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Originally Posted by lucasmom  Ann-
The tramadol can cause nausea and actually make your dog feel worse if you give her too much. Plus, when she really needs it for pain control as the cancer advances, she will have built up a tolerance to it. I give Lucas one 50 mg tablet in the morning and two 50 mg tablets in the evening before bedtime. That seems to hold him over. When be fell over the weekend and hurt his leg, I gave him 3 of the 50 mg tablets. You might want to ask your vet about startin her on some prednisone. It has helped Lucas tremendously with pain relief. He takes 4 mg in the am and 4 mg in the pm. I stopped giving him the piroxicam because he was getting nauseated and vomitting. |
Thanks Laurie. We are seeing an oncologist at 16 -20 day intervals at this stage and I'm following oncology advice regarding medication and pain relief. Sophie is not on prednisone, she's on a metronomic protocol which she tolerates well. We were given meds for nausea yesterday and they're working. Sophie is comfortable today. All the drugs Sophie takes have the side effect of nausea and it's only in the last couple of days she showed any sign of the nausea meds not working.
There was a sign of something not being quite right at the end of August 07. The pathology report of the biopsy was inconclusive at that stage. She was positively diagnosed with highly malignant osteo in her R mandible in December 07 when another biopsy was done. We consulted an oncology specialist within 2 days of her diagnosis.
As Sophie's prognosis was poor the oncologist suggested the metronomic protocol would be the way to go. She has a tumor on her gum that in the oncologist's opinion is growing slowly. It's growing too quickly for my liking.
Sophie was not expected to survive more than a couple of weeks. She's still doing very well and feeling well. The priority of the oncologist and myself is that Sophie is pain free and so far the drugs she has are achieving this. The pain meds will be changed to something stronger than Tramadol if needed, as her cancer progresses. She is at the moment taking 350mg per day in total. She also takes piroxicam.
Sophie is still happy and playful. She enjoys her walks and a short game of fetch. That the OSA is not in her limbs, getting around is not an issue for her.