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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2016 18:00:08 GMT -5
Spoke with the oncologist this morning. Even with the results we got from the tissue stain she wants Watson to continue on the chemotherapy:( He got his Lumo today for his first time. We did use the "sandwich" method this time and he did a whole lot better. No gagging or foaming or coughing! My wife stayed home with him so if something went poorly it it was at least while we would normally be awake and we could contact our vet in an emergency. She said he has been doing great all day so far and even been a bit playful as well as eating and having normal messes. I'm not sure if we should just stay on course as recommended or ask for a second opinion from another oncologist. 3/4 of his original tumors are gone and we're pretty sure his final one is finally shrinking. We know it's working at least, we're just not sure if it's the Pred since it's really just Round Cell Sarcoma or if the full suite of medication is doing the work. Down side is that we've called the vets in our area to see if they will simply help with blood work and his Sub Q injection and none of them are willing to help us.  We are stuck doing a lot of driving each weekend for blood work and I may be learning how to give him injections to save him from having to do more road trips. |
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Post by Heather on May 25, 2016 21:14:26 GMT -5
I can't believe these vets will not help you. It's only a blood draw and possible sub q. These are things that we do at home.
It's wonderful news that your wee one is responding positively to the treatments.
ciao
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Post by unclejoe on May 26, 2016 8:13:04 GMT -5
I can't believe these vets will not help you. It's only a blood draw and possible sub q. These are things that we do at home. It's wonderful news that your wee one is responding positively to the treatments. ciao yeah that's pretty sad. but here's hoping the last tumors get gone. I can do a sub q just by giving a few drops of oils to keep them busy. but I warm the syringe by wrapping it in a heat pack until it feels warm to the touch instead of injecting ice water. |
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Post by Sherry on May 26, 2016 10:01:05 GMT -5
It is ridiculous they won't help out. But I am glad he is responding, even if you aren't sure what it is to just yet.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2016 22:39:00 GMT -5
I just got back from a short trip. My wife has been handling all of Watson's meds. He is still getting .1 Pred twice per day. This is his off week for any chemo meds so he gets a break from those at least. On a huge good news note, his final tumor on his leg is gone! I've checked all over both of his back legs and I can't find it and when I left five days ago it was still there, but we were pretty sure it was finally getting smaller. We don't have a trip to the vet until next weekend for his blood draw in prep for white cell count, but we're extremely happy! (dance)  |
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Post by Sherry on May 31, 2016 9:11:02 GMT -5
Oh that IS amazing news!!!
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Post by unclejoe on Jun 7, 2016 5:25:30 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2016 20:25:04 GMT -5
Last week was his off week for the chemo medication rotation. His energy picked up and he was playful again, which was nice to see. Watson did well with his Cytarabine injection this week. Seemed to be a little itchy after he got it, but it calmed down pretty quickly, and he was his normal self with no negative effects thankfully! This week has been a bit of an irritation. We had to go to our vet for the injection of Cytarabine. The first appointment we had was canceled because the vet that was going to do it wasn't our normal vet, and they didn't' feel confident doing it. It is a syringe with some sort of lock on it to keep the medication from being tampered with. I'm not sure why so many vets feel uncomfortable giving a shot, but... at least our normal vet was in the next day and we made it up there for that appointment. On the way up to the vet I called the oncologist to talk to them about the timing we're dealing with between his blood draw day and his medication day. From the beginning we have been OK to have his blood drawn on Sat and medication given on either Tu/Wed/Th without issue. The oncologist changed their instructions and said the meds have to be given the same day as the blood draw, which isn't possible on weekends. Our vet is taking a very small sample of Watson's blood and their machine needs more to do a white cell count, so they send it to a lab that can work with the smaller amount. The vet didn't want to take the 1 ml required for her machine because she feels its too much too often for him to deal with. The down side is that the lab picks up the samples on Saturdays (when we go for blood draws) after our vet is closed, so they are unable to tell our vet what the results are until Monday. According to our oncologist this is not going to work and it *HAS* to be same day (even though it hasn't been so far). She is being very emphatic about this now. This may mean that my wife and I have to figure out how to take a morning/afternoon off at least once a week every week that he has medication, and the full cycle runs through November. My wife has to take Watson up for this week's blood draw on Tuesday, and I've asked her to see if our vet can tell the blood lab to call us instead of her with the results. All we need to know is the minimum white cell count to know if he is OK for his meds that week. Hopefully the lab is willing/able to call us and give us a number for his white cell count. If they can, we can stick with Sat blood draw appointments and the lab calls us when they get their results. If they cannot do that, and they are required to call the vet instead, we're stuck with discussing how we will handle taking this much time off every week, which is a huge problem.  On the up side, Watson is doing well, and the tumors he had are still gone with no new ones appearing! This week (week 6) is his next round of Cyclophosphamide which is the stuff that made him nauseated last time, and we were up with him almost all night while he was trying to vomit every 30-45 min all night. Our vet asked the oncologist about giving him some kind of anti-nausea medication with the Cyclophosphamide and the oncologist said she could. Down side? The anti-nausea medication is an injection only, which would mean we'd need a full day off to get his blood drawn in the morning, wait for it to be picked up by the lab, get the results and then do his meds/anti-nausea shot at the vets to see if he does better. Then a 90 minute drive home! (headwall) This week has been a bit of an irritating one to say the least. The instructions changing from the oncologist. Our discussions about whether we can miss this much work if it becomes necessary. Our discussions about whether we want to keep going with the chemo rotation since he seems to be in full remission already. It has been a bumpy week to be sure. |
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jun 13, 2016 6:57:40 GMT -5
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Post by Sherry on Jun 13, 2016 9:56:02 GMT -5
While I am glad he appears to be in remission, I am sorry you are having to go through all this As for the anti nausea meds, is there any way the vet can show you how to do them, and then just give you the filled syringe to administer at home? If it is simply a subq med you should be able to. If however it is an intramuscular one you can't. |
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Post by Heather on Jun 13, 2016 11:48:41 GMT -5
I find it really pathetic that vets will not even give the most basic of care to ferrets. I understand not being able to diagnose and understand the treatments and diseases but why can you not even do the most simplest blood draw or injection under the direction of a trained exotic vet is beyond me. The time line is horrible for you and you've done wonderful so far.
ciao
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2016 17:41:21 GMT -5
Watson went in for his white cell count yesterday, and for his first time it was too low for him to get his medicine. We were told to wait until this Friday. He was also running a mild fever. Hopefully the count was just effected because he'd just gotten chemo meds last Thursday and it hadn't been a full week to let things calm down in his system.
We're looking for a good instant-read ear thermometer for him now. Anyone have any recommendations from personal use with good results?
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Post by abbeytheferret6 on Jun 15, 2016 20:11:28 GMT -5
get well little man  An ear themometer would be nice to have for a ferret. If you find one, do post. I leave the room when they take it the other way:// |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2016 22:03:27 GMT -5
On Friday we gave him the new anti-nausea medication about an hour before he got his Cyclophosphamide and his response was night and day from the first time. He still kept his energy up, and played some that evening. He slept through the night and was still his normal self on Saturday. Will have to plan to do that every time it comes up in rotation. Down side we're struggling with now, is that he is more than fed up with the daily Pred. He has to see us prep his spoon with the oil or ferretone or he won't touch it any more for fear that it is mixed with medication. We won't ever mix his ferretone with the medication so he has at least one treat that hasn't been tainted by all of this. He is becoming more aggressive in trying to knock the syringe out of our hands and even trying to scratch us to stop from getting medication and the vets say he has to stay on this, and the treatments run through November. I can only imagine how fed up he is with getting this stuff twice a day. We're starting to give him breaks and only do one treatment a day some times just so he has a break. Its a difficult decision to make because we know he needs the pred to help, but we also know he is already out of patience with the daily medication. Not sure how we can improve things for him now since sandwiching has helped, but now he distrusts salmon oil he doesn't see poured in front of him. |
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Post by Sherry on Jun 21, 2016 9:24:18 GMT -5
It really does get difficult. With Emily now I have had to just scruff her tightly, do her med(clindamycin) followed by a syringe of straight oil. She is on a pulse therapy of it for the rest of her life due to a gram negative bacteria she can't kick.
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