Saw The Doctor

We saw the vet yesterday so they could look at the tumor again before deciding if surgery was an option. It wasn't the same vet we saw the first time, I believe he might have been a surgeon. He took a look at it, felt it and decided that surgery is not an option at this point. It is too close to her anus and might not heal properly. I don't know if I should be relieved or disappointed. Surgery is a scary thing but not doing it might mean her life is shorter.

Tumor on July 22, 2014. Tincture and oil on it. Has it shrunk at all?

They put her back on prednisone once a day and benadryl twice a day. These tumors can produce chemicals that the drugs can help block. He wants her on these for 2 weeks and for us to come back in to see both doctors at the same time. I am not sure why we have to see both, but we have our appointment scheduled for August 6th.

We also told the vet about using the cannabis oil. He was supportive of it and seems interested to see if we have any measurable results. He liked hearing that the topical oil helped the open wound heal up so quickly. He wasn't super knowledgeable about CO but he wasn't completely ignorant of it either. I was really relieved to not have him freak out and accuse me of abusing my baby. Back in the Midwest I wouldn't have been able to have this conversation with my vet. I am grateful to live in a progressive community.

Pheona is getting used to the CO, we have her up to a full dose. She gets 0.2 grams twice per day. She is fully functioning when she is up and moving, but she dozes off when she is just laying around. When she sleeps, she falls deeply asleep. Now that she is on the benadryl again the droopiness and the dozing off have gotten worse. She has been having some pee accidents during this time too.

Benadryl gets her so loopy her tongue was hanging out.

Spacey puppy.

Feeling funny.

The vet said that incontinence can be a side effect of the CO and we have discovered he is right. We have also discovered that benadryl can make her incontinence worse. (She leaks a little bit even when she is awake when she takes that.) The past couple of days have been spent fighting what feels like a losing battle with her pee. Hopefully today we have found a better solution than having protective pads all over the house. She had trouble staying on the pads, she didn't understand what we were asking of her.

Today I found dog diapers at Petco. A set of 2 washable/re-usable dog diapers in her size cost just under $30. I also bought a box of diaper liners to put in them, so they can absorb much more. Turns out these liners are just super generic kotex pads. I plan to buy Poise pads for liners and use them instead. They will absorb better and cost less. ($8 for 10 pads was way too much for those cheap pads!) She doesn't seem to mind the diaper so far, I thought she might try to get it off but she hasn't. We should find out in the next few hours how well the diaper works since she has had her nighttime dose of CO and Benadryl.

Wearing her diaper for the first time.

We are still going to use protective pads under her blanket when she is in bed with me sleeping at night. I need all of the protection I can get for my bed while Pheona works through this issue on the medicine. We don't have a washing machine so every time she has an accident her little blankets need to be washed out by hand. We have had at least one hanging somewhere to dry at all times for the past 2 days so, it would be nice to only have to change diaper liners instead. Keeping my fingers crossed the bed stays dry tonight!