tofu pup
Moderator
Hi Forums friends - I've debated making this post for a while now, as it's not about a Sheltie, and as this doesn't seem to be a health issue that is common in Shelties. I ultimately decided to make a thread because I think the information could be helpful to other people.
To cut right ahead to the spoilers: our good little eleven-year-old Betty Cocker developed an oral fibrosarcoma (soft-tissue cancer) in January 2019, and despite our best surgical efforts (and the slim statistical likelihood of metastasis), we discovered in April that it had spread to her lungs. On April 15th we were told to expect one to three more months with our girl. However, as of July 7th, Betty is still with us and still feeling good.
Because the primary tumor site (on her lip/gum) was very painful for her, and because she was overall in excellent health and condition, we opted for palliative radiation at the Animal Medical Center here in NYC. This entailed weekly treatments for four weeks. The palliative radiation was an awesome, awesome choice: it was expensive, and driving her from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side of Manhattan every week was not fun, but the end result is that her oral tumor is no longer painful or ulcerated. The goal was to halt the oral tumor so that it wasn't life-limiting, and (knock on wood) we've achieved that.
In mid-June, we noticed some itchy bumps on her skin, like bug bites. It turns out that this is a very rare metastasis of the fibrosarcoma to the skin (!), but her oncologist is confident that this will not be life-limiting, either. We are currently trying to address the itchiness with Prednisone; it's only been a few days but I think it is helping.
Eventually, sooner rather than later, the lung mets are going to catch up with her and the disease is going to win. But for now, she is loving life and is mostly asymptomatic. She had a chest x-ray on 7/2/19 that showed no growth in the lung tumors since April - a HUGE win!
She has been on pain medication (NSAIDs Metacam or Carprofen, GABA-analogue Gabapentin) throughout. We had her on a a few different antibiotics (Clavamox, Clindamycin, Cephalexin) before the radiation really kicked in and we were no longer concerned about secondary infection. As of 7/7/19, her only prescription medications are Gabapentin and Prednisone.
We also tried Palladia, which is an immunotherapy drug that has been shown to slow or stop tumor growth in some cases. Unfortunately, it can have some gnarly systemic side effects, and ultimately we had to discontinue it after about a month, because her white blood cell count went low. (As of 7/2/19, four weeks after discontinuing Palladia, her WBC is back to normal - hooray!)
Other supplements she receives: Phyto-Flex for her joints (she's been on this for years), turkey tail mushroom powder (supposed to have cancer-fighting properties), and CBD oil (legal in our state and supposed to help with everything). I have no idea if any of this is working, but she certainly seems relaxed and happy, so maybe the CBD oil has an effect!
We find ourselves in the rare position of knowing that we don't have much time left, but having a dog who feels good and can enjoy all the earthly delights we offer her. Because she's always had some degree of separation anxiety/distress, we promised her back in April that she will never be left alone again (which has been easy to keep as Mr. Tofu Pup works from home). She sleeps next to me every night (in a special "sidecar" bed that we rigged up for her), receives snacks on demand, was able to spend a week up in Maine with me, continues to enjoy long walks, and is outrageously spoiled.
I'll keep this thread updated, in the hopes that it will help someone else who has a dog with this or a similar condition. If anyone has questions (now or in the future), let me know and I'll do my best to answer.
The photo is from 7/4/19, when we all went out for ice cream. You can see the place on her jaw that looks "funny", from the original surgery, tumor progression, and radiation changes. But here she is, still kickin'!
To cut right ahead to the spoilers: our good little eleven-year-old Betty Cocker developed an oral fibrosarcoma (soft-tissue cancer) in January 2019, and despite our best surgical efforts (and the slim statistical likelihood of metastasis), we discovered in April that it had spread to her lungs. On April 15th we were told to expect one to three more months with our girl. However, as of July 7th, Betty is still with us and still feeling good.
Because the primary tumor site (on her lip/gum) was very painful for her, and because she was overall in excellent health and condition, we opted for palliative radiation at the Animal Medical Center here in NYC. This entailed weekly treatments for four weeks. The palliative radiation was an awesome, awesome choice: it was expensive, and driving her from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side of Manhattan every week was not fun, but the end result is that her oral tumor is no longer painful or ulcerated. The goal was to halt the oral tumor so that it wasn't life-limiting, and (knock on wood) we've achieved that.
In mid-June, we noticed some itchy bumps on her skin, like bug bites. It turns out that this is a very rare metastasis of the fibrosarcoma to the skin (!), but her oncologist is confident that this will not be life-limiting, either. We are currently trying to address the itchiness with Prednisone; it's only been a few days but I think it is helping.
Eventually, sooner rather than later, the lung mets are going to catch up with her and the disease is going to win. But for now, she is loving life and is mostly asymptomatic. She had a chest x-ray on 7/2/19 that showed no growth in the lung tumors since April - a HUGE win!
She has been on pain medication (NSAIDs Metacam or Carprofen, GABA-analogue Gabapentin) throughout. We had her on a a few different antibiotics (Clavamox, Clindamycin, Cephalexin) before the radiation really kicked in and we were no longer concerned about secondary infection. As of 7/7/19, her only prescription medications are Gabapentin and Prednisone.
We also tried Palladia, which is an immunotherapy drug that has been shown to slow or stop tumor growth in some cases. Unfortunately, it can have some gnarly systemic side effects, and ultimately we had to discontinue it after about a month, because her white blood cell count went low. (As of 7/2/19, four weeks after discontinuing Palladia, her WBC is back to normal - hooray!)
Other supplements she receives: Phyto-Flex for her joints (she's been on this for years), turkey tail mushroom powder (supposed to have cancer-fighting properties), and CBD oil (legal in our state and supposed to help with everything). I have no idea if any of this is working, but she certainly seems relaxed and happy, so maybe the CBD oil has an effect!
We find ourselves in the rare position of knowing that we don't have much time left, but having a dog who feels good and can enjoy all the earthly delights we offer her. Because she's always had some degree of separation anxiety/distress, we promised her back in April that she will never be left alone again (which has been easy to keep as Mr. Tofu Pup works from home). She sleeps next to me every night (in a special "sidecar" bed that we rigged up for her), receives snacks on demand, was able to spend a week up in Maine with me, continues to enjoy long walks, and is outrageously spoiled.
I'll keep this thread updated, in the hopes that it will help someone else who has a dog with this or a similar condition. If anyone has questions (now or in the future), let me know and I'll do my best to answer.
The photo is from 7/4/19, when we all went out for ice cream. You can see the place on her jaw that looks "funny", from the original surgery, tumor progression, and radiation changes. But here she is, still kickin'!
