Puppy Snuggles: Chemo Round One

I woke up this morning and half of Sampson's face was covered in hives. A 6:00AM trip to Walgreens and 3 Benadryls later and he was just fine. No idea what he get in to. If it's this crazy having dogs, how can anyone deal with having human children?

Well, we weighed our options up and down and came up with a decision. It certainly wasn't easy. Of course we wanted to do everything we could possibly do to keep our boy happy and healthy, but we wanted to make sure that it would be the best decision for Bovver and not just a selfish decision on our part. We decided to go with the Lomustine treatment. This way Bovver wouldn't have to be left alone at the VCA for two hours on a IV drip of one of the nastiest chemo drugs out there. He doesn't like going to the vet and especially doesn't like being away from us for long. The Lomustine treatment is taken orally once every three weeks rather than every week, so we thought this would be much easier on him.

We still have the option of changing our minds at any time, or if and when the Lomustine becomes ineffective. We are really hoping we can see Bovver boy turn 9 on February 1st, but we are very excited to have another Christmas with our baby. Especially because this is our first Christmas together in our beautiful new home. 

We took Bovver in for his appointment yesterday for his first treatment and things went great! His CBC was good and his white blood cell count was in the normal range, so they went ahead and administered a shot of L-Asparaginase and an oral dose of Lomustine. He came home and snuggled for the rest of the evening. He was very tired and not very hungry that night.

He would only eat out of dad's hand

This morning he had a hard time getting out of bed and when I carried him to the backyard to potty he wasn't able to hold himself up and peed all over himself. Interesting fact, his urine and feces are toxic for the 72 hours after his treatment, so I quick cleaned him up, carried him to bed and then thoroughly washed my hands and arms. He wasn't interested in his food, but took his medicine and probiotics like a champ. Right now he is taking 3/4 tab of Mestinon, 2.5 tabs of Prednisone, and a probiotic chew three times a day. We will be adding in some Omega-3 oil and Milk Thistle as soon as it arrives. 

Also, on a lighter note, we surpassed our donation goal on our YouCaring page last night! Thank you all so so so so much. You have no idea how humbled we are by this whole experience. We have such a great support system around us and we love you all.