Travel is so good for the body and soul!!

After a not so great week last week, with last Tuesday night being a day I thought Leroy was going to die very soon due to such severe breathing issues, I decided come hell or high water I was going to bring Leroy to his favorite place, the beach! You cannot even say that word around him without him making the cutest little puppy face and getting all wiggly! We saw Dr. Emily on Wednesday AM. She had us leave him for x-rays for an hour where they determined he had a lung infection (hence the non-existent appetite and fever) the tumor appeared to have grown 15-20% in size, and he had fluid around the tumor. They gave him IV Dex, Lasix, and we started him on Doxycycline 3x daily and oral Prednisone 1x daily. I had to teach lessons in LaPine all afternoon so I took Leroy with me, it was like a miracle, every hour he got better and better..he did cough up a half-dollar size of bright, red, blood, but in my opinion that is the body clearing the cancer out of his lung. That night he had NO coughing, and his breathing was slow and regular. He ate a tiny bit of breakfast and dinner on Thursday, and Friday AM we left for the coast. I gave him one lasix on Friday to help with some mild coughing. We made it to the coast, he had a great run on the Beach Friday afternoon and devoured his dinner on Friday night! I had forgotten the ever so important staple of his previous cancer diet, Sardines in water!!! He LOVES sardines, and they are loaded with essential oils and nutrients known to fight cancer. The rest of the weekend he was AMAZING!!! He ran like a puppy, he coughed a few times on Saturday so I gave him a Lasix and he has not coughed since then! His energy and spirit is back, he is taking his pills like a champ! I have decided to take him off the raw diet while he is on Prednisone as it can be an immune supressent, I go with my gut on these things and right now full raw does not feel right. So he is back to home cooked food, mixed with his grain-free taste of the wild, sardines, veggies,cottage cheese and flax-seed oil. His daily regime of pills and supplements are currently:

Chinese medicine: Livaplex, Circu-VET, and Stasis Breaker (I switched from the powder to tea pills and he gobbles them up in little cheese balls)

Holistic: Protandim, Spirilina, Zinc, Vit C, Pro-biotics (forco) Equerry's Spunk II

Conventional: Prednisone 1xdaily, Doxycycline 2x daily, and Lasix as needed.

He has another appt. with the Holistic Vet in a week or so, and we are going to re-xray the lung the day before his re-check to see what the tumor is doing!! But for now he is HAPPY, VIBRANT, and doing wonderful!!! Kiss your pups, tell them you love them, love goes such a long way!!! Here are some photos from the weekend!!! Enjoy!!

                    Leroy and I having a photo op. at the amazing beach house we got to stay at!

                Leroy NEVER is interested in sticks, today he was very interested in the stick!! LOL!

                                                                 My Best Buddy!!

                           Mischeivous faces...this is their lets go to the beach already face!!!

                                               Pointers doing what Pointers do best!!!

                                                                     Family Photo!!

                                                           SO HAPPY!!!!!

                                                                Lee and I dancing!!!!

                                               Relaxing after a great day in front of the fireplace!!

 

                                                      Lee and I surfing!!! ha ha ha!!!

Funky day..

So, of course there are good days and there are not so good days. It's so hard to tell sometimes with Leroy, since he can be a bit "Emo" and finicky when it comes to certain things like eating. He has had a little belly ache since he woke me up a few times to go out on Saturday night. I had to really coax him to eat yesterday, and today he wants nothing to do with it..though he did act extremely interested in Jeff's Maple Brown Sugar granola bar, which he ate with ease!! I think he is just being picky but he does seem a little more depressed then usual. I called Sage Vet and talked with Dr. Blauvelt who was encouraging as always..we are just going to give him the Circu-vet since that is a great GI support, once he starts eating then he'll go back on the StasisBreaker (but this time in a pill form, as I think the powder is the reason he is not eating) and his LivaPlex..He seemed fine when he was outside and he might just be "working it" a bit so he could get some couch time with mom. He wins..we are snuggled up doing homework together while the wind whips insanely outside. That's it for now..keep fingers crossed he eats soon.

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

More fun, cancer fighting information..

A great horsewoman in the Bend, and a huge advocate of Protandim has sent me this information. It is very, very, interesting and I do have Leroy taking this supplement as part of his daily diet. There are a few vets in the area that are using this supplement with animals and getting great results. This is the article I got today from Diane..Leroy seems great today and has only coughed twice so far. The diet is still a huge hit and one of my favorite parts of the day is the wiggle-butt dance he gives me while he waits rather impatiently while I make a huge deal of mixing all of his food together... : )

Curcumin (aka Turmeric which is in PROTANDIM) has been found to be highly effective preventing and treating glioblastoma, a fatal brain cancer and one study showed an 81% decrease in brain tumors with no evidence toxic side effects!. ”Curcumin is the most evidenced -based nutrient use as a cancer support than any other nutrient!” He states that the spice effects 700 genes, and it enters more than 100 different pathways once it gets into the cell. He also says, based on his research, that curcumin appears to be safe in the treatment of all cancers!

http://joseph-birch.livejournal.com/22014.html

If anyone has any questions or wants to know more, or get protandim here is a link to Diane's site..

www.mylifevantage.com/dianevandenBerg 

News! Sort of..

So, Dr. Emily called me today to give me the information on what the specialist had said. It was a lot of information to take in and process and I am hoping it will start to make sense as we go to more appts. The specialist that the x-rays were sent to thought that the lung tumor could be one of a few things. Excuse my spelling here, it's been a long time since my Vet Tech days, and my spelling is a little rusty...due to the fact that it looked as if along with the tumor in the left caudal lung field, there appeared to be some lymphnode enlargement around the heart area as well. The abdominal x-rays we took showed everything to be normal, except the spleen was on the higher end of normal. Judging by the way the tumor looked it could be a number of cancers that I can't spell such as lymphomatoid granulomatosis, malignanat hystiocyctosis, or a long shot, a fungal infection. I think there were a few other cancers thrown in there as well, but I was in the middle of a timed Quiz when the Vet called and felt overwhelmed and distracted. Of course none of these cancers can be determined without an aspirate..since cost is a factor right now, we decided to try just the aspirate and not the ultrasound which could range up to about 500.00 plus the costs associated with the consult, and the pathology report etc. we are looking upwards to 800.00 for just a diagnosis..so keep your fingers crossed we can get an aspirate without an ultrasound. The other option is a CT scan, but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

We were referred to Dr. Dougherty at Bend Vet Specialists for an appt. Thursday at 10am. I just want to know what kind of cancer this is, some sort of prognosis, know that I am feeding him the exact diet he requires, etc. I have never gone through this before, to this extent with a pet. I knew somehow in my heart that he would get through the mast cell tumor, but this time I am afraid of having "false" hopes. I have my moments of ups and downs, clarity and confusion, but I am so happy he is an animal and does not process or understand this sort of information like a person does. I had some pretty amazing epiphones yesterday that Leroy enabled me to have, and if I am feeling more like writing later I will elaborate on them. Until then, hug your pets, tell them you love them, and remember that diet is SO important. The stuff that you buy in the stores is NOT healthy, do your research, and in my opinion prevention is the best "cure". Keep y'all posted as we know more!

Opportunist

Leroy is one of the smartest dogs I have ever met, I think he knows he can do whatever he wants as he left his bed in the middle of the night to go sleep on the couch, again, something he has never done before! : )The hard thing was he had his worst coughing fit yet..it was deep and sounded painful..that makes me sad : (

Tumors suck..heres a diet to feed health, not the tumor

Saturday, February 25th, I took 9yr. old, Leroy into the vet to see Dr. Emily about a seemingly small, but chronic cough he had had for the past few days. He had been digging holes in the backyard so I thought that maybe he had got something lodged in his throat, or inhaled an irritant of some kind. On a darker, gut feeling note, I questioned some sort of heart issue, I never expected to get the news, and see x-rays with a golf ball size tumor in the lower lobe of Leroy's left lung. I was devastated and tried as hard as I could to listen to what Emily had to say, but I could not absorb a thing. All I heard was that she was going to send the x-rays to a specialist, and that we could do an aspirate and ultrasound to find out more about the tumor. She touched upon surgery, but the cost is about 5-8k. and prognosis is life expectancy up to a year after this extremely invasive surgery. Thoracotomy. I felt helpless and at a loss with what to do. Jeff and I brought Leroy home and cried the rest of the day. Sunday, a sleepless night later, brought about a new vigor and plan...alternating between panicky and proactive, we decided to immerse ourselves back into educating ourselves once again on cancer diets and natural treatments..this is a rough overview of what we are doing right now, and we will keep you posted through this blog on all news and new treatments we pursue. Leroys diet has been 2c. Taste of the Wild, Salmon flavor 2x a day. His pm feeding included his supplement of Equerry's Spunk II, an amazing blend of probiotics, glucosamine and chondroitin. This supplement has been very successful in keeping Leroy sound and active since last summer when he was also diagnosed with mild spondylosis.

We went to Whole foods and got:
 **Spirulina which with 62% amino acid content, and one of the world's richest sources of Vit B-12 is an excellent cancer fighter and immune booster.
**Organic cottage cheese
**Organic Flaxseed oil (liquid form)
**Whole, brown, flax seeds (in bulk) This is all part of the Budwig Diet:
http://www.holisticdog.org/Symptoms/D_E_F/Flaxseed/flaxseed.html
this diet has been used by many, including Leroy with his mast cell tumor with great results.
**Fish Oil..Omega 3 fatty acids. Watch for Omega 6's there have been some studies that have been done that show that to much Omega 6 may increase the rate of cancer cell growth. This is a great website with a lot of helpful information regarding canine cancer:
http://www.natural-dog-health-remedies.com/dog-cancer-diet.html
**Protandim- This supplement is gaining credibility and popularity quickly amongst the medical and veterinary fields. I have a few friends that swear by this for themselves and for their pets and I figured it would be excellent to add to his diet.
http://www.protandim.com/
**Forco- is an amazing, tested and tried probiotic supplement that has virtually cured my horse Lewis of his ulcers and digestive issues. It is excellent to support Leroy with as his body undergoes many changes and stresses.
http://forcocolorado.com/
Other supplements used are Vit C
 Bachs flower essences: Are very good at helping the body achieve and maintain equilibrium..I use them myself as I need as much support as well going through the stresses of having a sick pup.
http://www.bachflower.com/

Food: Raw Poultry, Beef, Buffalo, and rabbit that is raised right here on our horse farm by the property owners:
http://junipermeadow.com/home.html
we will feed with a ration of 1.25:1.0:.75

1.25 is meat ie; rabbit, home raised chicken, home grown beef, COOKED fish..Rabbit at least twice a week as it has the best amino acids, anti-inflammatory, and omega 3s

1.0 is healthy carbs brown rice, rice, potato, sweet potato, yam, oatmeal, quinoa, millet, barley, chia, or amaranth. I found an excellent mix made by http://www.sojos.com/europa.html that covers all the veggies and berry needs.

.75 fruits and veggies blueberries, blackberries, Kiwi, apples, pears, cucumber, carrots, pumpkin, green beans, peas

For now, and this will change as needed Leroys diet is transitioning slowly to the above ration mixed with supplements, cottage cheese and flaxseed sources.

For now he is doing well, he coughs most often at night and in the morning upon getting up, but he is in excellent fitness, mind and spirits! He escaped the backyard fence tonight (He NEVER does things like that..lol) and ran to help us feed the horses, nose buried in the snow, VERY proud of himself...stay tuned for more food and supplement options..and updates on the Lee-man!