I packed Buddy up today with his bed and a blanket for the car ride over to the oncology vet today where he had his appointment. I brought him in expecting an ultra sound, a $300 bill, the Palladia, and a dog wet with ultrasound gel. I got none of that.
They took Buddy back and about 15 minutes later the doctor came out with Buddy. She said that she could no longer palpate a tumor in Buddy’s pelvic canal. That means the Palladia is working! Great news. No ultrasound this time. It will be actually measured next time.
I had the 30 credit on my bill from last time so my visit cost under $20 including the Palladia.
However, Buddy has lost some weight (about a pound by the looks of it from the last time he got weighed at the regular vet to this time.
Buddy’s weight prior to treatment: 15.00
Buddy’s weight now: 13.60 (this is the lightest he has been since May 2010)
I’m not sure if the doctor didn’t make it clear on the discharge instructions or if i just misread it but apparently we were supposed to have blood work done (just a CBC) the week of the appointment. So that actually didn’t get done. Thus, we left without Palladia.
Why? Because dosing for animals is largely weight based. The doctor is concerned about his neutrophil count (Currently 2,464 /ul and still within normal range) and possibly having to lower the dose of the Palladia from 20mg to 15mg. So I had to run Buddy over our regular vet today to get his blood drawn so we can have the results by tomorrow and have them faxed over to the vet office. (apparently they are sharing all information regarding Buddy’s care both ways.)
Then the oncology vet will mail us the a months worth of correct dose Palladia upon the results of the CBC drawn today. The doctor is concerned about “killing” his bone marrow. and I am too. So I am glad to take the extra step of carting him over to the our regular vet to have the blood drawn.
So I guess we should try to beef Buddy up a bit. I am to follow up tomorrow to make sure the results were received. Worst case Buddy will have a couple day vacation from the Palladia.
He is still doing fine. Eating drinking, and just being Buddy. That one vomit episode has not been repeated and he suffers no colitis.
I just looked again at my instructions and they are officially calling this Sublumbar Lymph node metastasis of a left anal sac adenocarcinoma. (removed 12-5-12)
Links
The Sundries of Life's Experience 
So glad he’s doing ok.