the limp

Here's a video I shot yesterday of Dave's limping. We cleaned and wrapped his foot last night, so, of course, he promptly took off the bandage. Dave loves sticks of all sort, which you'll see in the video. Happily for him, Sunday's wind and hail storm blew down several large limbs and smaller sticks.

Also, I realize that our yard looks terrible on the video. We take pride in the small property we own, so this year we went organic in our lawn and garden maintenance due to Dave. Everything we've read says that the grass needs time to adjust to not having the chemicals to make it a vibrant green color. Anyway, ignore the patchy grass and enjoy a dog frolicking with his stick.

vaccine round 2

Dave went for his second vaccine today. His bloodwork and physical exam were good, so he received the vaccine. His weight is up to just over 28 pounds, which we suspected when his ribs and spine began to appear a lot less noticable. As long as we don't have problems between now and then, he'll get his third and final vaccine on August 18th.

He saw the opthalmologist, who said that his eye pressure was normal. They suspect that some of the rubbing and discharge is related to his allergies. We had the option of having him see the dermatologist, but we declined. The vet that saw him today checked for mites or infection that could be causing the itching and redness, and concurred that he has seasonal allergies. She gave us a strict Benadryl dosing regimen - 25 mg, up to four times a day. We're going to start him on it tomorrow, three times a day to see how he reacts.

It's always something... I want him to have relief and not scratch and lick, but I also want to have an alert (or relatively so) dog. If the Benadryl doesn't help, we'll go with the derm consult. He has a raw spot on his back paw from licking and biting it, which apparently is tender when he walks. We're treating it with neosporin and covering it when he's outside. It makes him hop around, which gives us a little amusement.

The vet said several times how well he's doing, which was nice to hear. Hopefully that will continue!

another decent week

Dave definitely seemed to feel better this week. The itching, spitting up and general malaise all decreased, but he's still snoring quite loudly at night. I have to start posting more pictures to eliminate the walls of text I keep writing.

Monday is his second vaccine, so he'll have a complete check up with CBC then. Mike still thinks I'm crazy in regards to feeling the lymph nodes, but they appear smaller now. Maybe Dave just had a summer bug?

decent week

Things are pretty much status quo... Dave's still patchy - he's losing hair around his "armpits" and on his head. He's itching a little bit less, however. Maybe it will start to grow back a bit? He had a couple of instances of excited-type spit up, and had one day where he looked like he didn't feel good. I'm pretty happy with him overall at this point, and am hoping that next Monday's appointment for the vaccine goes well.

I've taken to feeling the lymph nodes in Dave's neck, which Mike hates. Do I feel a difference? Some days I feel like I do, others I don't, so it's probably just in my head. Mike feels that if Dave does come out of remission, catching it early vs. late may not make a difference in our plans.

500 visitors

Thanks again to everyone for coming to check up on Dave!

He's still itching, but it seems to be getting somewhat better. I hope he can get some relief soon. Mike and I have joked in the past year or so that Dave is our little old man, and it's becoming more and more apparent - I think the chemo really aged him. His energy level is still lower than I'd like to see, and he still has no whiskers and is losing patches of hair from itching. He will turn nine next month... I know that's old in 'dog years,' but prior to this all happening, he didn't seem old.

itchy

Dave's been very itchy the last few weeks, but it's gotten pretty bad since the weekend. The nurse we talked to this week said that the chemo/lower immune system response could cause allergies he previously had to be worse, so I guess that's whats happening. There's definitely no swelling of the face (nor anything else we should be looking out for) from the vaccine. He's itching so much that he's losing little patches of hair, which is new. He used to itch himself raw - I don't know what I'd prefer. We gave him benadryl this morning, and it already seems to be working.

vaccine round 1

Dave received his vaccine today. It was a relatively short visit, he went in at noon and was done by 2:30. He had a normal physical exam and normal bloodwork, but lost a little more weight, about a quarter of a pound. Then he got two shots - one on the right hip/butt area that was the vaccine, and one on the left that was a control. The vet said that there aren't too many side effects, since it's created using his blood and lymph node, but we'll be on the look out for a puffy face, itching and swelling of the injection sites. They really do prepare it that morning - they called to make sure we were coming, and said that the researcher walks it to them as soon as it's ready. Amazing...

We go back on July 28th for round 2.

vaccine

Dave gets his first vaccine on Monday. The process sounds pretty interesting. He'll go in around noon, and they'll do some bloodwork. Assuming it's normal, he'll get the vaccine. Apparently, it won't be finished and ready until that day; the vet went as far to say that he needed an afternoon appointment so it will be as fresh as possible. Being a social worker, the preparation of vaccines is not something I'm familiar with, so I'm a bit amazed with all of this.

Although I have it in the links section, here is the link to Penn's trial page. They initially explained that they hope to be able to use this a treatment for animals and people one day. This article, from November, goes into a bit more detail. The day I took Dave to the vet for his initial diagnosis, there was a story on ABC's World News Tonight about the dog in the article. Like Dave, she was diagnosed with the most advanced stage of lymphoma.

Dave still looks skinny to me, so I'll be curious to find out his weight. We've increased his food, hoping to put a few pounds back on him. He lost three pounds during the course of chemo; it may not be a lot, but it was 10% of his weight, and he definitely looks too thin.

no return possum

The possum hasn't found his way back, at least as far as I know. From what I've read on the oh-so-reliable internet, possums usually aren't rabid, and I don't think Dave had any contact with him. I hope to keep it that way.

Thanks to everyone who is keeping up on the blog! There was a jump in visitors today, which is always a nice thing...

happy july!

Dave's energy level has definitely picked up over the last two days. Hooray for that!

We had an adventure today. It was Mike's day off, so while I was doing my normal morning routine, about 7:30 am, he comes in and tells me there's a baby possum in our recycling can. Ew. I'm not a possum fan - I saw one crossing the road once, with it's little babies hanging on, six pairs of eyes staring at me, and I'm scarred for life. The stupid thing is curled up, on top of our bottles and cans, sleeping. So we called animal control for our county, and the number was disconnected. Next, I tried the police non-emergency number, and was told that they would call animal control.

Mike waited and waited, to no avail. Somehow, he found an alternate number and called them around eleven. This was the conversation:
Animal Control: "we don't come out for that."
Mike: "so, what should I do? Is there someone who does?"
AC: "tip the can over and let it out."
Mike: "I have a dog, it might have rabies, and I don't want it running around my yard."
AC: "wait until night. They're nocturnal."
Mike: "no thanks."

Seriously??? That's the best they can do? Mike walked the recycling can down to the park and let it go there. Hopefully it won't find it's way back...