Day 15, so far so good, and a call from the Oncologist

Dannii with his head on my pillow

Ok, since I was awake at 4:30 this morning, but did not actually get out of bed until 8:30, I had been kind of dragging.  Since Dannii sleeps with me, he wanted to go out so he could go potty.  I keep the door to my room closed, so the other two dogs do not come in and start a fight.  Dannii was up 3 times!  Before all of this, maybe, just maybe, he would wake me up, once.  This last time however, I could not shut my mind off, it was racing with all kinds of thoughts and what have you's. So I tossed and turned and listened to Dannii snore.  He reminds me of my x-husband!  I hate snorers! So, I move Dannii around, and for a short time, he quits snoring. But I am awake.  So, I start to read my book (I read before I go to bed). After awhile, I put the book down, but nope, still could not get back to sleep.  Dannii is up for the 3rd time by then, and so I just stay up.  Its going to be a long day.


So, I give Dannii his daily morning pills before breakfast, mixed with just a tad of baby food.  He's doing real good about taking them like that.  Now, need to wait for a half hour before they can be fed.
Did I mentioned this was going to be a long day?  Maybe a nap somewhere down the road, if I'm lucky.

I made sure to put Dannii's Prednisone pills into a hot dog, which he ate.  Thank goodness.  Now all the pills that he truly needs, are down the hatch, so to speak.  Ok, so here come's the Vit. C and Vit. E, Fresh Start, SammE, Selenium, Tumeric (it is a capsule, so I opened the capsule, and just added to powder to the rest of the pills). Outside of the Vit. E and Tumeric, I crushed all the pills together.  I took a half slice of a whole bun, and cut the bottom half, in half again (like a cake), I took some canned Easy Cheese and spread it over the bun, and poured the crushed pills on top of that and spread it all over.  Hard to do that, as it stuck to the cheese!  So, took baby food, and used that to help spread it over, and cut that half of a half, into small pieces, and gave to Dannii.  He ate it all, except for one little piece.   I know that's not breakfast as it was not enough food for him.  I had one can of Paul Newman's Gourmet Beef cat food, (small can), and I spooned a bit into Dannii's bowl, as I didn't know if he would eat it or not.  He ate the whole can, gave him some cut up turkey, and ate that up.  Then he walked away.  He was done.

Early afternnon, I gave him a small can of cat food, as he followed me into the kitchen looking for something to eat.  Before all of this lymphoma stuff, he only got fed twice a day, once in the morning, and then in the evening.  Now, he can't go that long in between meals.

Before I fed the dogs, dinner.  I fried up some liver.  I gave Dannii his Innova Turkey and Chicken, and Jenna and Zak got their Innova Evo Reduced (boy does Zak need to loose weight!).  Again, I heated up some turkey water, and then poured it over all their kibble and really let it soak into the kibble.  Dannii got almost 2/3 c of kibble, and he wanted something more to eat.  I gave him a piece of liver (last piece from the last bunch I cooked up).  He was looking for something more, so gave all the dogs some turkey leg meat.  Guess Dannii had his fill by then.

I noticed his water intake has kind of slacked off some.  At least he's not leaving a swamp on my living room floor anymore.  I do have to admit, before I could get out of bed this morning for one of the times Dannii wanted out, he started to pee on the carpet!  Thanks to Jenna, I had wee wee pads, and had one in my room, and stuck it under Dannii as he's peeing.

He may look uncomfortable in this picture to some, but I tell you, he was totally relaxed.  Didn't know what I was going to do with the camera.


I got a call from the oncologist's nurse today.  He is looking into getting some CCNU (chemo drug) at a lower cost, and he found a place in Arizona.  The clinic would call and order the prescription, then the company would call me for billing and such.  Cost $42.00 for 21 days, then he would go a week with no CCNU, but would need a CBC to check his white cell count at a cost of $145.00.  That would have to be done every 3 weeks!  I don't have that kind of money.  Besides the CBC, they would charge for another office visit of $135.00, on top of the $145.00.  I think there is something wrong with that picture.  So, am now waiting to hear from my regular vet, and see what she has to say.  I told that nurse that I couldn't afford the CBC every 3 weeks, that if they could do it like every 6-8 weeks, it would be better. Since the oncologist is not in on Thursday, someone will call me on Friday and let me know. 

I think I am off to bed.  You call come back again, now hear?

Some new food to try, day 14

Dannii taken today

Can't believe its already been two weeks!  How time does fly by.

A friend sent me two bags of Honest Kitchen Zeal dog food.  Its all dehydrated meats and veggies and other good stuff.  Its green, and I thought, "oh boy, Dannii will not eat this at all."  I wasn't even too sure that Jenna or Zak would even eat it.  So I took about a cup of the Zeal and put it in a bowl, and heated up some turkey water (water left over from cooking up some turkey legs), and added a cup and a half to the Zeal, and let it sit for a bit.   I add a small amount of kibble to Jenna and Zak's bowl, but not to Danni's.  I was just curious if he would eat or at least try it without the kibble.  Nope, one look at it, and he walked away.  However, Jenna and Zak went to town on theirs.  They didn't care what color it was or anything else.  Dannii couldn't believe that they were eating "that stuff".  He wanted to eat, but just not "that stuff" by itself.  So, I added a small amount of kibble, nope, still wouldn't touch it.  So, then I added a small amount of cooked liver, ok, now he's eating some.  Just not enough.  So, I added in more liver, and really mixed it up real good.  Yep, now he's eating, and in fact, he finished the bowl.  All it took was a good amount of liver added in.  I had some "stuff" left over, so I divided it between Zak and Jenna, with no kibble, and they ate that.  I do believe Jenna and Zak like this "stuff", but the jury is still out on Dannii.  I still have enough for another meal or two. So should know by then if Dannii will like it enough for me to buy some.

Again, he gets his phenobarbital pills, his Ondansetron pills (for loss of appetite), and Mirtazapine (to stimulate appetite), plus a pepcid mixed with some baby food.  I do have him wait for a half hour before he eats, so the pepcid and other pills will have already kicked in.  This was done, first thing this morning, before he got the above breakfast.

Made the same stupid mistake of taking the Fresh Factor, vitamin E,  & C, and half tablet of selenium, plus his Prednisone pills and crushed them together, and this time I mixed them with lots of baby food.  He wouldn't touch it!  That selenium pill really throws him off.  So, I add some liver and very small pieces, and blended it altogether, nope still no eat.  Added even more liver in very small pieces, and mixed it altogether with a fish oil on top, now he eats it.  He just had to have more liver in it.  Need to remember not to put his prednisone pills into anything but a hot dog from now on.  Sure wish there was some way to hide the smell of the selenium, but I haven't come up with anything, yet.

Since I was at work, son had to feed the dogs,   I guess Dannii ate whatever it was that Shea put down. Which I guess is a good thing.  I know he got the Innova Evo Reduced, and I told him to give Dannii the Innova Turkey and Chicken.  How can one forget in a span of one minute?  At least he also got down his phenobarbital pills.

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Another decent day of eating; plus a funeral

Got the day off of work. Even though I told them I could work from 5-9, there were no students.  So, had the whole day off.

First off Dannii again, got his phenobarbital pills, his Ondansetron to help with his loss of appetite, and the Mirtazapine to stimulate his appetite, a pepcid mixed in with a small amount of Gerber's Ham and Gravy baby food, with a tad more baby food to cover the pills, then mixed with another spoon altogether, and fed on the spoon to Dannii.  He eats it up.  Now, we have to wait an half hour before he can eat breakfast.

So, now I make another smoothie, but I blew it today.  I added a bit too much water, plus I also added a half tablet of selenium.  What I did was, I put some of the meat off of the turkey leg into his bowl, and poured the smoothie over the top of it.  Yes, he ate/drank some of it, but not all.  I wanted him to drink it all as I made the mistake of adding his Prednisone pills to that mix.  Won't do that one again.

He's still hungry, so I give him not quite 2/3's of a cup of Innova Turkey and Chicken.  I heat up some of the water from boiling the turkey legs, yesterday, and pour that over his food.  I also did that to the food bowl for Jenna, and Zak.  They liked the change from just hot water.  Course Dannii ate it up.  The rest of the smoothie that he didn't drink, I put it into another container and saved it until I got back home, which was around 3pm.  Dannii's looking for something to eat, so again, I heat up some (what I will now call Turkey water) and mixed in a small amount to the smoothie, and poured it into Dannii's food bowl.  He ate it up.  Thank goodness, now he got his Prednisone pills down, even though they were not all at once.

For dinner, I again gave him about 2/3 cup of the Innova, mixed with the turkey water.  He ate it all up.  I keep forgetting, and am going to have to make a note to remind myself to add some fish oil to his food at dinner time.  He gave me the impression that he was still hungry, so I added a small handful of kibble and turkey water, but he only ate a few more bites, and left the rest.  There was not much left over, so one of the other dogs, ate it up.  Wasn't paying attention to which one it was, but it would be my best guess that it would have been Zak.  That guy is always hanging around just off to the side and in back of Dannii, just waiting to move in to check his bowl out.  Its no wonder he is getting fat, and needs to go on a diet, which I am trying to do, but Zak always finds something to eat.

Jenna and Dannii 10-30-2011

 
Jenna's teeth are bothering her again.  She's been prone to "stomatities" but the antibiotics are no longer working, because that it not the problem!  She had a dental done about two months ago, and I was told that there was some more teeth that needed to come out, but not for awhile.  With all this going on with Dannii, I just don't have the funds to do another dental for Jenna.  I had some generous people donate some money for Jenna's dental, so not a penny came out of my pocket.

So far, the only healthy one has been Zak, but of course, he is the youngest.  He will be turning 7 on the 30th of this month.  I just hope that I don't have any problems with him down the road.  Outside of his weight, he is doing good, but is always looking for food, because he is on a diet.

Zak 10-30-2011

He does not like being on a diet.  His favorite thing in the whole world is to eat!  Poor fat baby.  Nice pose of him, but you can tell he's paunchy.  I would like to see him nice and trim like he once was.  He looked so much younger.



Well, all the dogs are curled up for the night, and I guess its time for bed myself.  I do work tomorrow, and I hope tomorrow, we have another successful day of eating!

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Sunday, and no dog park, but Dannii's eating!!

It rained all last night, and the friend that I usually meet up with at the dog park, emailed me last night, saying that she wasn't going to go today.  It turned out to be a nice day with no rain, but that was ok.  I had some things to do, so it was nice staying home for a change. Well, not exactly, has some errands I had to do.

For breakfast, first off I mixed Dannii's appetite pills, his pills for vomiting and a pepcid and his Phenobarbital pills all together, and put them in the baby food (he seems to love the Ham and Cheese by Gerber). I put some on a small teaspoon and he ate it.  He didn't get the whole jar as the pepcid and the other two pills are suppose to be on an empty tummy for a half hour before they can eat.  So, now I mixed a Fresh Factor pill (crushed) and mixed it in the rest of the baby food.   He will not eat the Fresh Factor pill at all, not even as a treat. Which says on the bottle to just drop in the food bowl and they will eat it.  Not my guys!  Even Jenna wouldn't eat, but you know who........yep Fatboy will eat anything!  Can always depend on Zak to eat something when no one else will.  So now I take the Presnisone pills and crush them up also.  Mixed it in with the baby food and Fresh Factor, he ate it.  In the meantime, he's getting several pieces of cooked liver and he eats those up.  Also gave him a few spoonfulls of Call of the Wild, but he only ate a bit of that.  He's looking like he still wants something else to eat.........or maybe he wants all the liver, right now?  I take a SammE pill, crush it up in some baby food, took a raw egg  and some Flaxseed oil, mixed it all together with a immersible beater, so now its like a smoothie.  I pour it into his bowl, and drink he all up!  I am impressed! A few more pieces of liver, and we are set for this morning.  He's got all his pills down and then some, except for the Selenium.  The smell of those are so awful, I just don't know what I can mix it in.  Maybe I will try another smoothie, and add a crushed Selenium to that.

Its about 3pm.  I bought a new bag of Innova Turkey and Chicken small bits. No grains and very, very low carbs.  I opened the bag, and just gave Dannii a small handful, walked away.  Ok, wait now.  I ran some hot water into the bowl, and let the kibbles soak up some of the water.  Viola!  We have lift off.  He ate them!  Hopefully, I won't have to take the bag back.  But am hanging onto the receipt just in case.

I have DirecTv, and my receiver went out on Friday.  I called them, and they are shipping out a new receiver, but won't have it until Tuesday........hopefully!  I am going nuts with No tv.  Granted I don't watch much tv, but I do like it on for background noise.  Guess I have to resort to watching movies now.  What really irks me is that I have some shows that I had recorded, and haven't watched yet, now I won't be able to watch them at all now.   That's what I get for putting things off.

I just went in the kitchen to check on the turkey legs, looks like they are done.  So turned the stove off and Dannii is hanging out by his bowl.  So, I take some of the new food I bought and poured more that what I thought he would eat in, and poured in some hot water, let it soak a bit. He ate it up.  I gave the rest that I had taken out of the bag, and wet it with hot water, and he ate all of that.  Its not even dinner time yet!

Well, for dinner I gave Dannii 1 cup of the Innova Turkey and Chicken, but I soaked it in the warm left over water from what I cooked the turkey legs in.  He ate all of it, except for a very small amount.  I am surprised that he ate that much too.  So the little bit left over, was ok.  His phenobarbital pills went into a hot dog, and of course he ate that too.  He does take the hot dog, takes a bite and then drops it, just to make sure no pills are inside.  Cleaver pup to be sure.  He's got me well trained in trying to find out how hard I can hide those pills from him!!

All pills done for today, so it was a good day, as far as I am concerned.  Hope we have more days like this where he will eat.

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Friday 11-4-2011 AND 11-5-2011 Saturday

So frustrating.  I did get Dannii to eat 2  2.5oz jars of baby food, and a piece of liver.  Still had problems with his pills tho.  For some reason, he hates taking pills, hmmmmmmmmm.  I wonder why?  I did shove a selenium tablet down his throat though.  I just wanted to get some into him.

When I got home from work, he ate 1 2.5oz of baby food, and turned his nose up at everything else.  I cooked up 2 turkey legs, and after they had cooled off, I took the meat off of them, and gave him "some" of the meat, and of course, he ate that.

On Saturday, I got him to take some of his pills mixed in the baby food, but he wouldn't take his Prednisone pills.  I crushed them up, and mixed them in with some baby food, and used that as a spread on a piece of lunch meat.  Rolled the lunch meat up and he ate it.

I did the same thing with his Phenobarbital pills, mixed in with baby food, and spread it out on a piece of lunch meat. He ate that around dinner time.    Saturdays I have to leave the house by 8am and I just couldn't fight with him any longer, so decided to wait till the evening.

I also am giving him a half a pill (that is the help to increase his appetite), instead of a quarter of it. When you try and cut a half a pill again, they just crush up.  So, I asked my vet, if I could just give half, and after looking over Dannii's chart and everything, she said that that would be fine.  Eventually am going to have to try and wean him off of these two pills, increase appetite, and the one for vomiting.  But the vet told me to make sure that he is eating ok first before I start doing that.  If I notice his appetite go down after that, then he will have to stay on the pills for awhile longer.

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Day 7 and the Oncologist

Dannii, taken at the vets office, today

Dinner time has become a nightmare.  Frustration and tears as Dannii turns his nose up at almost everything I try and give him.  He did take his Pepcid and his Phenobarbital pills as I put those in a Gerber Graduate hot dog. I ended up fixing him a scrambled egg which he ate.  Could not get his Prednisone pills down him, so I litterly had to shove them down his throat.  Still drinking a lot of water. This makes the 4th day that I know, that he got his Prednisone pills.

We went to see the oncologist today.  He is about 50 miles away (one way).  Dannii was in the back of the car, laying down.  Usually when I stop at a light, he is up and looking out the windows.  Not today.  He never moved,.  I truly thought he had died back there! 

Thankfully I was wrong.  As I parked the car in the clinic's parking lot and opened the door, he was up and at the door, waiting for me to open it.  I let him sniff and smell the grass and some bushes, hoping he would go pee, but no such luck.  But, I sure had to visit the little girls room, and quick!  As I was about to open the door to the bathroom, Dannii had stopped, and was peeing on a fake plant that was just around the corner.  It was like a small lake, so much pee, coming out of one little dog!

So the Oncologist explained to me what he would like to do, and what I would have to do, and so on and so forth, (to make it short).  He left the room to write up an estimate, and his nurse came in with it.  We were looking at $500 every 3 weeks, give or take $20-$40.  I was real close to tears, I can not afford that.  I live from paycheck to paycheck, and having a hard time as it is.  I told the nurse this, so said that she would go talk to the dr, and come back.  She came back with a new plan and estimate.  On the original (first) plan, the vet was going to give Dannii a chemo drug that he called CCNU, expensive, and can cause liver damage, which is why they would have to monitor his blood count and such.  The new plan was for a donated chemo drug (he told me who donated the drugs, but I forgot), so I wouldn't be charged for them.  Plus they would give him something to help with his appetite, and vomiting.  Even tho he hasn't been vomiting, it might be the reason why he wasn't eating. Queasy stomach.  They kept him for an hour, and they gave him 1 1/2 jars (small) of baby food, and he ate that.  He wanted more.  So, today's total was $198.00.  They gave me 2 can's of Hill's A/D and a couple of small jars of baby food, plus pills (always pills)!

So, I stopped and bought a pizza before I came home.  I gave Dannii a slice, but it was too hot.  By the time, we pulled up in front on the house, he was chowing it down.  I gave him a can of A/D and he wouldn't touch it!  I had planned on giving him some liver anyways, so I fried that up. Since it was a long piece, I cut into 4 piece, and I gave him one, and he ate it up.  Could not get him to take his Prednisone pills, so again, I had to shove them down his throat.  Am picking up a pill pusher tomorrow from my vet.

I was in the kitchen around 9:30 tonight, and Dannii come's and stands next to his food bowl.  I spoon some of the A/D into his bowl, and he eats it.  Spoon some more, he eats it, finishes off the can, and is still looking for food.  So I give him a (small) can of Fancy Feast cat food, and he eats the whole can!  I haven't seen him eat that much in a very long time!  I just hope he can keep it up (the eating, that is).

This makes the 4th day that I know for sure that he has gotten his Prednisone pills down.  He started drinking alot of water (not as much as he is now) before he started the Prednisone.  So, a friend is sending me a Diastix to test him for Fanconi.  I even brought this up to the vet, and he agreed that maybe this is also why he's not feeling well.  On top of everything else that's going on with him, I sure don't want him to have fanconi!

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Another trying day

Dannii does not have much of an appetite at all.  Course if its scrambled eggs, he will eat that up in no time! 

Yesterday was trying all around. I couldn't get him to eat much except for the scrambled eggs.  I have basically given up hope of ever getting him to take a Selenium pill.  He can smell that pill, so can I.  But, it boosts the immune system which is why I would like him to try and take one.  Have to find some way of doing that.  Need to think on that.

Didn't eat much for dinner, and I am so frazzled that now I forgot what I tried to get him to eat!  All I know is, he ate just a little bit, and that was all.  Gave him some DogSure, and he took some of that also.

Dannii and his niece, Jenna

He had a seizure on 24th of October. The first one in 5 months and 3 days.  Then he has one on the 29th in the afternoon.  He's never had them during the day before, they have always been at night.  My son called me at work, to let me know.  That's when I bought the DogSure in town and when I got home, I gave him a can, and he drank it.  Its a complete meal in a can.  Expensive tho.  Then last night after trying to get him to eat some dinner, I forgot to give him his Phenobarbital pills, so what happens?  He had a seizure at 2:15 this morning!  How could I be so dumb?  Got to make sure he gets and eats those Phenobarbital pills.


This morning, I took a raw egg, and mixed in a tablet of Fresh Factor, and some DogSure, and mixed it altogether.  He ate/drank most of that.  Would have liked him to finish it, so I put in some Call of the Wild canned food, but he was done eating.  Wouldn't take anymore.


Still had not gotten him to take his Prednisone pills, so I took a slice of bread and spread some peanut butter on it, poured the crushed Prednisone pills on it, spread a bit more peanut butter, and then folded it half, and cut it.  He ate all of that.  I was surprised.  So, if I try that one again, this time, I will only use half of a slice of bread.  Just to make sure he will eat the whole thing.

I will not be home tonight when he gets fed his dinner.  So I don't know what to tell my son to do.  Just give Dannii whatever he will eat.  Just so he gets something in his tummy.

Now that he's got at least three days worth of Prednisone in him (that I know of), I hope they start kicking in soon.  I want this lymphoma to shrink as much as possible, so he doesn't have so much trouble going poop.

Dannii soaking up some rays

This past Sunday, was a good day at the dog park for Dannii.  He pretty much stayed with the whole group.  The last Sunday of the month is our monthly Basenji Meet-up day.  Normally, he will wonder off and try and poop in private, nothing coming out. So, I always have to stop and look for him, and makes sure that he catches up to me.  Sunday however, he didn't do any of that, until we were on our way back to the car.  Then he would stop and try and poop every so often.  This picture here was taken by a friend (Meng), and its too bad that you can't see San Francisco in the back.  Off to the right of the picture you can see just a tad. It was a clear and warm day.  A good day for the dog park.  Hope we have some more, before the weather turns.

Not sure how long our journey is going to be, I hope it will be a good one for the duration that we have.  I don't want to see Dannii in pain.  It already breaks my heart when I watch him as he tries to go poop, and nothing is coming out.  Vet said if the colon get completely blocked, then Dannii will start throwing up, and he will get real sick.  I hope that does not happen for quite awhile, if at all.

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