Our Molly had a limp a few months ago so we thought.. oh great she tore her ACL. I am a certified veterinary technician so I brought her into my work for xrays etc. Her Dr. Was giving her a physicial and noticed her enlarged lymph nodes. She also had a slight facial paralysis which appeared out of no where that day that I was concerned about. As soon as Tim (her DVM) got quiet it confirmed my fears that it was lymphoma. He didn't want to jump to conclusions so we took aspirates of her lymphnodes and sent them to the pathologist. The next day it was confirmed. Her limp was due to some soft tissur injury unrelated to the cancer but her facial paralysis was due to her enlarged submandibular lymph node pressing on a facial nerve. Bloodwork and chest xrays came back unremarkable so it seemed as tho qe caught it in time. This was early August.
Having her diagnostics done at my clinic did save us money, however, my clinic and the doctor's are not oncologists so we needed to bring Molly to another clinic for treatment/ recommendations and because of this we do not have a way to get a discount. I never had insurance for my dogs because I worked at a clinic who would give us a discounts and I never even considered any of my dogs getting too sick to be treated at my work.. until now. The oncologist recommended since we caught her cancer so early to do the CHOP protocol which alternates weekly which chemo drug she would receive for 25 weeks. Each week I bring Molly to my work (which BTW is an hour away bc we moved to the suburbs when we had our now 2 year old) for her CBC bloodwork because it's cheaper to do diagnostics at my work than at the oncologist office. Then we wait for her results to come back and pray they are within normal limits to receive her chemo. Then we drive an hour to the city the next day for her 2-30 min treatment and back home. The side effects are minimal and Molly's urine/feces will have chemo drugs in them for up to 72 hours so it is recommended that we clean up her feces right away and if she vomits or goes in the house that we wear gloves. I was concerned for my daughter if she were to come in contact woth Molly because they are such good friends but the Dr assured us that the main concern is repeated touching of bodily fluids is the only concern. Ie: touching her pee/poop every day, multiple timed a day and having the toxins build up in our system.. which is highly unlikely to happen but thats why they say wear gloves. Molly has had 4 weeks of treatment so far and has had no vomiting/diarrhea/lethargy/inappetance. In fact we have only seen her improve! If we were to stop now.. which I asked the oncologist about last week because we only have enough money for 1-2 more weeks of treatment.. that the cancer cells would multiply very quickly and we would have about 1 month left with our girl before symptoms would push us to euthanize.
So.. that's where we are at now. We are enjoying that our Molly Bear is happy and loving life in this moment. She deserves it because she has been nothing but a loyal family member and addition to our growing family. We love her to the moon and back and will fight for her till the end.
I know that animals become loyal to those who are kind to them and respect them. They can even become protective; but I was wondering if it's the same for dogs. I have a two year old rescue that we adopted when she was four months old and I've noticed that she can get possessive over things, me included. If she has one of her special bones and you go near her she will growl and snarl intensely. I also have another dog, she's thirteen and I've had her ever since she was a baby. However my two year old practically attacks my other dog whenever I'm with her. Last night I was petting the older dog and when I looked towards my other one she immediately went after her. Is it normal for dogs to become so possessive over their owner?
I adopted my dog about three years ago. He's four now. Now we have a one y/o son. The dog is super sweet with all people - never showed any aggression. About a month ago, he sort of growled and barked once when my wife told him to get off the couch. A week ago he was chewing a bone and my son got close and he growled at him. I'm pretty freaked out. I'm planning to find a trainer to come work with us/the dog. Am I on a collision course if I keep the dog? We watch him/the baby really well to make sure the baby isn't bugging him, but we're bound to miss something.
