Pet Chemotherapy

JDGREEN4ME · Feb 21, 2005

One of our "boys" started chemotherapy last week for intestinal cancer. After one week he seems to be handling it well. Wondering if anyone else have gone through this? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

dmccarty · Feb 21, 2005

JDGreen4Me,

Our dog Chase had tumors. The first one was cut out and she was given Pregnason(sp). After the wound had healed in a week or so she was pretty much herself. It seems like the drug made her hungry and thirsty but that was all it did as far as we could tell.

She had a second round a cancer a few years later that was not curable. She held on for 6-9 months after the cancer was found. Only the last month or so was bad for her. She had a couple of very good years after the first cancer was taken out.

Later,
Dan

Junkman · Feb 21, 2005

Every dog and every case is different. I have known of two cases where the dogs were given Chemo and in the first, the dog didn't do well and passed away in less than a month. In the other, the dog did very well and survived another 1 1/2 years after treatment. I sure hope that your dog does well and is a survivor for a long time. It is a very difficult experience seeing a loved one go through this and hopefully he will respond to treatment and tolerate the treatment well. Give him a hug for me.... Junk...

Cliff_Johns · Feb 21, 2005

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Our dog Chase had tumors. The first one was cut out and she was given Pregnason(sp). )</font>

Perhaps you mean Prednisone? This is a steriod (cortisone type) that has the side affect of making you hungry and thirsty and tends to move the fat around on your body in strange ways -- for people it usually means getting a fat face and putting on weight in you upper back. It is basically an anit-inflamitory.

Cliff

dmccarty · Feb 22, 2005

Yep, Prednisone(sp?) is what they gave Chase for her tumors. I don't know why they gave her the sterioid but they did. And it worked.

Later,
Dan

homeinwestIL · Feb 22, 2005

We almost went through a similar situation. We had a cat that stopped eating and appeared very uncomfortable. We took him to a couple of vets, and the second one did an ultrasound (finding a kidney stone that didn't explain everything) and then an endoscope that found what he thought was an intestinal tumor. However, when the doctor operated, he found that what he thought was a tumor was actually a piece of foam rubber that the cat had swallowed at some point and then became lodged in his intestines. He took it out and the cat is now almost back to normal except for losing some of his fat. I was amazed in going through this process all of the medical procedures that were locally available for animals even in a fairly rural area. I wish the best for you "boy" and hope the chemo works.