Chemotherapy for Osteosarcoma: All advice most welcome!

[elmuervo]

Hello lovely people


Tragically, many of you and your dear hounds have been where we are now: Barney's had a diagnosis of osteo (we're yet to find out which subtype ) and is due to start chemotherapy in the morning.  He'll be treated using Carboplatin (on its own - not in combination with doxorubicin as it sometimes is).


Whilst acknowledging that the disease itself, its effects and its prognosis are often wildly different between hounds, I'd be so grateful to hear your experiences of nursing dogs through chemo, and any tips, warnings, ideas, things you wish you'd known . . . just anything at all you'd like to share to help make this less scary for those of us just about to embark upon the journey .


We already have one hot potato to grapple with bio-hazard precaution-wise .  Chemo is expelled from the body through the urine and faeces over an approximate 5-day period after each treatment.  During that time it's recommended that your dog only urinates on grass, which helps to disperse the radioactive toxicity and so reduce any risk to surrounding people, pets and wildlife.  The thing is, we have only fake grass, and any real grass is quite a way away . . . hmmmmmmm .  So we've got our thinking caps on about that one at the moment .


So . . . anything you have to share would be most welcome


Thanks all


Jo and Steve
xxx

[vickyb]

Is your fake grass all pegged down around the outside? Could you flip some up and bribe him to go there? We flip ours up sometimes to get mistral directly under it. Just a thought...

[gilli176]

Firstly we were told it was 72 hours before Dizzy could eat or drink from the same bowls as the other dogs and to be careful when cleaning up after her when she had been to the toilet and not to let her lick us. She tolerated the carboplatin fine she was lethargic and off her food but no severe side effects. She did not like being left at the vets for the day though. I hope barney tolerates the chemo as well as dizzy did. One of her sessions did have to be delayed for a week due to her having love blood counts sorry the post is a it disjointed but it seems like so long ago we went through it with dizzy but she has been clear for over 2 years.
 And good luck

[samburns]

Dickie coped with chemo really really well   The sessions only took about an hour, so we were in and out really.  He did go a little off his food after each session for about 12 hours.  We were given some anti-nausea meds but didn't use them because he really didn't seem that off-colour. 

The only thing that caught me out a bit was that he had to do a urine sample each time before they went ahead.  We managed though because he does like to 'go' when he gets to a new place

Could you lay a sort of temporary turf area anywhere? 


Fingers crossed Barney will sail through the treatment

[allthehounds]

Hi Jo, nothing more to add really except that it sounds as though different vets follow different regimes. Mou wasn't allowed to have breakfast on the day of her chemo and had to go in in the morning and stay all day. Because the chemo drugs can cause kidney damage they kept her in all day to keep her hooked up to an iv line to flush everything through her system and make sure she stayed hydrated. She never had to give a sample of urine but always had her bloods done and we were warned that if her white blood count became too low she wouldn't be able to have it that week and would have to wait. She also had the same drugs as Barney is having and had a session once every 3 weeks. Also as you say going to the toilet can be a hazard so they wanted her to go the toilet for the first time after receiving the chemo whilst she was with them and they also disposed of all bedding from her cage whilst she was there. In fact I used to take her bed in with her but she was only allowed to sit on that whilst she was waiting for the chemo, once they'd administered it they took it out and replaced it with something they could throw away each time. We then had to be extra careful about picking her poo up at home and making sure our other dog didn't sniff her wee etc. She tolerated the chemo really well though and was never sick or off her food. In fact every time we went to pick her up she was covered in bits of bedding because she got so bored that she used to shred it in the afternoons and make a right mess! Fortunately the vets thought it was funny and they were really pleased to see how well she was coping with everything. Presumably by now Barney has had his first session so I hope he's doing ok and I hope he doesn't get side effects from it. They do say that dogs rarely get side effects like humans because they just aren't given high enough doses of chemo to cause sickness, hair loss etc. Continued good thoughts for Barney and do let us know he got on.
Sian x