[Dailydrool] Checking in and re: Lymphoma

[Michele SZ]

Hello drool family. Sorry 😐 that it has been so long since I have posted. Things have been crazy busy at the farm and also with my parents. If you have FaceBook and would like to see our crazy farm life and pictures all of the animals check out our community FB page at Howling Hound Acres. Seth and Xander are doing good but they are not liking all of the hot weather that we have had this summer. Too Hot & too humid = No hound walks. Walks have been sparse his summer as we have already had 67 days of over 90° and weatherman says no relief until maybe next week. As for the Lymphoma question. My Colt ATB was diagnosed with it shortly after his 7th birthday. Because of new meds, his overall good health and social demener we decided to try a combined approach of chemo, diet modification, and vitamin supplements. The first chemo that we tried was supposedly the more gentle medication. But it made him very sick. We tried a different medication and he did very well on it. But it was very expensive. We got close to a year longer with him and for the most part he was happy and healthy...but it did drain my savings account. However, when it came back it hit him hard, and we had to help him cross the Rainbow Bridge. My Comanche had it several years before Colt and we decided to go with Prednisone because he had separation anxiety and we didn’t feel he would do well with spending a whole day every week to 2 weeks at the vets for chemo treatment. You never know which protocol will do them the most good. It is literally a gamble as every dog is different. Like Val said you have to take the whole dog and your financial situation into consideration. I haven’t heard of anyone having a dog with Lymphoma that lived more than a year after diagnoses...except maybe Angelika Hasting’s Elvis. Honestly to my knowledge there is no cure for canine lymphoma...you can only buy them just a little more time. My advice is to try to think of the hounds personality and what decision they might make, their age and overall health. It is a hard decision that I wish none of us every had to make. 
Virtual hugs and drool to all.
Michele Swartz Momma to Xander & Seth the hounds of Howling Hound Acres 
Sent from my iPawPad