Sweetie’s Progress-March 2009

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Sweetie Blog Two: March Report

February and March have seen a few modifications of Sweetie’s protocol – nothing unusual for a dog with lymphosarcoma or lymphocytic leukemia. As often happens, Sweetie could not tolerate the high fat content of Hills N/D; she developed diarrhea which responded only partially to a home-made chicken and rice diet combined with the antibiotic metronidazole. Also, her liver enzymes continued to climb, and I became concerned that either an infection or a reaction to her chemotherapy drugs was causing this. We began to monitor her blood values weekly, rather than every three weeks, and finally decided to do an ultrasound. Everything pointed to a reaction to her prednisolone, not an infection or a reaction to her CEENU. Since her blood counts continue to show NO lymphocytic leukemia, we began to drop the dose of prednisolone. I am happy to report that her liver enzyme values continue to decrease and that she is still free of any signs of recurrence of her leukemia.

On March 10, 2009, Mr. Lipton reported that Sweetie was limping and not completing her two mile walks at Vanderbilt Mansion National Park. We added doxycycline since a recurrence of Anaplasmosis is not unusual in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, since the chemotherapy weakens the immune system. At this time, she is still limping, so we may add an additional drug called Adequan to help with arthritis type inflammation. We also may need to diet Sweetie as she has gained 15 # on the prednisolone and home cooking! We certainly want Sweetie and the Liptons to enjoy all the wonders of a Hudson Valley spring and hope our April report brings us that good news.

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