Day 5 of so called diet

This so called diet, IT'S NOT WORKING!

Dannii has now become a very picky eater, where before, he basically would scarf down anything and everything.  Not anymore.

The last two days, I had trouble getting him to eat his breakfast.  I fixed him something that I thought he would eat, only to have him turn his nose up it!  Frustrating.


Friday morning, I scrambled him an egg, and he did eat that.  Surprise, surprise.  But wouldn't touch anything else.  Not even cat food.

Saturday morning, was trying what I could and he still wouldn't eat.  I was running out of time, as I had to leave for work.  So, scrambled up another egg for him, and he ate that.

Around 2:30 in the afternoon, my son call's me to tell me that Dannii had a seizure.  He's prone to these, but usually only has them at night, his last one, was just five day before, on Monday!  That one was 5 months and 3 days, since his last one.

Before I went home, I went to my local Petco to see if they had any DogSure. Its like Ensure that is for humans, but this is for dogs, and its a complete meal in a liquid form.  They had a couple, so I bought two cans.  Now, am wondering if Dannii would drink the darn stuff!  Well, the water bowl was empty, and he was looking for something to drink, so I poured the can into his bowl, and surprise, surprise, he drank most of it right then and there.  He kept going back to it, as I purposely did not fill the water bowl up.  I just wanted to make sure that I could get something into his tummy!  After he drank it, then I filled the water bowl up, and somewhere along the line, he used my living room floor for a swimming pool!  I have never seen so much pee.  He's never gone to the bathroom in the house before, so I let it slide.  He can get outside, it was just for some reason, he just peed on the floor.

Same ritual this morning, I couldn't get him to eat.  Thought I had it made, and gave him the rest of the can of sardines.  He started eating them, then I decided to put some crushed pills into the mix, and that was all she wrote.  He wouldn't touch the sardines after that!  Couldn't get him to take the Prednisone tablets either.  I put them in a piece of hotdog, and he just ate around the pills, and spit them out.  So, I put them in another piece of hot dog, and put it in a baggie with treats, and we went to the dog park.  When I was handing out treats, I gave him his hotdog, (he must have forgotten there were pills in it), and he ate it right up, pills and all.  Guess he didn't want to share.

I think he had a good day at the dog park.  Usually, he wonders off by himself to try and poop (with nothing coming out).  But, today, he stayed with the pack.  Today was our monthly basenji meet-up.  We had two new dogs that we have not seen or met before.  And they fit right into the pack.

Jackson is up front and center, and his mom, Phoebe, is right behind.  Both very nice dogs, but Phoebe, just like your typical female basenji, snarked and growled whenever anyone got too close.  They were both off leash, as they have been to this park before, but just not when we have been there!


Getting back to Dannii, I hope now that I will be able to get the Prednisone into him, and hopefully it will work to take some of the swelling down, and increase his appetite again.

It would be nice to be able to have surgery done to find out exactly what that mass is, and see if it could be removed, that is on the outside of his colon.  But my funds are next to nil, and all I can do is pray that this medicine will work, and that Dannii will be able to have some "normal" poops...........whatever that is, now.


Hope you all come back again, now hear?

Day 2 of our journey and diet

Well, I think it must be the garlic that Danniii doesn't like to smell of!  I honestly did not add that much, but even I could smell it.  So, guess what, he wouldn't eat it!

I put his Prednisone tabs into a Gerbers Graduate hot dog (cut in half), and his phenobarital tablets into the other half.  He chewed the meat up, but the pills dropped out!  So of course, I had to get out another piece of the hot dog, and try it again.  This time, he ate the pills and all.  Still has not touched his breakfast.  Guess I will not add anymore garlic.  I even added on sardine, and some of the liquid, still turned his nose up at it.  Here, I had been saying for the past week or so, that Dannii still has his appetite, and now he pulls this on me!

Self, and Dannii

If I can't get him to eat, this is not going to be good for either one of us.

I really hate to think of the possibility of loosing Dannii before his 13th birthday, on 12-12-2011.  I know its a possiblility.


Right now, I just wished I had the funds to do what I could for him.  No, would not do chemo, but "maybe" the vets could operate and try and take out the lymphoma that is right inside of his rectum?

He does have a mass on the outside of his colon, and it is pushing on it.  I don't know if that is also part of the reason, why Dannii is having such a hard time going poop?

I just finished giving Dannii and tablespoon of organic cottage cheese, and a squirt of Barleanes Falxseen oil, mixed that in real good together, plus added a piece of sardine and some juice, and he ate it up!

I leave soon to go to work, and won't be home til 10pm, so am having my son feed him.  Just told him to give Dannii a can of Pinnacle trout and sweet potato, nothing else. Hopefully he will eat all of that, now.

Till tomorrow, you all come back again, now hear?

Lymphoma journey, Day 1 of diet

Well, for breakfast Dannii got a half a cup of cooked brown rice, and no it wasn't the burnt rice from the night before!  I, however did give some of that to the dogs, to see if any of them would eat it.  Zak and Jenna did eat some, but Dannii took one bite, and walked away from it. I expected as much. He also got two small boiled chicken breasts, a selenium and fish oil and a small tip of a teaspoon of organic garlic nuggets, fish oil, and a teaspoon of Call of the Wild (wet) food.

He finished most of it, but then had to go out to the backyard.  I think the food was a tad bit too dry, so I added a bit of hot water, and now am letting it soak up some, before I see if he will eat the rest of it.  Only about a quarter of cup (if that) left, but I would like him to finish it.

Dannii got the little bit of food that was left from his breakfast, along with come canned Call of the Wild.  There was not that much left over from breakfast, as I said, so I just gave him a teaspoonful of the can and mixed it in with what was left, and he ate the majority of it.  I let Zak finish it off.

For dinner, I am going to give him a small baked sweet potato, maybe one sardine piece, and some of his regular kibble.  He will also get a Co-enzyme Q-10 tablet.  Hopefully he will eat this without leaving any.  How yummy can you get?

Will let you all know how he did with his dinner, tomorrow.

You all come back again, now hear?

A journey into unknown territory with lymphoma

I have not written in the blog for some time now, since May would be my guess.  I would let Zak try and do the dialog and it just got to be too much.

This here is a picture of my sweet boy, Dannii.  This picture was taken on 12-12-2010, his 12th birthday.  Such a handsome guy, and my baby.

I'll start this journey from the beginning, as I remember it, not the dates, but since this past summer or so.

Jenna, Zak, Dannii on 5-29-2011

When we would go to the dog park, I had noticed that Dannii was bleeding from his rectum after he would go poop.  It wouldn't be alot, but was noticeable.  I never noticed this at home, or else I was just too dang busy and not paying much attention.  I don't know, only when we were at the dog park, did I notice the blood.

Finally I decided it was time to take him in to the vets and have him checked out, and find out why he was bleeding. This was in August. At first my vet, said that Dannii had an infected anal gland.  So, we put him on some antibiotics. No change. Dannii went back in two weeks later, now vet said that Dannii had colitis.  So, we put him on chicken and rice and another antibiotic.  After a month of this, and still no change, I took Dannii back to the vets.  My vet had since retired by then, and we were seeing someone new.  Now, things changed.

I don't remember everything that was brought up at first.  The vet wanted to do a complete CBC, since Dannii is prone to seizures, we also needed to check his liver values, since its been a year or so since the last time it was checked.  Ok, so we did that.  No significant results in that. Don't remember what it was, but something was a little high, and the vet had said, that that could be because of what going on in his colon.  Next step, sonagram.  That showed a mass on the outside of his colon, and the guy who did the sonagram was 90% sure that its cancerous.  Not good.  But still no idea of why he is bleeding from his rectum.

Dannii on 9-11-2011

Couple of options here. Could do a a scope up his butt, camera and all to see what's going on, which would cost around $1,500 to $2,000.  Money, which I did not have.  Or, we could do surgery. Would be a few hundred dollars less than the scope, but we would know more of what's going on inside.

So, I put out a plea to some people to see if anyone would be willing to donate some of their hard earned cash, and helping me to help Dannii and find out what is causing the bleeding.  Funds came in, which truly humbled me.  I was and am so very greatfull for their generosity.  My vet's practice is not set up to do a scope, so Dannii had to go to a specialist.

We went to see the specialist last Wednesday, the 19th, and I was surprised that she did the procedure right then and there. Guess that was why they told me that Dannii can't have no food or water the night before!  In the meantime, she put him on Piroxicam to help with the swelling and inflamation.  She said that she would call me as soon as the results from the biopsy came in, she thought it would be Friday, but it was Saturday when she call me.  She was pretty sure we were dealing with a scaroma, but the biopsy said "probable lyphoma".  I asked her, what the hell did that mean, couldn't they get a diffentive answer?  I honestly don't remember what she told me, all I heard that it would cost another $500 to get the true results.  So, here we are now, a week later, and the vet took Dannii off of the Piroxicam.  Saturday was his last day, she wrote a script for him to start Prednisone starting today.

Dannii 10-23-2011

I had someone from another list that I am on, send me information on dogs with cancer.  It was a very informative web site, and they talked about their dog, and the diet they put their dog on.  Didn't cure the cancer, but did buy the dog many more months than what the vet had said that they would have.

So, this is our journey, now.  I bought a small bag and several can's of holistic dog food.  Now, I have to be careful, as I have two other basenji's here, and they would love nothing better than to scarf up what Dannii is getting, as they are getting their regular food.

I have not got this down yet, as some stuff I had to order online, and they have not come in yet.  But, I just burned the organic long grain brown rice that I was cooking!  Jeez.  Computer is in my bedroom, and I didn't hear the timer go off, when I remembered the rice!  Didn't burn all of it, and maybe, just maybe, he will still eat the burnt stuff.  OR, if he won't eat it, I know Zak will.  Zak will eat anything that's food, and even stuff that's not food!

So ok now.  I will (hopefully) post and let everyone know, how Dannii is doing on his so called diet.  His appetite is still good, and his gums are still nice and pink.  I want to try and get his energy level up some, as he tires easily now, but he still's enjoys going to the dog park on Sundays!

So, as Zak would say, "you all come back again, now hear"?