Lymphoma

[Mochasmom]

You just don't think that it is ever going to happen to your dog.

For the past 2 months Mocha has not been eating regualrly. After the first 2 weeks I took her to the vet. They drew blood and all was normal...well, red blood cells were barely low. She has now lost 7 lbs. The vet and I figure it must be behavioural ( she originally stopped eating the pills (glucosamine, and salmon oil and an aspirin if she needed one) in her food then it progressed to not eating the food in general but still ate treats), and rightly so I think.

So I have been battling this for a while. Today I took her back and her initial exam showed she has dropped another 12 lbs. She is now 102 and she is bony but now that I know, I can tell she really doesn't have the tuck she should for that weight and her build, she should be 115, she's been there and is the perfect weight there. The vet then gave her a physical exam and palpated swollen nodes and something amiss in her abdomen. We then did x-rays and drew more blood and did a needle aspirate. X-rays came back showing a very large shadow that shouldn't be there that is likely connected to her spleen.

His diagnosis before the official results are in is Lymphoma. The vet figures that it will be expensive and really ill advised to persue treatment as it will not likely see results. I have no idea how long I have left with her and that is what is tearing me up right now.

Now I need help finding something she will eat. I am certainly willing to go RAW now. I will do whatever it takes to get her to eat.

[MontanaRott]

Keri, I am so sorry to hear this. Lymphoma is just ravaging our dogs! We found with Louis he would eat canned food and it helped him gain a bit of weight as well. Treatment plans are a very personal choice, we did not do more then antibiotics and pred with Louis because of his age. There are many here who have dealt with and are dealing with this nasty disease and I am sure they will chime in. I will keep Mocha in my prayers.

[alexav]

I am SO sorry. I hope that you will have some good quality time left with your girl. There are others that can help you more with diet but I do know that cancers seem to feed on carbs.

[rottgirl]

I am so sorry, I lost my first girl - Snickers to lymphoma a year ago June she was just shy of 8 years old. We had no idea she was sick, we took her to the vet for another problem - uninary tract infection and mentioned she had become a fussy eater and seemed to have lost weight. He ran a blood panel and the white blood count came back 3 x's the normal and she had lost 8 lbs. She was put on antibotics for about 3 weeks with no results the white blood count kept increasing. We finally took her for an ultrasound and it was confirmed she had a large growth on her large intestine, surgery was the only option even though it was risky and expensive she was my first rotti I knew in the back of my mind her chances were slim. Snicks made it thru the surgery but we lost her in recovery,she went into shock. I had a biopsy done and when the results came back our vet told us we probably would have had her another 3 months at best.

We fed her plain white rice and ground chicken her last weeks and she loved it along with peanut butter filled bones.

I will keep Mocha in my prayers and good luck with your decision.

Michele

[Mochasmom]

She is taking antibiotics untill the results and we will then see what else.

I bought a bunch of canned food yesterday and she is loving that!

Rottgirl, stupid question, how do you grind chicken? Did you get it ground by a butcher or....? (now that I think about it I have an old manual meat grinder from my Grandma's hopefully that will work)

Today we are waiting for the test results and maybe an idea of how much time we may have left. I have her list of favorite things and I know what I will eventually have to do.

She is sleeping in bed with DH now.

[rottgirl]

The grocery store here sells ground chicken, I'm sure a butcher or speciality store would be able to grind it for you. Good luck and keep a positive additude.

Michele

[BostonRott]

Keri,

I got a lump in my throat when I checked "new posts" and saw your name under this title!! I am SO sorry to hear that you are dealing with this!!!!!

Here's some info on a diet for dogs with lymphoma: http://www.dog-play.com/cancerdiet.html

Hugs to your crew!!

[Patty1231]

Although Perle's cancer was different, I do believe the raw diet gave me more time with her and I think eliminating the bulk of carbs from her diet did slow the growth of her tumor. Flax seed oil is recommended in the cancer diet. She just loved her raw food diet. She got a lot of chicken thighs (more fat in the dark meat) that I just whacked up with a clever, canned salmon, eggs, and tuna in oil.

I am so sorry you have this to deal with. I understand the pain of a cancer diagnosis, not knowing how long you have. I grieved for Perle for six months before grieving her passing; it's very difficult. You are in my prayers.

[pharoahsmom]

I lost my Pharoah to Lymphoma one month ago and I give you my heart felt sympothy. Lack of eating was the reason I took him to the vet. I thought he had swallowed something and it was stuck in his belly. We found out the news from xrays as well. We did have a biopsy taken but by the time the results came back, he was already gone.

I found that the lack of eating was more disturbing to me that it seemed to be for him. From the time he stopped eating to the time he passed was 14 days. It is very difficult to know your friend needs to eat to sustain life and he wont. Even when it seemed he was interesting in eating, he simply would not. The vet told us it was due to nausia. .

For the first 2 weeks, he seemed completely normal aside from the lack of appetite and eventually, lack of bowel movements. The first few days, he had very small, soft stool but then nothing at all. He was happy, playing, totally normal. If it werent for the lack of eating, I never would have known there was anything wrong with him. By the end of the first week, I could tell he was loosing weight quickly so I became was the canine gormet , cooking and prepairing and buying everything under the sun in hopes that he would at least take a few bits of something. I even resorted to trying to force feed him with a pastry bag with Ensure, Protein Powder and Yougart....that just scared him so bad I felt bad for doing it and relented to the fact that he was simply not going to eat. I begged him to please please PLEASE eat something but the tiny 2-3 bites here and there, every few days werent going to sustain him. I tried it all and it seems from what I read that people have alot of one time successes. One time they will eat a bite or two of something, then they wont touch it again. The day Pharoah ate 1/4 cup of can dog food, I went right out and got 6 more cans. Then he wouldnt eat another bite of it. I cooked beef, chicken, fish every way possible, hamburger, eggs, rice balls, soft foods, pasta, bland food, creamy soups, broth....if it wasnt water, he wouldnt touch it. I think now that I made the eating my focus because I didnt want him to die from starvation but its the lack of eating is a normal yet heartbreaking side effect of the disease.

Treatment is very expensive and depending on the type of lymphoma, futile. Although I found out after he was gone, there would have been no cure of treatment for the type of lymphome he had.

I am sending you strength and prayers and true sympothy. We are here for you

[fbkeays]

At this point, forget about a "balanced" diet. It won't/doesn't matter. My Misty had lymphoma and died earlier this year. I was fortunate that she was used to eating raw, tho most of her life she ate kibble as the primary source of her food. As soon as we suspected cancer, she went on a totally raw diet.
At first I tried to do a balanced diet, but slowly she wouldn't eat certain things. So for the last five months of her live, she lived on raw meat or fish parts. I went to an Asian market and got her duck wings, chicken bodies, fish parts (sold for $1/pound for making fish stock- don't worry about the bones), quail and whatever else I could find that she would eat.
She did like Korean bbq beef (cooked) when she wouldn't eat anything else. She also seemed to like to work for her food- so crunching up duck wings, chicken bodies, etc was part of why she would eat. Also giving her micro meals work too. If I gave her bowl filled with food, she would walk away, but if I only put a 1/4 of it in her bowl at a time, she would eat.
Try a food track. Lay a track in your yard with bits of food- dogs seem to eat what they find on the ground easier then if they take it from your hand.
The last six months she was on pepcid AC- it worked wonders and it doesn't interfer or hurt with anything else.
Keep your dog active. Give her a reason to live. Keep in mind that her energy level is super low, so no five mile hikes, but teach her tricks, take her to her favorite places.
For you, take lots of pictures. Buy a couple of cases of kleenex and lots of chocolate. It is ok to be sad and angry, just do it away from your girl.

[Snooze]

I lost my 9 yr old to lymphoma last month. Like you I had no idea, I thought he was just fussing about his food. He dropped weight very quickly and it was a daily challenge trying to get him to eat. The things that worked best for me were:
1. Taking him to a friends house and having her hand feed him. don't ask me why but that worked alot
2. We would go outside with another dog and I would bring a bag of chicken, in the presence of another dog, he would always eat
3. He would only eat dark meat chicken. I bought tons of thighs and boiled them. I lighted coated them with honey and baked them. I would mix with rice but usually he would not eat the rice.
4. Cheese, american, cheddar and monterey jack - everything in small pieces

I gave him pepcid ac before each meal and the vet gave me an anti nauseant. there is group on Yahoo called canine cancer - it was invaluable to me during those difficult times. there are lots of recipes and suggestions for foods to try. You get to the point where you will cook, buy anything just to get the food in them - but then you have to try to get the proper nutrition as well.

Having just been through this, my heart goes out to you. If you would like to email me privately or just need a sounding board/shoulder - please feel free to.
Do not post email addresses on the forums

[Mochasmom]

Thanks for the support and links I really apreciate it.

Like Francis said at this point I am not caring about a balanced diet, I am just estatic that she is eating. She ate a chicken breast, canidae canned and asparagus (her fave veggie of all time) for supper last night and more canned this morning. She also pooped this morning! (yes the excited about poo thing again)

She is, however, very lethargic. I wasted alot of time with thinking this was behavioural and I feel so guilty.

She is in bed with DH again this morning having a snooze.

[Miabella]

I'm so sorry to hear this! I am also feeding my lymphoma dog a high protein & fat/low carb diet, and I do credit it with her keeping up her condition and energy during a long course of chemo.

Ilsa never lost her appetite, but we do use lots of yummy stuff like chicken and canned wild salmon. She goes nuts for the salmon.

[Mochasmom]

It is official.
lymphoma stage V

We are not going to persue chemo.
She is starting on 50mg pred 2x/day for a week then down to 1x/day as well as the antibiotic.
We could get a month, a year, anywhere inbetween, or less.

I have ordered the Hills Rx cancer canned food for her untill I can figure out a homemade diet (Miabella I would appreciate if you could PM me with what you are feeding.).

We went for a short walk yesterday and today and that sure perks her up but boy is she ready for the cool tile once we get home.

She is getting so much love that I am sure she thinks we are nuts!

[Snooze]

We did the prednisone as Buddy was also in stage V when diagnosed, the side effects for my boy from the prednisone was bloating, diarhea, excessive panting and very warm. He wouldn't sleep in bed any longer just on the cooler wood or tile floors.