[Dailydrool] Lymphoma

[Val Brewer]

Oh dear, lymphoma.  Such a common and at the same time awful dog cancer.  We lost our beloved Harley to lymphoma a few years back.  Fortunately, it is not a painful cancer though still an awful one.
Back when we were deciding how to treat Harley, our vet compared several alternatives to us.  without any treatment at all, he projected a one month survival from diagnosis.  With prednisone treatment, he suggested Harley might have two or three months.  With chemotherapy, he suggested Harley would have remission at first, then relapse, with a survival of perhaps a year.  An alternative he did not mention was the Daphneyland protocol, which involves infusions of Vitamin C and diet.  We chose the Daphneyland protocol and bought Harley eight more months,
I think Doug Dropp’s Hound made eight months with Prednisone.  Michele Swartz’s Hound did over a year with chemo but was hospitalized at least once with chemo side effects.  If you look on the Internet, there is a claim that chemo could buy permanent remission.  I do not know if that is true or not.  Harley died maybe four years ago.  Possibly medicine has improved during those four yearstime, I don’t know.  So, I think it’s pretty unpredictable.  I pray that there is permanent remission, even though that  wasn’t the case four years ago.  It’s possible.
I sometimes second guess myself, wondering if I could have bought Harley a little more time had we elected chemo over the Daphneyland protocol.  but there is just no way to know.  We elected not to do chemo because Harley, bless his heart (I loved him so much) was a total separation anxiety basket case, who could not be crated (the vet used to put him in the outdoor goat and horse pen if he needed hospitalization because he went nuts otherwise—he had flunked out of seven homes before he came to us on account of his separation anxiety).  we felt that risking hospitalizations with chemo might be worse for him emotionally then living a shorter time with constant companionship by his security caregivers.  but that is a specific case.  if your dog is well balanced, the entire decision might shift.
so. That is my input.  Whatever you decide, if you decide it with love for your Hound, it will be the right decision.  (Says she, who constantly second guesses herself).  Val Brewer of Hawaii, with Mila, Mariah, and Ipo


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