’s progression for a time), a really strong antibiotic, and anti-nausea meds (cancer makes dogs nauseous).

For those of you going through this here's the 411 on Prednisone vs Prednisolone: Though prednisone and prednisolone are used in the same manner and equally as effective, they should not be confused with each other. Prednisone is activated by the liver into prednisolone. For this reason, and because it is more easily absorbed, prednisolone is the drug of choice when hepatic disease or insufficiency is present. Piper's liver was already damaged so she was put on the Prednisolone.

Saturday January 08, 2011 – Friday January 21, 2011

Piper doesn’t like the liver food prescribed and isn’t interested in her regular dog food. She eats her old food with “Moist N Meaty” mixed in. This keeps her interest well enough to keep her eating but only for a time. Every few days I have to get more and more creative to keep her eating but I keep it interesting enough that she eats twice a day.

Side note: If you are in this situation try mixing these things with dog food to keep them eating without you going broke: run off liquid from anything you cook yourself (pasta, chicken, steak, tacos LOL, etc), deli meat sliced into strips, any of your leftovers, and soup (so far I know Piper likes cream of mushroom mixed into her dog food. Not only does she eat but she licks her bowl)

Initially the Prednisolone shrunk Piper’s lymph nodes back to normal size. It also made her pace constantly, pant, and drink TONS of water. She was supposed to take the Prednisolone every 12 hours for 5 days, then every 24 hours for 5 days, then every other day till it stopped working. However, every time I try to taper her down her lymph nodes noticeably swell. When we skipped a day for the first time they swelled so bad that she could hardly breathe again. I called the vet and he told me to go ahead and increase the Prednisolone back up to one a day. Piper also developed a urinary track infection and started losing control of her bladder, which is a huge problem in a huge dog, so she was given meds for incontinence.

I had surgery so have been off work and able to give her TONS of TLC. I’m off for another 3 weeks and am looking forward to making sure she enjoys her time going here and there in her favorite big red truck!

 

Monday January 24, 2011    One Tough Day:

Piper’s breathing continues to get faster/shallower. It seems like theirs either fluid in her lungs or her lymph nodes are pressing on her lungs. I took her to the vet and he increased the prednisolone back to 2 times a day. He also prescribed tramadol (pain meds) and told me to start her on zantac (for acid reflux because she is gagging very frequently). All the meds upset her tummy. She is now on 8 meds twice a day! (Prednisolone: steroid, Tramadol: pain, Metoclopramide: anti-nausea, Denosyl: liver med, Proin: incontinence, Ciproflaxin: anti-biotic, Benodryl: allergies, Zantac: antacid)

           

The days prior I had prepared myself to talk to the vet about what it will be like when Piper's lost the fight. I also wanted to ask about alternatives to putting her down at the clinic. Piper hates the vet's back room where they put the sick puppies so I didn't want her to have to go there. She slides around in the metal box and when I sit in it with her it makes LOUD metal popping sounds. I really didn't want her to have that place and experience as her last. The vet told me they do make house calls so that REALLY put my mind at ease. At least we will be able to lie on her bed in her home and go to sleep.

Afterward I had to talk to my dad about her burial. He said he would come get her and take her out to the farm and bury her beside his dog (my childhood dog). That also eased my mind.

It's surreal planning my dog's funeral. I feel some comfort in having worked out the logistics and them being respectful for her. She will fall asleep on her own bed and blanket, be wrapped in her blanket, and buried on the family farm. It’s hard but I couldn’t have asked for the logistics to have worked out better.

Wednesday January 26, 2011

Just a couple of days of increased Prednisone and Piper’s lymph nodes have shrunk. They aren’t back to normal but she is definitely having an easier time breathing. The vet has told me all along that the Prednisolone will only “buy us some time”, probably a matter of weeks, but the cancer will get stronger and figure out how to beat the Prednisolone. Right now it’s working. She’s breathing a little better and thanks to the zantac (I guess) she’s not gagging constantly. Also, the pain meds seem to be making her more comfortable and she's resting better.

About Prednisolone: It’s a steroid so it made Piper anxious. My dog that was so lazy she would lay down after just following me into another room got to where she was constantly pacing and when she wasn’t pacing she was standing, staring at me, and panting. I called this “sharing her breath with me time”. She loved to do it. But the Tramadol, pain meds, have her mostly back to her usual lazy self during the day, though she’s still a little restless during the evening