The negatives we're talking about in Vida's case aren't life threatening, but knowing what to really expect, for me, is reassuring.
I want to be told that her hair will slough off in cruddy patches, that the skin will heal, but the hair probably won't come back. Pretty obvious, you'd think, to tell someone that their dog will have a big bare patch where the radiation was done. This is just an aesthetic issue in the end, but during the process it's nice to know what to expect so you don't waste time peering at it every other day.
Today I took Vida to see her holistic vet. I'd scheduled this appointment a couple of weeks ago, and knew that it would be just after she'd finished her prednisone, so the timing seemed good to assess her condition and plan ahead for upkeep.
I didn't know that I would be needing help in figuring out what the HECK was going on with her since stopping the pred last week. Her digestion has been bad, her appetite waaay off, her energy low, her eyes watery... basically she looked sick and miserable. I was worried that her adrenals weren't working properly, but he didn't think so at all (she had perked up a bit with him of course).
He pointed out something that, once he said it, seemed obvious - the prednisone had suppressed her body's ability to detoxify, so now that the pred was out of her system, her body started dumping toxins. He said he saw this a lot, the side effects that come a month or so after radiation is finished, and this is where his question came...
"Didn't they warn you about that?"
No.
No they didn't. And it would've been so simple for them to tell me to expect her body to detoxify when the pred was done, so to plan accordingly.
Instead I've spent the last few days worrying, adding and subtracting supplements, messing with her food, and (a second time for emphasis) worrying.
So for the next month she'll be getting rid of crud. Hopefully I'll only have to play with her food for the next week, but we'll see. She's superstitious because whatever she ate last made her feel crummy, so it's cooking meat for tastiness, and shifting entrees around so she stays excited.
Supplements? A few new ones for this process, and most others put aside for the time being.
- Liver support capsule called "Hepato Support" with milk thistle and some B-Vits.
- Homeopathic detoxifier - don't ask me what's in it, I don't know (a pet peeve of mine - please give me an ingredient list).
- Herbal tincture called "Astragalus Formula (again, no ingredient list, grrrr).
So she got a little bit of cooked venison tonight, with all of her new supplements except the homeopathic (I'll do that later by itself), and she ate it all. So far so good!
Hopefully my blog posts of the past several weeks will help other dog owners not be disturbed or surprised by the process, and have some ideas of what to do about it, and WHAT TO ASK.
3 comments:
Tonight's shenanigans:
I measure fluids(prepared slippery elm and irish mosh) in a 6cc syringe, mix it with astragalus tincture, enzymes, mushroom powder, and liver support capsule powder in a small custard dish, then suck it all back into the syringe and slowly inject the concoction into the dog's mouth.
This enables me to feed her pristine food in her bowl - Stella and Chewy's freeze-dried duck rehydrated with lots of warm water, which she completely eats.
She ate somewhat energetically so I bring things out of the fridge to see if she wants anything else. The only thing she seems at all interested in is the Salmon Paws (ah yes, doggie crack!). I open the bag and break off a small piece, but as I offer it to her she quietly pukes up the food she just ate on the floor. Then she quietly eats it again. And refuses the Salmon Paws. Since she hasn't retreated I offer her a small piece of the Stella and Chewys dry. She takes it and walks back to bed with it, where she puts it down and looks at it for a few seconds before eating it.
I'm happy that I got all of that in her because this morning was pretty much a bust.
She didn't even want to drink water most of the day until I flavored a little with S&C.
Seems that I need to figure out something better to ease her nausea and headaches.
Margaret,
Thanks for this informative post and for commenting on my blog (The Adventures of Jumping Jasper-Roo...).
Jasper just completed a full course of radiation, too. Twenty-two days.
Now all of his fur has fallen off in the area where he had radiation. I never thought to ask about this growing back. More questions for our next vet visit.
Best wishes!
My vet just emailed me a PDF of the ingredients - very cool!
I was so worn out the day I was there getting them that I didn't ask for it like I usually would. I still would like to see ingredients as a normal handout for customers whether they ask for it or not.
On a related note, Vida is back to normal energy and appetite-wise. I'll post an update soon with a new photo of her lovely chin.
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