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Post by unclejoe on Jun 21, 2016 13:33:35 GMT -5
It's hard enough giving pred 2x a day. I can't imagine. You've come this far don't give up.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2016 22:38:56 GMT -5
He got his blood work done on Sat the 25th. Due to timing with the lab our vet uses she is requesting they call her on Sunday mornings now and then she will call to let us know if we are good to give his chemo on Sunday or not. This week one of his counts was a little lower than initially mentioned by the oncologist so our vet asked us to wait until she could talk to our oncologist to see if we needed to delay again. On Monday the oncologist looked over the numbers and gave us clearance for his Lomustine and he took the dose like a champ. He is still doing well, though sleeping a lot and not terribly playful when he is awake. On the up-side this upcoming week is a rest week for him with no chemo and he will be hitting the every-other week chemo cycle for the remainder of his treatment unless something changes! Last time he had a week off from chemo meds his energy picked back up and he was playful pretty often so we're hopeful that it happens for him again on the remainder of his off-weeks. He has handled the rough start. From here on out its slow and methodical until we either get early clearance to stop treatment or when he reaches the finish line in November. We're all also looking forward to not having to go on road trips to the vet every weekend! (dance)
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Post by Corvidophile on Jun 29, 2016 22:45:24 GMT -5
Way to go toughing it out, both Watson AND you humans!
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Post by Sherry on Jun 30, 2016 9:20:20 GMT -5
I am so glad things are progressing so well! You must be pleased as well
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2016 20:17:46 GMT -5
Watson got his injection on Monday. Up until today he has been pretty worn out. Today is the first day this week he has seemed to have any energy for anything other than small snacks and going potty - which have become significantly more frequent and much smaller. We're concerned about it and have told our vet, who has been trying to get clarification as to whether this is expected from the chemo or not. He is probably getting up to either just pee, or have a bowl movement every 20 min or so at times for maybe an hour or two, and then he calms down again. It seems to go in bursts and we aren't sure why.
Another down side of this week is that he is having scratching fits again because it appears his Adrenal issues are back in full swing. We didn't get his Des implant redone in March when it was due because that was when we found the cysts/tumors and we went full focus on the cancer.
Good news is that the oncologist said that the Des wouldn't cause issues with the chemo, but we may be doing injections for him rather than an implant. I'm not sure how that will turn out. He has an apt next Sat and our vet will hopefully have clarified everything with the oncologist between now and then.
He isn't sleeping well between the scratching, and the frequent potty trips. Where he had his surgery in March has his undercoat back, and has for a few months, but his main coat, isn't growing back in those areas which is unfortunate. Not sure how much that is messing with his ability to regulate his temp. He isn't running a fever any time we go in for an apt, but he always feels warm to the touch now.
Another issue with the potty stuff is that he is refusing to use the litter box now 9/10 times. He used to use it on his own more than anyone else. We're not sure if this is because he can tell his messes smell different because of the chemo so he is trying to go somewhere else. Down side is that he has taken to going to wherever he can get to the quickest, so there are constantly new messes all over the office (their room).
He is hanging in there, but we're exhausted from trying to keep up with him, and check on him, and clean him up after he makes messes. His belly is always wet when he has to pee so we make sure to take time to get him cleaned up.
Hopefully he has a good upcoming week since it is a by-week for his chemo.
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Post by Sherry on Jul 17, 2016 11:03:51 GMT -5
If you can do the implant I would, as it will help solve the scratching issues and his prostate problem from the adrenal(frequent small urinations). That way he doesn't have to fight both the adrenal and the lymphoma. You guys are doing all you can, and he is most definitely a fighter.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 14:50:12 GMT -5
Sherry, we would prefer the implant for sure. I'm just not sure if the oncologist would support him getting an incision right now with his immune system weakened from the chemo. Will have to see what we find out this week. We're hoping for the implant to be approved.
Initially we were worried we would have to pick between which health issue to treat, so right now we're just very thankful that we can work on both so he isn't more miserable with the scratching. Down side is that when we got his fist implant done it took almost 3 months for things to calm down for him so we're hoping he still has some residual in him to get him back up to speed quickly, or it'll be a bit of a rough 90 days for him.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2016 18:04:52 GMT -5
Watson just threw us another curve ball. We ran to go potty outside the litter box in the office. My wife picked him up to clean off his belly and clean up the mess and she saw that his bottom had blood on it. He had just gone pee, without having a bowl movement. Once she cleaned his belly he ran for the litter box in the hall and had another tiny bowl movement. There wasn't blood in the stool itself, but his rectum is definitely bloody. I'm hoping it is simply because he is going so often and pushing so much his bottom is simply raw and this isn't a sign that something much worse is going wrong internally. I'll be on the phone with both the vet and oncologist tomorrow as soon as I can be to find out what we need to do for him. I'm not sure if this is because of his chemo, or his Adrenal, or a combination of both. Prior to the chemo he had never had this issue with frequently having to go potty, even before we got him his Des implant. We may need to stop the chemo treatment early. Will update once we have answers. Please be praying for us. We're back in stress mode and I can only imagine what all of this feels like for him. (sniff) Could a quick/short term fix to help be moving him to soupies so he isn't having to push so much? We also have Carnivore Care as an option for him. I'm now a bit concerned he is pushing food so fast he isn't getting the nutrients he needs, which is why he is still not putting on full weight and just maintaining it. His potty bursts always seem to come pretty soon after he eats even a little bit.
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Post by Sherry on Jul 18, 2016 10:04:32 GMT -5
It is all going to depend on WHY he is pushing. If he has diarrhea it will make matters worse. If he is having trouble digesting and the food is coming out similar to how it is going in, maybe? I am not familiar with how a ferret responds to chemo. One thing I think I WOULD try is giving him a tsp of pumpkin so the extra liquid is absorbed in the bowel, and he actually has something the bowel can push against.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 10:16:06 GMT -5
I'll have to see if we still have pumpkin. I think we finished that off a while ago when we moved over to eggs for them for their weekend treats.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 10:23:34 GMT -5
He is not having diarrhea issues. The messes are consistent with what we would expect based on what he is eating. His appetite hasn't dropped and he is almost voracious in the amount he eats in some sittings.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2016 13:30:08 GMT -5
After hounding the oncologist office this morning multiple times, they finally told me the Dr prescribed metronidazole. I called our vet to let her know, and she wanted more info as to why that was the choice, but for whatever reason the oncologist is no longer communicating with our vet, and has been simply saying the oncologist is very busy. My vet is irritated with not being able to get answers as to whether all of this is even simply to be expected on chemo, so she is going to try to pull some strings with an oncologist near her in Tucson to see if they can squeeze us in to get answers. The only reason we didn't go there to begin with for the chemo, is that she was so busy she couldn't see us for months. Hopefully our vet is successful in getting us in quickly even for a short visit just to get answers. Thankful our vet is bending over backwards for us, but so irritated that we can't even get good communication with our oncologist.
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Post by Sherry on Jul 19, 2016 10:08:11 GMT -5
That is insane that the oncologist won't respond to the vet! I am sorry you are all having to deal with ego driven idiots on top of everything else.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2016 23:09:33 GMT -5
We head to a new oncologist tomorrow. Our vet was able to get us seen by an oncologist they work with more often. I have no idea how to handle mentally preparing for tomorrow. With as many health issues as he has been having in the last ten days or so, I'm not sure we haven't reached his limit. He still scurries around. His appetite is more than healthy and he is maintaining his weight, but the itching from the Adrenal, and all of his issues with his frequent bowl movements, and some recent grunting while he pees has me very worried about bad news. When he goes to the bathroom now, he runs over to a towel to plop down and rest, and even just trying to potty has him breathing heavily now when he lays down. He is our baby and this whole thing is tearing us up with not knowing what to do, or what he wants us to do. Hoping we get good news tomorrow from an ultrasound that it is just Arenal and the cancer is gone and isn't infecting organs now and we can focus on getting his Adrenal under control again. Not sure if there is some kind of booster we can get him while we wait for his Des implant to kick in, but will find out tomorrow. We got his metronidazole from the pharmacy today. He has to have .4ml twice a day. That puts his rotation of meds at .1 Pred in the morning, followed by .4 metro, and then repeated in the evenings. It was already a challenge to get him to take his Pred, and now we have to try to add that large of a dose two times a day to all of this. I wish I knew what he wanted us to do.
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Post by Sherry on Jul 20, 2016 10:00:34 GMT -5
I can tell you one thing he DOESN'T want. He doesn't want to leave yet. If he did, he wouldn't still be fighting as hard as he is. So if you can do it, keep fighting with him.
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