Lymphoma Diagnosis

[rottnreba]

Our 5y.o. girl, Reba, was just diagnosed with Lymphoma. She had recently lost her appetite and had a small lump on her rear right leg.

Our vet has put her on prednisone(60 mg) twice a day. He says this may shrink her nodes and increase her appetite.

We have an appt. this week with an oncologist.

I am just wondering if anyone has had success with the prednisone.

It is tough getting the pills down as she won't eat anything on her own except smokey links. And she is skilled at spitting out the medicine and swallowing the food. She still has jaws of steel.

Any info would be appreciated. We are still in the denial stage because except for not eating she is her old self, just a bit thinner.

[Judi W]

Pred does not cure the cancer in any way, but it does increase the dog's comfort level, shrink the glands and increase the quality of life. The oncologist will let you know your further options. Be sure to ask the probability of successful remission.

How to give pills easily. Get a can of squeeze cheese. Put some on the pill and a big glob on one of your fingers. Give the pill covered one first with the finger glop right in front of the nose as you give the pill one. The dog will gulp down the pill covered one in a hurry to get to the other glob on your finger. Otherwise the dog will mouth the pill one and spit out the pill.

[rottnreba]

Thanks much, Judi.

I had forgotten about the power of "cheese".

Reba actually ate some of the high calorie vet food without a struggle this evening. But it is sad as she used to be such a chow hound.

[moondog]

I did a little googling and from what I found, single agent therapy with either prednisone or one of a number of other drugs can be very effective for lymphoma. I have always found that getting familiar with literature on a disease really helps when it comes time for the vet to try and explain things to me, so I'm posting some links that I hope will be helpful to you and Reba.

If the cheese trick doesn't work, I found that Luna would always go for her meds if I put them in a spoonful of babyfood and let her eat it off the spoon. If she started to think too hard, I would say "Hurry, hurry....LOOK! There's MORE!" and she'd swallow quickly to lick whatever snippet was left on the spoon.

As far as eating goes, I made up games with Luna to get her to eat when her appetite was poor...I'd tease her a bit, I'd bring in some competition (another dog, a cat, whoever tended to stimulate her sense of competition) and that helped a lot. Do a search on cancer diets, I think there is something to be said for them.

How long has Reba been on the pred? It should help increase her appetite and will increase her thirst, too. Remember, she will need to pee much more often with pred, so be sure to let her out often.

Make a list of every question that occurs to you to take to the oncologist with you - I found that I needed to take a note pad everywhere I went because my "best" questions always occurred to me while I was driving or otherwise predisposed and then I'd forget what the question was by the time I got home. Jot them down as soon as you think it, so you won't have to try and recall what you thunk.

I hope this helps a little....I wish the best outcome for Reba and for you.

General information on lymphoma

http://www.pressenter.com/~dvmvis/canlympho.htm
http://www.labbies.com/cancerintro.htm (scroll down for the section on lymphoma)

Single agent therapy

http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/oncology/lymphoma1.htm

Combination conventional and alternative treatments - don't miss the part at the bottom on "Healing Touch"

http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/Al...cer_AltMed.htm

Phytochemicals

http://www.peteducation.com/article....articleid=1357

[rottnreba]

I appreciate all the info, Moondog.

Reba just started on the pred today. She went to our vet last Wed. and visited the emergency vet Sunday. The lab results came in yesterday.

I will post the oncologist's recommendations.

I lost my beloved Bubba to a mast cell tumor six years ago. He was 9. It certainly doesn't get any easier. All those sad memories are returning.

Again, thank you for your kind thoughts.

[rottnkidd]

Joanne - I'll jump on the bandwagon with a couple of links on cancer and nutrition. Perhaps you'll get some ideas of what to offer your girl, and/or
foods to avoid; as well as info on supplements.
Best wishes to you and and Reba -
kathy

http://b-naturals.com/Jun2004.php

http://www.bowchow.com/specific.html Click on "Cancer"

[fbkeays]

The "good" news is that lymphoma reacts well to treatment. There is rarely a cure. My Misty was diagnosed with lymphoma in May of 2003. We did 6 months of chemo. She stayed in remission for about 3 months after the chemo. We went back on chemo for another six months before she came out of remission. That was in August. We have not been doing chemo persay in the last 4 months. She is on 20 mg of pred a day and she was just put on Chlorambucil or Leukeran, 4 mg every other day as a maintenance. She has had L'spar injections when her lymph nodes or more recently, her spleen, has gotten swollen. In the last 6 weeks it has been her spleen that has be come enlarged instead of her lymph nodes.
What Misty has done in the last 19 months is earned her JHD and one leg of her PT (herding titles), she has been training and actually been in 8 utility obedience trials with her next trial on the 23rd of January. She has been in a 3 month tracking class. She goes herding every week that the weather cooperates. She has been in two ARC carting tests in the CI (off lead) class non competitively as she has her CX title. She has been the demo carting dog in three dog fairs and has assisted in a couple dozen CGC tests.
I have tried to keep her active and involved in activities that she loves to do. She is on a low carb, mostly raw diet. She gets raw lamb necks, chicken wings, chicken thighs, duck wings, ground beef with bone, ground chicken with bone, ground quail with bone. Wysong and Evanger's make canned all meat diets that she gets too. She even has had canned beaver. Canned mackeral and salmon is in there on a weekly basis too. Every so often she gets an omlette with fried spam and cheddar cheese. She training treats are cheese, dried liver and Natural Balance rollover.
It has taken about 15 months, but she is finally able to take her pills easily. In the past, I would get a slice of cheese, break it into many small pieces. I feed a few pieces, shove the pills into the back of her mouth and immediately shovel more cheese in her mouth. All the while I keep her head up. If the pills are small enough, I make a pocket into the liver treats or the NB rollover and do the above too.
Misty also gets a Pepcid AC everyday. This summer she went through a period where she wouldn't eat either. The pepcid fixed it. It doesn't hurt or interfer with the chemo drugs.
When Misty really wouldn't eat, I would lay a food track. I would go back to begining tracking training with pieces of food every other foot step. I would go to the local ball fields (short cut grass, makes the food easier to see and not get lost). Misty would always eat stuff off the ground when she would not eat it out of her dish. She is also more likely to eat raw meaty bones then ground meat. Go to your local Asian market and get duck and any other meaty bones (chicken, beef, etc). It is much cheaper at the Asian markets then in the regular stores. If you have a butcher in town, ask about getting lamb necks and beef necks (ask if they will cut the beef necks into a 3 sections), chicken parts cheap.
Your girl will continue to loose weight for the next week or two, but watch out, she will gain weight really fast after that because of the pred. Misty handled chemo very well. She never had a bad day on chemo. Chemo is expensive, but it is over time.
Last August when Misty came out of remission while on chemo, she was give 2-3 weeks if we did nothing. We chose to do nothing, but she didn't die. 10 weeks later her lymph nodes started to swell and we got her the L'spar. A month later we did the L'spar again and then three weeks later we did it again. She has an incrediable will to live. As long as her quality of life is good and she wants to live, we will do what it takes to keep it that way.
I know that not many people have the resources to do that. I literally work for her vet bills. I am very fortunate that I have a very understanding boss. He has allowed me to take the time to take care of her. Of course I have to balance that with the fact that I get paid by the hour, but he allows me a flexable schedule.
I remember the first month I carried around a bag of chocolate chips. I was never far from copous amounts of chocolate (and kleenex). I felt I couldn't breath. I was over whelmed and depressed. But the sooner you do chemo, the better it will work if you choose that route.
I am so sorry you have to go through this and make these decisions.

[rottnreba]

Thank you both, Rottnkidd and Fbkeays!

I am encouraged by your information and support. This will help in getting info from the vet.

Tomorrow we see the specialist.