Sandi

Today Liz and I took Sandi to the dog beach for a morning of relaxation and fresh clean air.

Sandi was put to sleep at 10am and she is now free of the misery her life became these last few weeks.

 

Liz and I were both there at All Care and Dr. Paige was just amazing as were all the staff at All Care.

Thanks to all the people who were involved the last week.

 

We know that we made the right choice as Sandi lead a very active life and you could see she wanted to continue that, which she could not.

 

A sample of her life…

Runs in the park a few times a week chasing squirrels.

Summiting Mt Baldy with me numerous times (snow and dirt).

Mt Baden Powell in the snow.

Backpacking on Big Pine creek.

La Quinta climbing the rocks above the cove.

Hiking all over the Angeles forest including 3^rd class rocks.

And many other adventures we will never forget.

 

Sandi, my baby girl, we will never forget as she brought immense joy to our lives and unconditional love that cannot be found in any human.

 

Bye Bye my sweet girl.

 

When we are in Napa around the end of June, we will celebrate together as a family our new life there and the one Sandi should have had, but will have in our hearts.

 

Please see my blog:  http://blog.dogfoodkilledmydog.com

 

 

Greg Mason

Napa, CA

KI6ULV

 

Last Day

Its my birthday today.  I guess this is just as good a day as any.  Liz came down from school to see us.  I've decided to give Sandi her relief from this horrible week we've had.  The ups and downs.  Now it seems its all downs this morning.

I went to Dr. Woods yesterday looking for something.  I think I was looking for a nod to call it quits with her.  Sandi actually was doing OK considering.  Well we walked out with a handful  of hope and now it all seems like a dream.

Which it was.  So thanks everyone for listening and I hope that my message will continue.  I least I'll try to bring this memory of Sandi to life somehow.  I tried with my baby girl, she won't suffer anymore.

Goodbye my Sandi girl, you are such a good girl, you know.  

' I love you daddy' is the look in her eyes and the one i will remember.

greg

Day 6, Food for Sandi

It's a struggle to get Sandi to eat, but she did manage to eat the cat food I left out last night.  Yea!

So I left some more out this morning with turkey around the edge of the bowl.  We'll see.

I give her about 100ml of liquids by syringe in the morning.

Spaced out.  She drinks it up as I slowly squeeze.

Mostly chicken broth, diluted.

Then more at lunch and evening.

Likely about 500ml each day.

Got some immune booster supplements (expensive stuff), and started that.

Doing the fish oil supplement.

Also some meds.. no details yet on that.

The diarrhea is bad.  Black and runny.  But at least she goes and she drinks water.  I'm hoping the toxins are being purged...!

No vomiting that I can find.

She still sleeps on the bed with me at night.  but in the morning shes in the garage (her favorite place).


Suzanne and the kids are coming to see her this weekend.  This will give her a boost i'm sure.

Day 6, Vet Number 5

Visiting with the vet is an interesting experience at best.

Getting answers you want nearly impossible.
And at worse, leaving with more questions than answers.

I recommend you do as much research as possible BEFORE you visit so you know what to ask.

Just to enlighten this small group, I have narrowed in on my hypothesis on this whole thing.

2 months ago, Sandi had surgery to remove 2 tumors (masses) from her skin.  One on her back and one on her chest.  My long time vet and I have been monitoring these for some years and they did not seem to be a bother.  So we left them. 


Before now I had never heard of MAST cell cancer.
Wow, what an enlightenment.
MAST cell cancer manifests in the skin from "nobody knows how".  

When you surgically remove skin masses, you should biopsy them.
We opted not to as I felt these were benign, and the vet did not seem to be worried.  I cannot recall what the vet said, but there was NO mention of MAST cell cancer.


Long story short, I very strongly feel the surgery spread the MAST cell to her liver and this is where we are.  The timing is pretty much EXACT.  


OK, what is done is done.  So we move forward and figure out what to do now.
I am a now person and don't dwell on the past.

This afternoon I see vet number 5 and i hope to get some info (good or bad) to make the decision.


more later on this...

Day 5, Not a Great Day for Sandi

The last few days, I've gotten Sandi to eat pretty regularly and some real solid stuff.  We're focusing on high protein.  

Also started giving her some fish oil/vitamin E mix by syringe.  About 8-10ml each day.  And some mint tea with ginseng and honey (very diluted), 20ml in the morning, 20ml at noon and 20ml in the evening.  Also, as much chicken broth by syringe she can muster.

Deli turkey and Hills cat food (she used to love eating Duncans food).  It seems if I pile the turkey on the edge of the bowl, she would move from there to the cat food.

Today, she's just not eating that much.

Tried raw and cooked hamburger.

A few bites of turkey is all she had this morning.

The turkey/cat food trick is not working today.

She swallows well.  Her appetite is not there I think, so I'm syringe feeding pretty much just for the hydration.

Tomorrow is my appointment with Dr. Robert Woods DVM.

(www.robertwoodsdvm.com)

He is a holistic vet, the one closest to us, associated (loosely I think) with the All Care Center.

So more decisions tomorrow.

I've set up sleeping areas all over the downstairs, but her favorite place is in the garage which is dark and cool.  Unless I'm in the house, she will always be found in the garage on the soft sleeping bag I laid out for her.

Day 4, Decisions, not the final one though

All Care has been great with dialogue and today I had a conversation with Dr. Dhaliwal , the oncologist there.  So the bottom line is, the lesions are pretty extensive, but we still do not know what they are.  

Biopsy is quite invasive surgery and Sandi would need transfusions, etc to get to the right strength needed.  So I decided, no, that will not do.  We'll try the holistic approach, as much as we can do, and "see what happens"

I've been looking over all the info on the internet and by far the best source i have found is curing-canine-cancer.com

Ted Schneck has been great and provides a lot of valuable information.  Be sure to check out his story about his dog Marty.  Truely a miracle.  But then, our dogs are miracles in our lives.  Leaves room for hope right now.


Care needs to be constant and tender.  Foreceful and defined.  

Sandi is quite happy when i come home.  Not the frisky, lets going running 5 miles like she was 2-3 weeks ago.  but she has the light in her eyes still.  Her body is very bizarre looking, but her face as cute as could be still.


Hope.  Care.  Positive thinking.  some healthy and good tried formulas.  and time.  It takes so much time.  Worth every second.

.

We love you Sandi... Hoping for miracles, but thankful for our time together. You are a wonderful dog and companion. You always bring us together and fill our home with love. Will see you Friday... Love you!

Day 3, Needle Aspiration Results

The wonderful staff at All Care Hospital in Fountain Valley, CA made the preliminary diagnosis from x-ray and ultrasound on Saturday. 

Dr. Page has been and continues to be very helpful and has kept in touch on a daily basis.

X-rays showed only that the abdomen cavity was filled with fluid.  I saw this.  So the usual organ definitions were not there.

Ultrasound tests (I did not see these results) apparently shows tumors involved on the liver and spleen as well as the actual abdominal cavity wall (peritoneal).

Today, the needle aspiration test results came up inconclusive.  This means that nothing really showed up on the slides.  Perhaps they did not hit the right spot or not enough cells, or ???  In any case the options right now are...

1.  surgical biopsy to determine conclusive cancer type?? and then chemo.
2.  no biopsy and just treating the conditions (pain, nausea, discomfort, etc) and see what happens.

I'll speak with the All Care oncologist tomorrow about these options (really about no. 1 option above).  

I also have an appointment with our longtime vet, Dr. Zambrano, tomorrow.

I guess I should see the ultrasound too, or at least I'd like to.

I'll fill you in tomorrow.

Day 3, if you are wondering

If you are wondering if we have lost all hope by the name of this blog, please be assured we have every positive thought and energy put forth to heal Sandi.  

For my own selfish motivation, the name is meant to provoke and shock.
It seems this is what it takes to gather people's attention.

One day I hope to rename this blog....Dog Food Almost Killed My Dog...

If you tried to send sandi email (sandi@dogfoodkilledmydog.com), it was temporarily not working, but it is now.  So please send her your thoughts, energy and healing words.

Day 3

Struggling with food for Sandi.  She really does not want to eat.  Threw out all the Science Diet food (dry and can) I have purchased.  From now on I will provide high protein meats and supplements. Along with some treats.  Cottage cheese is recommended (internet), salmon fillet, eggs, chicken, etc.  I will be trying lots to get her weight back up.  Normally 50lbs, weighed in on Saturday at 42lbs.

Email sandi at sandi@dogfoodkilledmydog.com if you don't want to post here.

Sandi Cancer, Day 2

Yesterday, 8 May 2010 (2 days after her birthday), my 11 year old dog, Sandi, was diagnosed with tumors (aka cancer) in her abdominal cavity affecting the liver, spleen and the cavity lining.

Sandi has been in our family since she was about 10 weeks old.
She is a blond lab/collie mix, typically about 50 lbs with the cutest face you have ever seen. At least we think so. You can judge for yourself.

This blog will chronicle her remaining life, however long it will be, and her and our battle to overcome this illness.

I have looked over many websites and spoken to a few people, and it seems it is pretty common knowledge that the majority of our dog food industry is producing food which will eventually lead to our pet's early death.

11 years is a long time for a dog to live. Yes we have had a long life together. But she should be living to at least 15 years.

I believe pet owners need to be informed about their pet's nutrition. In this small token, i will attempt to provide whatever useful information I can gather to show how you can better care for your loved pets and provide for them the quality of nutrition they deserve. And at the same time, point out where our current pet food industry has failed to provide the nutrition our pets need to sustain themselves.