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Yes, it's Fern. She is the only dog left in the house, the other two died
this November and the last October. She is on flax oil with every
meal. It is not normal swelling. It is something called polyarthritis
which comes from an auto-immune disorder she got as a secondary reaction to her
cancer. Basically any time her cancer grows uncontrollably her immune system
freaks out and starts fighting with the rest of her body, and as a result she
gets uveitis in her eyes and her joints swell up and get painful. So she
was on a heavy dose of immune suppressant (imagine having cancer and having to
suppress your immune system! we also give her lots of immune support herbs,
which apparently do not counteract the immune suppressant stuff because they act
on different parts of the immune system-- we tried stopping all the herbs and
she got worse rather than better) and also a heavy dose of prednisone, then
tapered to low doses of both. But then her uveitis came back so we upped
the pred, per the oncologist, and then she started getting cushings disease from
the high pred dose, so we lowered it again and now the polyarthritis is
back. All while her lung cancer is now filling more than 70% of her lungs
and her breathing is now audible and she coughs every few hours. She still
eats a lot, goes for short walks twice a day, and seems generally in good
spirits, but it is getting clearer and clearer that she does not have
long. I doubt she will make it to our move in July. Of course, she
was given 2-6 months to live over 17 months ago, so you never know, but it does
seem like her symptoms are accelerating.
Michelle
In a message dated 5/13/05 2:24:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Is this Fern with the swollen joints? Have you tried giving her flax seed oil for inflammation? Did you talk to your vet about the Peroxicam? |
