Max catches a fish...

Max looking for stuff floating in the creek

I think we've finally found the right dose of anti-seizure medication! While I'd prefer Max not to be on any at all, I think this works for him. He's now taking 125mg of keppra 2x a day.  He seems to be more himself, sharper, curious, and active.

This morning he got fed up with Rex pushing his way in for attention and decided to let him know about it!  That's the old Max we know! And boy was Rex not expecting it!I was petting Max and Rex shoved his way in between me and Max and Max lunged at him and growled to let him know that wasn't acceptable!  Go Max!

Max examining oysters from the "Save the Bay" project

Video of Max & the oysters

 Video of Max catching Fish... and eating it

Later this morning I took #2 and Max out for a walk in the woods and down to the water. We met a little guy named Tyson who had just been adopted last week and was having a great time with his new people! he's a 10 yr old Tibetan Spaniel, and has wonderful new owners!  So happy to hear someone adopted a senior dog from a shelter! He was going with his new people down to the dock to go fishing!  That was where we were headed!  Max loves to go down to the dock and watch things float by in the water and hasn't been down there in a few months.

Max & #2 heading back from the Creek

 I didn't know how he was going to respond, but he enjoyed hanging out with Tyson and when we got down to the dock he walked the edge looking for floating things.. there wasn't much in there though, so he watched Tyson's dad fish, and then a man came down with a big cooler. He's a teacher and had a school project going under the dock as well as inYorktown where they were helping to replenish the oyster population in the York River and the Chesapeake Bay.  Max turned right back into his normal curious self as soon as he pulled the first basket of oysters up!  There were little shrimp flopping around, a few crabs and some little bait fish.. and some good smells!    Max was very intent on catching these fish! He tried to step on one, then caught it in his mouth, we had to remove it.. and then caught another and ate it!

Max enjoying his walk in the woods

2 Back seat drivers

I think that's the first thing he's ever killed in his whole life..  but down it went after a big crunch..   Hopefully he doesn't catch anything from it.. nasty.. but he seemed to have a really good time!









After our visit at the dock and the creek and adventures catching fish, crab and shrimp (and leaves, and mud) , we headed back up into the woods and went for a little hike!  Max seemed to really enjoy this as well but I could tell he started to get a little tired after a while so we headed back to the car..  he kept up a good pace though and was alert, watching leaves fall from the sky and running over to see what fell. He also chased a frog/toad through the leaves!





When Max & #2 got up to the field house they both remembered that the guys who worked there toss bread out in the mornings for the birds and deer and they went over to look for some.. a little late though! It was all gone!


It always seems like someone is looking over my shoulder!

Max heading back to the car.. but side tracked by a John Deere mobile..   (notice - he's walking in a relatively straight line and should now pass a sobriety test if pulled over while he's driving!)

Medication update

Just got a call from the neurologist's office and we're changing Max's dose of Keppra from 500mg 3x day down to 125mg 2x/day and seeing how that works...

Max's Neuro Check up and anti-Seizure meds

Last week Max went in for his neurology check up, the first since his Cyber Knife.  He's been doing well.  We talked about how his hearing seemed to disappear when we lowered his prednisone dose to 10mg every other day so we decided to keep him on 10mg every day for now.  We're also working on weaning him over to the natural hydrocortisone. We did another full week of 10mg of prednisone every day, then the following week 10mg or prednisone every other day and on the other days we did 20-30 mg of natural hydrocortisone (soy-based and less effects on the liver/kidneys).  Now we're up to 10mg of prednisone and 2 days of natural hydrocortisone, then 1 day of prednisone and 2 days of natural hydrocortisone.  I'm happy to say Max's hearing and vision are great and I don't see any issues this time!

Dr. Young checked Max's eye as well and said it looked like it was healing well.  He could see through the cloudy scar tissue in his eye. He's doing well with his eye drops and anti-biotic ointment. He goes back to the eye doctor for a re-check next week,

The other issue we talked about were Max's anti-seizure medications.  All of the neurologists who have taken care of Max have suggested he be on anti-seizure medication .. just in case.  Dr. Joseph said he has seen dogs who have never had seizures have really bad ones that seem to come out of nowhere, and it's better to be on a preventative.  My one concern is, Max is not doing very well with these anti-seizure meds. He's not himself, and they make him very drunk.  He was first prescribed zonisamide. Max weighs 48 lbs. He was prescribed 200mg 2x/day.  He was pretty much a mess on this. It does take a while for them to build up a tolerance to the medication, much like you build up a tolerance to drinking or any other drug. Max had a really rough time and didn't seem to be building up any tolerance.  He lost his appetite all together, would vomit and had really bad diarrhea, and was extremely wobbly, anxious and walked around like a drunk guy.  I seemed to be able to get him to be ok on 100mg 1 time a day - given at night.  Dr. Young wanted to try at least 100mg 2x/day, but it's hard for Max to function during the day and we felt like his quality of life just wasn't there. The hard part is- you want them to have a good quality of life.. We went through this to save him, not to have him live the rest of his life in a fog.  Max is the Alex P. Keaton of Dogs!  He's always had serious OCD... He likes everything in it's particular spot, can't stand it when a dog can't walk in a straight line and needs to go run over and smell something..

Dr. Young suggested switching Max over to Keppra. He was prescribed 500mg 3x day.  The problem with this dose was that we gave Max his dose at 6pm and he did not wake up until 3AM the next day. Not even for dinner, or breakfast or to go out!  I couldn't even get his 2nd and 3rd doses in.  The next day I tried 250mg at night and he went out again and woke up to eat breakfast and then went back to sleep and around 1pm got up - very groggy, went potty, ate something, took a short walk, then another 250mg and he was out again until the next morning..   At this time, I'm hoping that he builds up some sort of tolerance to Keppra.   The positives of the Keppra are that he is not nauseous, his poops are solid, he doesn't seem very agitated, especially if I can get him out for a good walk in the afternoon.  He will sleep through the night.

I don't like to be woken up by drunk dogs in the middle of the night!!!

We had one little instance last night though, he didn't get his walk and was getting his exercise by walking all around the house (which he's always done if he doesn't get to go for a walk - think of a dog who needs to go to the gym religiously every day.. that's always been Max - so this isn't too abnormal for him) Anyway - at midnight he was doing his laps, and was drunk from his medication and I suppose stumbled over the dog bed where our rottie mix was sleeping, and she's apparently had it with Drunk Max. She jumped up out of bed with her horrible growley voice and decided Max needed his nose pierced.. you know.. just in case he decided he needed to get a nose ring with all the drugs he's been taking.. then she figured she should also pierce his tongue while she was at it... just in case Max REALLY wanted to be a rebel.. (Again - this is the equivalent to Alex P. Keaton getting a tongue and nose ring..... Sober Max has severe OCD... Drunk Max.. not so much.)

So Ms. Buttercup spent the rest of the night locked in Tom's office. She has yet to apologize to Max.  Max seems to be fine today.  Normally Buttercup is a lovely girl... like the rest of us though, she doesn't like to be stepped on or have someone fall on her in the middle of the night while she's sleeping, regardless of whether they can see or hear and especially not if they are drunk!

11-5-11 - Max's Day in Colonial Williamsburg

Today Max went for an outting in Colonial Williamsburg. He did pretty well but I think he was tired. He did take his anti-seizure medication today and prednisone which usually makes him sleepy. He's had a hard time hearing today - he can hear really loud noises and other dogs barking (except little doxies who are telling him what to do apparently), and I'm not sure how his sight was. The wind outside may have been drying up his right eye and it could have been hard to see but his nose sure was working!  There are a lot of good smells in Colonial Williamsburg! Max even tried to crash a wedding but was told if he didn't have an invitation he wasn't allowed in. We didn't see any sheep on this visit, just the horses which he normally will chase down, but today he just walked right up to them, wagged his tail and then turned and walked away. Definitely not himself entirely yet... which reminds me we have a ways to go.. or he has a new found appreciation for his friends the horses..

Max outside of the Bruton Parish Church on Duke of Gloucester Street in Colonial Williamsburg

Max and Buster walking along in Colonial Williamsburg

Max trying to crash a wedding at Bruton Parish.. he was denied.

Max and Buster Running around the corner at Bruton Parish to see if they can sneak in through the grave yard..

Max on Governor's Green in Colonial Williamsburg (Governor's Palace at the end of the green)

Max off leash on the Governor's Green in Colonial Williamsburg

Max & the Horses. A few months ago he'd try and ride a horse.. today he just wagged his tail as he went over and then turned around.

Max in the Colonial Gardens

Max wishing Buster would pick up the pace and stop sniffing EVERYTHING

Max waiting for Buster AGAIN..

Max's quivering eye. 10-23-11

This is a video of Max's right eye twitching. I don't know if it's anything to be alarmed about, but it doesn't seem normal. His hearing is back so that's improvement, but this eye lid is twitching if you watch the eye lash line.. Almost like his eye lashes are vibrating back and forth. This video was taken right after Max sprinted (I'm not kidding) from one side of the house to the other and ran around the house barking because I had just pulled in the driveway. It clearly doesn't bother him.. or Cat food in the cat bed is just too much to resist.  Incidentally, it's only vibrating on his right eye. This is the eye he fell on in the driveway and got gravel on before he went up for CK so it may be related to that.. I'm just not sure.

His energy level has been high all day. (Temps outside are in the high 50's low 60's - it finally cooled off and fall is here) He's been very alert all day and again, he can hear again today.   I'm not sure if this is how recovery goes from CK... I guess it's possible that the tumors can be reabsorbed in different areas and maybe push and swell in others?  I wish we were closer to the neurologist!

10-23-11 Max goes for a walk

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Max had regained his hearing after Cyberknife for a week or so and as we reduced his prednisone dose his hearing started to disappear. I emailed with his neurologist about this and he suggested that we not lower his dose any further than 10mg every other day and if I saw any other signs or symptoms of brain swell to bump his dose up to the previous level.

Max takes the lead on our walk!

I thought that since he used to be able to hear I'd like to see if keeping him on 10mg / day would help him regain his hearing.. Well.. it took about 3 days but he can hear again.  He has a follow up appointment scheduled for Nov 1.

Another thing that I've noticed with Max is that he is interacting more! He started interacting more even with the reduced prednisone level, so I think he's feeling better overall.

Sniffing logs and seeing who's been there before!

Today when I pulled out the leashes Max came over and wagged his tail and wanted his collar put on. Then he actually went to the car and wanted to get inside to go to the park and go for a walk!  When we got to the park he jumped right up in the car and even wanted to jump out of the back of the car on his own!  He immediately left his mark on a tree and then took the short cut through some bushes to the path in the woods. He stood there for a few seconds to decide which way to go and then led the other 2 dogs into the woods for a walk!  He stopped to sniff, left

Wait a second.. the world is spinning!

 his mark and was trying to lead everyone while I was trying to keep everyone going at a snails pace. I didn't want him to over do it.  After a few minutes he stopped and stood still for a bit, then kept going and went and sniffed a few things.. then stopped again while everyone used a tree to mark. I went over to snap a few photos of his face and noticed (at least) his right eye was circling a bit. I hadn't seen this in a LONG time. His eye brows were fine, no twitching - but he definitely had the spins.  I let him stay still for a bit and he just lay down. I let him lie down for a

Max's right eye was vibrating

couple of minutes and then decided it was probably a better idea to pick him up and bring him home and get him his prednisone dose for the day (he was due in an hour and a half anyway).  He lay down in the car, got up, looked for water, and lay down. When we got home, he immediately jumped up and wanted to jump out of the car!  I didn't let him. His eye had stopped spinning, but he still got his dose of prednisone anyway and I let him rest. Any time the other dogs would bark at deer or other dogs in the neighborhood he'd jump up too and run to the door to see what was going on (hearing is definitely back!)

Max needed a little rest.

We can always second guess ourselves - maybe it was the car ride that got him dizzy, or he hasn't done too much quick movement in a while so that made him dizzy, or he pushed it trying to be the leader. I didn't really give him a lot of time to try and recover and "see what happens next" before I scooped him up and we came home.  Better safe than sorry.   We'll probably try again another day

18 days after his last cyberknife treatment - Max: Will Perform For Food!

What a clown! It's been 18 days since Max's last Cyberknife treatment and we couldn't be any more pleased!  He's a complete goof ball as you can see here!

Guess who went for a walk today!

Guess who went for a walk today!  You guessed it! MAX!  We went up to the woods and he walked a whole 1/2 a mile on the short trail!  It was a slow walk at first. He wanted to take in all the kids at the playground and the people playing volley ball. Actually I think that was extremely overwhelming for him.  He kept taking 2 steps and then stopped and tried to take it all in - kids laughing, squeeling, swinging on swings, sliding down slides, making sand castles, baby crying, bicyclists, people playing basket ball, and volley ball, and a goth wedding... (yup... all sorts of people dressed in black and red for the wedding coming by and saying hi to him on their way out).  Once we got past the playground, he was a pup on a mission... or gravity took over.. or a little of both and he was pulling me down the hill.  He LOVES to go all the way to the bottom of the hill and walk on the fishing dock and bark at the fish and things floating by.. but not today. He pooped, then got to the picnic shelter and decided it was time for a nap.  We hung out there for about 20 minutes and then started through the woods back to the car.  Not as many people, but lots of smells (his nose is working again), he spotted some birds and squirrels but opted not to go after them, smelled some plants too. I was trying to walk really slow so he would go slow, but Max would have none of that, however he'd stop every 20 ft or so. He was a bit wobbly - like he was drunk.   Maybe a little light-headed?  But once we got going in the woods, he wanted to keep going and didn't want to take the short cut to the parking lot. In fact when we got to the end of the trail he made a left and wanted to do it again.  At that point we ran into Sarah - a yellow Lab who came over to say hi so he had some time to rest while the people chatted.

Protecting his turf

Just 2 weeks since we got home from NY and 2 weeks and 1 day after Max's final cyberknife treatment, he ran right out the front door, across the front yard and barked at the strange people coming out of the woods with the rest of our dogs... as you can see he's pretty much back to his normal self!  I'd say his vision is a little bit off from falling in the gravel and injuring his eye when his balance was really bad 3 weeks ago - he was a little surprised to see me at the front door, but aside from that - he's completely normal, barking, hearing, interacting, playing and protecting the house!  (Max is the little yellow dot in the distance.. in the sun... in the middle of the video in the beginning)

It's great to see!

10-13-11 Seems to be Totally back to normal!

Today is Thursday 10-13-11, not even 2 full weeks after Max finished his cyberknife treatments and he appears to be totally back to normal! I woke up this morning to Max in his dog bed next to me watching me sleep like he used to!

He spent the entire night there!  Since we've been home he's been sleeping out in the hall by himself, which is totally not like him. He has always been the dog who would never let me out of his sight!

He did get up 3 times last night to go out, but made sure he woke me up to let him out each time. Both eyes are very clear! He even jumped over his brother Buster who was snoring in the middle of the floor to get out of the bedroom!

This morning he actually ate some dog food (not that we normally feed him dog food, but it makes it a whole lot easier to get his pills down with mushy dog food.  He actually was excited about it! 

 Once I slipped his milkthistle and astragalus capsules in his dog food he became a little more leary of it... He ate one capsule but not the other and I can't tell which so I'll have to try again. I definitely am beginning to think his lack of appetite may have been him not wanting to feel drunk with the anti-seizure medication.

After he finished his breakfast he went and did his rounds trying to steal everyone else's food. I did catch him chowing on Rex's raw food.. not so sure I want Max eating raw yet.. maybe when he's completely off the prednisone and his immunity is

back to normal, but it's good to see he's interested in it again!

Last night he even snuggled up with Buttercup (his sister) and lay down with his head on my foot, he's interacting more and more with everyone!

When he went potty after breakfast he decided he was going to be super man and ran and skipped a step coming back up into the house... He's definitely MUCH more stable on his feet. I don't see any unsteadiness or wobbling any more! No twitching, no head tilting, no leaning, no circling and his eyes are both blinking at the same time!  I LOVE IT!  I'm very hopeful he keeps improving from here!

The Wild man is back!

So... after a few days of Max sleeping 22 out of 24 hours and not being interesting in food, I decided to see what would happen if I completely took him off of his anti-seizure medication for 24 hours.  Possibly not the wisest idea in the world, but Max never had a seizure prior to cyberknife, and only had one seizure since that was just over 1 minute.

The results of my experiment were that Max ate a salad, lettuce and all! a bag of frozen broccoli (one of his favorite things), 1/2 of a roaster that he split with the cat, 1/2 of a chicken breast, some more curried chicken, he took a long walk outside around the house and then up and down the driveway, he started to follow spoken commands again (like go potty), and both eyes started to blink at the same time (prior it had been looking like he was just alternating eyes and winking at you!). He also decided it was a good idea to go into cahoots with the beagle and try and steal the cat's chicken by flipping him off his bed, then he tried to get into the cat's bed and steal more chicken.. and got himself swatted, but still he remained undeterred...   The old Max is back!

Then I thought it might be a good idea to put him back on his anti-seizure meds and he's not very happy with me at the moment. I wonder if there's something that he can take where he can be more himself.  It may be better that he's not pushing the limits at the moment, but I can assure you, when not on anti-seizure meds.. he is 100% the old Max. 3 weeks ago he couldn't even hold his head up.. now he's getting into trouble!

He's down from 40mg of prednisone to 10mg too! I know we still have a long road ahead of us, and he's doing amazingly well!

9-30-11 - after 3 days of Cyber Knife treatments

I was originally planning on taking Max back to the hotel with me each night but he was the last one they Ck'd each day and he was so groggy I thought it might be better to leave him there. Plus the person who administered his anesthesia said if it was her dog she would have had him spend the night just to be on the safe side.. not that the hotel was far.. it was literally 2 minutes from the hotel (Hampton Inn & Suites Yonkers is 2 blocks from the Animal Specialty Center).

The 2nd day when I was checking in to see how Max was doing I ran into another woman who's dog was also undergoing Cyber Knife and she said they took their dog home but he was out of it and had some accidents and they left him at the hospital the 2nd night. He didn't really care where he was so she knew he wouldn't be stressed. Max was the same way.

Everyone at Animal Specialty Center was fantastic!



9-30-11 after the 3rd Cyber Knife therapy - happy to be back with mom.. I think.. but still drugged and drunk - and all he wanted was water!

"How do you turn this thing on? I know water comes out somewhere"













"Ok Fine, you're not going to turn that tub on.. I've seen other dogs do this... crud.. I can't get my head in there... it's too High!!!"

(the lid was shut after this photo was taken to prevent and foul water from being ingested!)

9-26-11 - Day 1 - Cyber Knife Planning Day

We must be in good hands!


















Max waiting for Dr. Joseph to come in for his first meeting.. and a day of planning. Today was the day that they implanted the gold seeds in Max's head and started the planning of his head for the cyber knife, using the MRI and CT scanner

















All done! And surprisingly not too bad after a day of anesthesia - he ate a good meal, was moving around great! Better than he was when he got there!














Dog in motion.. Max could not sit still! He was checking out the hotel room, looking for food, had lots of energy after his planning session despite being anesthetized














More food!
















Getting close to that big napkin on the bed again!



















Ok... time for a nap!












Now time for a potty break.. digging that great carpet pattern at the hotel!
















Ok - I have to go POTTY NOW!! Why is the outside so far! What do you mean I can't pee once we get out of the door from our hotel room?!

9-25-11 A LONG DAY 8.5 hour drive to NY for Cyber Knife

For some reason these photos all loaded in reverse order...

Sunday 9-25-11 was a very very long day!! Max FINALLY was walking and we were able to get him in for Cyber Knife starting Monday 9-26. The beginning of a VERY LONG Journey!


At the hotel after eating dinner - Max needs a napkin... and there's no better napkin than the sheets on a bed right?















Bed time..

















Stuck in Traffic on the 8.5 hour drive to NY















Still on the Road... moving right along..
















Seriously cat.. could you please hurry up? I have a long trip to NY ahead of me.. I know you have kidney disease and need all the water you can get, but I'm on prednisone and it makes me VERY THIRSTY!

Sept 19... Prednisone is no longer working and Max is going down hill

Poor Max his eyes are droopy and head has been in a stiff tilt - he's been so uncomfortable stuck like this..

Max 2 and a half weeks after starting prednisone

Huge difference from how he was a short while ago and couldn't walk!!! You can still see he doesn't have a ton of endurance.. but still thinks he's the same old Max!

Max 2 days after starting prednisone - May 2011

Going back a little in time... I wanted to document how Max has progressed/ declined, etc, prior to us doing Cyber Knife. Fortunate for him, I didn't torment him with any videos of him being unable to walk, being nauseous or his google eyes.. but he was pretty bad..


When Max was first diagnosed I didn't want to do anything intrusive or put him on chemo. We had already had a bad experience with that and our golden, so I opted for pallative care with prednisone. Max's eyes were circling like in a cartoon, and he had vertigo 2 days prior. His head was tilted and he couldn't walk in a straight line, but rather circled in tighter and tighter circles until he'd fall over.. like a bad game of dizzy bat. These videos were taken after 2 days on prednisone

First Post

Hello All,
I'm writing this blog in hopes that it may help someone else who is going through what we're going through with our Max! Max is an 18 year old sheltie/lab mix was has been incredibly healthy his entire life and full of energy! In fact if you looked at him, you'd never know how old he really is!

He's one incredible dog!


(I hope you don't mind but I'm going to paste a posting I left in another group about canine cancer just to get this blog started! - What I hope to do is add video to the blog so you can see how Max is doing. One thing I learned from my last dog and her battle with cancer is that sometimes you don't realize what you are really going to see when someone says lethargic or dizy, or unable to balance..) Hopefully this helps someone else.



We are almost 1 week out after Max’s cyber knife treatment. Get this! Max is an 18 year old sheltie/lab mix! He has been healthy his entire life, and in fact bouncing off the walls up until April of this year 2011. We noticed something was off with him being a little more lethargic, and then his eyes started to droop. He didn’t want to play with the other dogs as much and he’d start to turn around on walks and want to go back. Most of the vets where we live (in southern VA) couldn’t figure out what was going on and one called it “old dog disease”. One night I caught Max staring at his reflection in the window and then his head started to tilt, and he started to circle. I called our neurologist up in DC and we saw Dr. Jarboe at Bush Veterinary Neurology Center http://www.bvns.net. They did an MRI and we found that he had 2 brain tumors. I opted not to do a spinal tap at that time, so we took the info, opted for prednisone & chinese herbs / alternative meds and headed 3 hours back home. Within 1 week, Max was back to running and playing and jumping, and bossing around the other dogs like normal. 2 weeks later we went up for another apt and decided to do another MRI to see how much had changed.. and we were really surprised nothing had changed at all. Dr. Bush went over all of the options, including Cyber Knife and for some reason I kept thinking that that was an invasive surgery so in my mind had ruled it all out. We kept him on prednisone from April on and the last week of Sept Max chased a squirrel up a tree and then froze like something was wrong. He took a few more steps and had to gather himself and then decided it was time to go home. Over the next few days his eyes started to droop and then he started to circle again. We upped his prednisone dose and by chance I met someone who worked in a human hospital as a radiology tech and told me cyberknife was 100% non-invasive! It’s more or less a laser beam if anyone is curious. I called Dr. Bush and he thought it was a good idea to call Dr. Charney & Joseph ASAP. Dr. Joseph told us we needed to get Max back to being neurologically stable first so on 40mg of prednisone a day we finally got him back to where he was walking and occasionally barking at people in front of the house.
Last Sunday we drove up to the Animal Specialty Center (ASC) in Yonkers NY (8 hours) and stayed at the hotel 2 blocks away (Hampton Inn & Suites) They were Fantastic by the way with Max – he made friends with everyone in the bar! Last Monday Max went in for his consult and Planning session. They inserted 3 gold seeds into his soft tissue to be used as transents for the cyberknife to be able to triangulate and pin point the exact location of the tumor (Max had a Meningioma on top of his head and another mass in the Pons area of his brain stem). He did great except one of the gold seeds migrated up into his sinus! He had a little infection the next day but it was cleared up quickly with antibiotics. Tuesday we had off and Max and I did a little sight seeing, Wed he went back in for the first of his CK treatments. Dr. Joseph called and said he did great. I was originally planning on taking him home each night. The anesthesiologist said if it was her dog she’d leave him there over night so that was what I opted to do, and I’m kind of glad I did. We put a note on his cage that said “if he howls to please call me” and I’d come down and hang out with him in the hospital – he has severe separation anxiety but he did amazingly well the whole week. The 3 CK treatments went off without a hitch. Max is normally slow in recovering when he’s put under so I spent Fri night at the hotel with him. He was lethargic which I totally expected but when he was awake he was great and was walking around (of course this was at 2AM!). The next day we drove home and he didn’t really want to leave! I did notice an increase in his breath rate, but Dr. Joseph checked him out and he was ok. (I had to remember he had been knocked out for 4 days in a 5 day period, was on high doses of steroids, antibiotics, and probably up all night in ICU watching all the cases that came in and on top of that, one of the side effects of radiation is lethargy at least in humans.
When we got home he was happy to see his brothers and sisters, walked around the house, made sure everything was where it was. He was still a little drugged, but barked at any one coming to the door. He could hear perfectly, and he was pretty happy! I can see the anesthesia and high doses of steroids start to wear off him as the week went on. He’s still on prednisone 10mg 2x day (45 lb dog). 2 nights ago he had a seizure. I had opted NOT to put him on anti-seizure meds and since he had never had one before figured we should wait and see before we add another drug into his system. It lasted a little over 1 minute and then he was super dog after that and ran the house and the yard for about an hour and a half before deciding it was time to lie down and go to sleep. The neurologist called in a script for anti-seizure meds and we were told to give him 4 that night and then 2 twice a day there after… BOY DID THOSE MAKE HIM WEAZY and FOGGY and not a happy boy. They made him puke too. Today I played around with his meds a bit. I’m giving the anti-seizure ever 18 hours vs. 12… and so far he seems to be MUCH better – his wits are about him – still foggy but not so drunk. He can’t seem to hear me but he can hear the other dogs bark, and other really loud noises. His nose is a little off, and he’s not enjoying the foods he normally did – right now all he seems to be eating is pumpkin pie (not pumpkin – doesn’t want that), Before Grain chicken Kibble, and peanut butter molasses dog cookies – we’ll have to watch the blood sugar from what previous posts say. The day he had the seizure he had gone for a short walk, and maybe we over did it. He also had fallen down some stairs, and we live across from a government facility that has been testing some strange sounding weapons all week while they play war games over there – one sounded like some kind of death ray from star trek and made the house rattle – since he only had one seizure I’m hoping that that is what caused it. I don’t really like t he anti-seizure meds he’s taking but we’ll see how this change goes…
My understanding is that when tumors die they do grow as the swell and then the fluid gets reabsorbed into the body eventually – ideally, this is why they are kept on the steroids for at least a month after. From what I read tumors can start being affected within 2 weeks to 2 years after treatment – each situation is different but it is absolutely NOT an instant cure and you won’t see instant results if anyone is looking for that. The radiation affects the DNA of tumor cells during the mitosis process (remember biology 101?) When the cells split. During the normal mitosis (cell splitting) session the DNA will be copied exactly into both new cells, however the radiation messes with the DNA and the cell that splits off will have a different DNA coding that will make it do something else – hopefully die and not replicate.. at least that’s the plan. There’s always the possibility that the DNA can fix itself and the tumor may grow – or the tumor gets completely fried and completely dies, or the tumor just stays the same size and never grows or shrinks., Anyway – that’s what we signed up for.




Today is 8 days after his first CK treatment and he’s doing fairly well, still a little drunk but I think it’s the antiseizure meds. He was very clear on the pred. He’s still being a very picky eater – where he was eating styrofoam if he could at the hospital. I see him having a little more rapid heart rate, but that’s specific to the antiseizure meds. He gets up and goes potty when he needs to. He’ll ask to go, shows up at meal time to see what’s good , and if he can’t find me he’ll search the house for me. He’s taken to sleeping o the cold tile floor – but that’s definitely the antiseizure meds – side effect is being hot.
Also – I don’t know if anyone else noticed this in their dog when they had a seizure – but I noticed the tip of his tongue was bright red and the rest of his tongue was pink.. It was all moist – not like he had the tip hanging out and it was dry and red… Our holistic vet said that made sense – in Chinese medicine the tip of the tongue has something to do with the head and heart and the red is obviously heat
For anyone else considering this with a sr. dog – Dr. Joseph had another senior patient Max’s age who did CK early on and was still doing well a few years later. FEW YEARS!!! not just 1!
(Max has always been on one of those anti-cancer diets by the way – grain free, low carb, high protein, with plenty of exercise, we don’t typically do conventional medicine (including vaccinations – we titer) and he receives acupuncture fairly regularly – no real arthritis – although he has spondylosis according to the x-rays but you’d never know. All vitals,organs and bloodwork were good before this procedure… we just need to check his blood. I have him on milkthistle as well to help his liver/ kidneys with the prednisone as well.
Please keep your fingers crossed that Max does just as well. We really appreciate everything that everyone has posted previously , it has been encouraging, and has also helped us know what to expect. We’ll keep you posted with our progress.