Holistic Vet=great day!! and better yet..a PLAN

So, yesterday was the worst day I had yet through this whole process. Between car trouble, my horse Cortez being laid up with a nasty abscess, and Leroy coughing up blood for the first time yet, I had hit the end of my rope with everything and was an emotional disaster from sun up to sun down. We went to the specialist yesterday at Bend Vet Specialist ie; BVS and visited Dr. Dougherty. She was super nice, but the appt. was very frustrating with the fact that his x-rays which were supposed to have been overnighted from a Portland Specialist were not there so everything was up for speculation on her end. This was her report that she e-mailed me:
 

March 1, 2012

        Summary:

        Leroy Fairfield, nine year old male neuter German Shorthair Pointer. Lives on a horse farm and has access to a lot of things. He is otherwise healthy. Coughing started about 1 month ago. He had a bit of coughing last year and cxr was done and was normal. CXR done last Saturday showed a pulmonary mass. Today Leroy coughed up some blood. Films were sent to VDIC and report says 4.3 cm mass and lymphadenopathy. Recommended repeat films or wait for originals to allow measurement and aid in locating the mass via ULS.  Discussed waiting for original films to be delivered or take films today and proceed.. If cannot locate with ULS then consider bronchoscopy and BAL.

PE) mm pink, heart nsa, no murmur, normal auscultation, abdomen ok, fundic nsf. Beautiful and well fleshed dog .
PLAN:
Submit CBC CHEM UA on Monday
Get films back from VDIC : received after appointment time today. Evaluation of CXR, a spherical left caudal lobe pulmonary mass is present. There is marked hilar lymphadenopathy and right cranial lobe infiltrate.
ULS mass and do FNA : not sure given location that I can reach mass with ULS. Will try to locate.
IF unable, bronchoscopy and BAL, cyto, cultures…Need to gas sterilize the scope today first. Scheduled for Monday.

 Basically I was in tears at that point because the estimate for all of this was 1800-2100.00. Which I DO not have with just one income at this point. I also had to reach the hard realization that even if we did these diagnostics we still were faced with the fact that we already know is that HE HAS CANCER, which means potential surgery 5-7k and then probably Chemo. which is very invasive and around 6k. I knew in my heart, even if I was rich and could afford it It was not the best quality of life I could provide my dog. I left there devastated again, and extremely frustrated with a lack of plan. I drove straight to Sage Veterinary Clinichttp://www.sagevet.com/Welcome.html knowing deep down this was the place I needed to get peace of mind, find treatment I could justify and wrap my head around. They got us in this morning at 9:30. I met with Dr. Steven Blauvelt. Right away I felt at home. The rooms are very cozy with a nice mattress on the floor for the animals, I was able to sit on the floor with Leroy, and you never felt pressured by the clock. We spent an hour with Steven where he asked a thorough history of Leroy, and looked him over carefully. Leroy was having an extremely "energetic" day (mildly obnoxious) because he knew there was a cat in the next room, so he was very whiny and pacing, he does NOT look like a "sick" dog.

 Leroy has a very strong constitution, and everything, heart and lungs sounded great! Steven explained a lot of Chinese medicine theory and practice and explained how Tumors are caused by excess Phlegm in the body. It is also an issue with stagnant heart and liver so we devised a treatment to boost these organs and move Phlegm out of the body. He was highly praising of the diet I have Leroy on..it was wonderful to be validated in what I was doing and have done in the past with success. The vet at BVS was not so supportive of the diet, I told her I understand the pros and cons of raw diet..there is a lot of controversy regarding raw, but right now I cannot justify feeding him something I don't know where it comes from. The raw food he is eating is raised right here on our farm, disease and antibiotic/drug free. I can visit his "food" anytime I wish lol!! So, we went away with a plan some:
1. Livaplex capsules to help cleanse the liver-we start this slowly 1 pill/day for 5 days, 2 pills a day for 5 days, then 3pills a day.
2.CurcuVET-SA150 capsules that are Hepatic, muskulskeletal &GI support 1x a day.
3. StasisBreaker-which is an "herbal chemo" it is meant to cleanse and move the phlegm out of his body that is assisting in his tumor growth.

We are going to look into a new and extremely succesful in Europe, product made by Weleda, called Iscador. http://www.iscador.com/index.aspx Check it out, he has had amazing results and he is going to call the company with Leroy's results to find the treatment that will work best for him.

So, anyway, this is a lot of information, we have a recheck in 3weeks, Leroy has had a GREAT day and is eating his food very well... as you can see from the photo of his dinner tonight! I feel back to myself at least knowing we have a plan. I am not looking to "cure" cancer. Cancer is cancer and it &*(&(*ING sucks..BUT..what I do feel is that I am now doing the best that I can within my budget and based on my personal moral feelings on Leroys quality of life. If it works GREAT, if not, then it is the Universe and Nature doing what it is supposed to do and there is nothing anyone can do about that. So for now..we keep educating and researching and I will keep you all posted on how the Lee-man is doing!! xo