11-15-12 Tuesday, and no students :>(

10-30-11, Dannii at Point Isabel

Am home today, as I had no students.  I kind of like this, but then I don't, because my paychecks are very small.  With all that is going on with Dannii, I am going to need every penny I can get.

Before breakfast, phenobarbital pill, Ondansetron pill (for loss of appetite), Mirtazapine (to stimulate appetite), and a pepcid, mixed in with some baby food on a spoon, and was down the hatch in no time.  I took two Essiac tea 8 pills and put them end to end on a piece of lunch meat, and rolled the lunch meat up into a roll.  He ate it without a problem, but one of the pills dropped out!  So, I had to get another piece of lunch meat and rolled it up in that, and he ate it, no pill dropping this time.

Breakfast, he gets two scoups of Innova Turkey and Chicken.  I heated up some water in the microwave for about a minute and a half.  I have to make sure its really hot to soak Jenna's kibble.  Added water to all 3 bowls, and waited for a bit, so the kibble could soak up the water.  Dannii's food doesn't soak up the water like Jenna or Zak's does, so I just poured off the excess water.  Pretty soon every body had eaten and was trying to sack out in the few rays of sun on the floor.

I decided to call the oncologist as I haven't heard back from him since last week.  He called me back within ten minutes.  He went ahead and ordered the CCNU (chemo drug) from Arizona for me.  Dannii need's to be on it for 21 days, then off for 7 days.  Somewhere in that time, we do a CBC/chem panel to see how his white blood cells are doing.  The pills cost with shipping $50.89.  This is going to be on going, until his body stops responding to it.  The CBC/Chem panel is going to run $145.00 every 3-4 weeks.  He did say, that we wouldn't have to do the chem everytime, but do need to do the CBC to keep check on the white cells, or else, I could end up killing Dannii.  Oh dear Lord, help me.  What a rotten time for my x to stop spousal support!  I sure could use that extra money.

For some stupid reason, my mouse quit working, and its got brand new batteries in it!  If its not one thing, its always something else. 

I made a smoothie around lunch time for Dannii just so I could get the rest of his pills (supplements) in him.  I guess I didn't add enough of something, cuz he wouldn't finish it, and it wasn't really that much.  So, again I took some lunch meat and cut it up real small and added it in, drank some, but didn't care for the lunch meat for some reason.  Ok, so now I add a little bit of DogSure to the mix, and now he's drinking. I keep adding more DogSure and he keeps drinking until all the liquid is gone, and nothing is left but the lunch meat.  So, I split the lunch meat between Jenna and Zak, which both just ate up in no time.

Dinner he got his regular Innova Turkey and Chicken.  Boy, I hope he doesn't get tired of that!  He will eat it.  Also made sure he got his phenobarbital pill afterwards.  Now all I have to do is to make sure that he gets his Essiac Tea 8 before we go to bed.

I just got a phone call from my son, who was on his way home.  Somebody shot out his passenger door window!  Well, its not gone, but its shattered and he's says still cracking.  I told him to call the police.  He just called me back, and he's now just waiting for the police to show up.  I doubt if they will find out who did it.  Probably just some punks, not realize what they are doing, or maybe they do, and let it go at that.  Son says it had to come from some houses off to his right, well yeah, but which one?  Good luck with that one.

Monday 11-14-11

This is an older picture of Dannii.  Taken in September of last year.  My camera's charger is on the fritz, so had to order a new charger. Should be here in the next two days or so.

Ok, Monday morning.  I used up the last of the Zeal that I had.  Had put kibble in each of the dogs bowls, and since Jenna is having chewing problems, I really had to make sure her kibble was mush.  I added the Zeal to each of their bowls, and in no time at all, which included Dannii, all the bowls were empty!  I guess he finally likes that stuff, but I doubt if I am going to buy any in the near future.  I personally did not like the smell of the stuff, and it stayed with me for a long time.

The essiac tea 8 came in on Saturday, so I had been making sure that he is getting that twice a day.  Its suppose to be on an empty stomach, in the morning, its not a problem, but I have to make sure I give it to him before bed time, when his tummy is empty.  So far, so good.  He's been taking it without a problem.

Since I was at work for the dinner meal.  I made sure that my son knew how much food to give Dannii and also that Dannii's phenobaribital pills went from 1.5 down to just the one pill.  I got home at 8pm, and asked if Dannii ate and yes, he ate all his food.  Still was looking for a little bit more.  So, gave him a small scoup.

As long as he keeps eating, we're ok.  My prayer and wish is for Dannii to make it to his 14th birthday which will be 12-12-12.  He's turning 13 next month on 12-12-11, which is 27 days from now.

You all come back again, now hear?

11-12-11 & I'm sick, & 11-13-11 & the dog park

First off, I got sick Friday night.  It was something I ate, as I was throwing up,  Sick to my stomach and just couldn't get warm.  May sound like to flu to some, but I been taking Selenium and a Ester C for many years now, and have never had the flu.  Nope, this was diffentley something I ate.  Started trying to call my office manager at 6:30am, but she had her phone off.  I did call the office and left a message on the machine there, just to make sure somebody, somewhere knew that I wasn't going to be working today.  I finally got ahold of my office manager around 8am.  Her cell phone was still off, so its a good thing I called the office again, and she answered.  It was all I could do to stay awake that long, and try and keep from throwing up any more.  Fell back to sleep, but then the dogs reminded me that they needed  their breakfast.

Hard to get out of bed, stomach rolling and turning with my every step.  First I had to make sure Dannii got his pills before he could actually eat breakfast.  Got all of that over and done with it. Thank goodness he is eating now, and not too much trouble in taking his normal pills.  Its only when I try to give him his supplements, do I run into problems.  Since I wasn't feeling well, I just left out the supplements, just made sure that he got his pills that he needed.

I gave him about a half of a cup of his Innova Turkey and Chicken which he readily ate up.  Thank goodness, he likes that.

Sunday, 11-13-11

Stomach is still a tad queasy, but not like yesterday.  Its a nice day.  Dannii got his pills.  I used some of the Zeal for the dogs breakfast.  Since Jenna is having so much trouble with her teeth, I have to truly soak her kibble and then mush it down.  She has no problems with the Zeal at all.  Dannii ate "some" of his breakfast, but did not finish it.  For some reason, this time, Zak left Dannii's bowl alone, and did not finish it off like he normally does.

I also notice that Dannii is shivering, so I put on his dog sweater.  Its a tad chilly here at the house, windy outside, so all the dogs get their sweaters on.  We went to the dog park, but I can't load any pictures, as all my batteries died, but the charger, itself, quit working.  So just ordered a new one, and is suppose to be here on the 17th or 18th, I'll upload some pics then, if I have any good ones, but at least you all will be able to see the sweaters that they were wearing.  The sweaters were hand knitted, but not by me.  I got them from Sally Wallis who gets "donated yarn", makes the sweaters and sells them on eBay, and the money then goes to BRAT (Basenji Rescue and Transport).  I emailed her and asked for some certain colors, if she has the colors, that's fine, if not, then your out of luck, I would guess.  I just gave her some general colors, like pastels for Jenna, red and black and white for Zak, some dark and light blues for Dannii.  They turned out great, but I think just a bit too big on the sides.
They got alot of compliments on the sweaters of course, and I thought that was great.  Course some were looking at us as to why the dogs had the sweaters still on, after now it got warm.  I don't know, I was afraid that if I took Dannii's off, he would get the chills, and I didn't want to do that.  I also need to let you all know, that Dannii finally had his tail up!  He's had it hanging down for so many months now, I think he forgot that the tail does got up!

When we got home, Dannii finished his breakfast.  I guess he was still hungry.  Good boy.  Since he ate the rest of his breakfast, now I had to wait a bit longer before they got their dinner.  Again he got his Innova Turkey and Chicken, plain, nothing added, and he ate it up.

I had ordered some Essiac 8 tea in capsules, and I knew they should have been here by now, but weren't.  Well, nobody went and checked to mail on Saturday.  My son checked the mailbox on Sunday and the tea was there.  The capsules are softgels and they are about an inch long, and I'm thinking "oh boy, here we go again".  But I took a slice of lunch meat, and laid out two pills, end to end, and rolled up the lunchmeat, like a roll. Dannii didn't even stop, he just inhaled the whole thing!  I am thinking this is just a one time thing, and he won't do it again.  The pills are for 30 days at 4 pills a day, two in the morning and two in the evening.  Not counting when I take some, and they cost $40.00.  So now that's another expense I have going to have to make sure that I got covered.

Not to gross anybody out, but before Dannii got on Prednisone, the lymphoma was causing him a hard time to poop, and he would normally have some light blood drip down his backside.  Since the prednisone has kicked in the the lymphoma has shrunk, he doesn't strain going to the bathroom now, but instead of having some blood drip down his backside, now its poop. So, I have to make sure that he is really cleaned up after he goes to the bathroom.

I am writing this on Monday morning, and am feeling a bit better.  I took a Prevacide and a Pepcid AC and it seems to have quiet my stomach some.  I am working today, so I best get on the ball, and get ready.

You all come back again, now hear?

11-10-11 & today 11-11-11

Whenever we have a memorable day like today 11-11-11; I always try and get some pictures.  This here is all the b's hanging out by the wood stove.  Dannii is the only one who is paying attention, while Jenna acts like I am intruding, and Zak, he flat out don't care! He's the one way in the back.

Well, I have to say that yesterday, I got Dannii to eat some of the Zeal dehydrated dog food!  Of course, I had put some of his kibble on the bottom of his bowl, added hot turkey water to the Zeal and waited for a bit, then added it to all 3 dog bowls.  Jenna and Zak ate it up with no problems, and Dannii did to, this time.  Before, he wouldn't touch it, until I had put a whole bunch of liver down and mixed it all in.

Even though now that he is eating, he has diarrhea, and for some reason, now he has it sticking to his back-end.  Where before, it used to be just blood, now its diarrhea, and dried at that.  So, have to take a good warm cloth and wash him off, which I don't think he minds too much.  Am not sure what is causing this.  Maybe its because he's getting too many supplements at one time or what?  I think I will try and hold off on them, and just make sure that he gets his phenobarbital and prednisone pills for now, plus the Ondansetron for loss of appetite, and Mirtazapine to stimulate his appetite.  I did increase that one, from a 1/4 of a tablet up to a 1/2, so maybe I will cut that one back to a 1/4 again and see if that will help any.  He looks like he is gaining some weight, but not hundred percent sure.  No way to really tell for sure, the scales at my regular vets office is "kind of off", its the same scale they had back in the 1980's when I first starting going there.  Don't know if it has ever been "calerbrated" or not.  I have taken them out to the one pet store that does have a scale, but I think its "off" too.  When Dannii was at the oncologist's on the 2nd of this month, he weighed 22 pounds.  I am pretty sure I stopped at that pet store on the way home to weigh Dannii, but for the life of me, I don't remember, and I didn't write it down like I usually do.

For some reason, I am not feeling well.  Feel like I am coming down with a cold or something.  I take a Ester vitamin C and a selenium, and usually I don't ever get sick, sick.  But there have been times, like now, where I just don't feel good.  Course right now also, I have acid indigestion but I take something for that, but its no longer working.  It's generic form, so maybe I need to get the "real thing"?

Jenna is going to the regular vet on Wednesday of next week, to have her mouth checked.  I do believe her teeth are bothering her, as she won't eat all of her kibble, even when its soaked to mush.  She was coming down with "stomatitis", and she just had a cleaning about two months ago, maybe less, so she shouldn't be going through this right now.  My vet did say that sometimes they have to pull all the teeth for the "stomatitis" to clear up, as its up in the gums above the teeth.  Great.  More bills that I can't afford.  Hopefully we can get her on an antibiotic for right now, and see if that will help.


Tomorrow being Saturday, I need to get up early.  Had to get up early today, as it was a school holiday, and all the kids were out.  Felt like a Saturday to me, but nope, tomorrow is, so I am off the bed, just like the dogs are.

You all come back again, now hear?

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.

You all come back again, now hear?

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!

You all come back again, now hear?