New Food Regime....

I like food. That's why I am chubbly wubbly. Hahaha! Food makes me happy. My husband and I love food experiences and we love going out, trying all kinds of international foods, and we love a great dining experience, whether it be at a 5 star restaurant, a great food truck, or a hole in the wall, throw peanut shells on the floor, 5 table diner. We LOVE food!

Because we love our fur babies, we have always tried to do research on what kinds of foods are the best for Max and Sammy Lammington and we've always wanted to feed them foods that have high quality natural ingredients starting with real meats, and we've always wanted to make sure that their ingredients are responsibly sourced.

We looked for companies that had riqurous quality and assurance testing on their products and we looked at things like "chicken meal & turkey meals" to make sure this kind of ingredient is sourced from the whole meat and not a by-product. We didn't want to go with a food that contained artificial colors, flavors or preservatives like BHA, BHT, ethoxyquin, propylene glycol because those have no nutritional value and have been associated with having side effects and are often added to foods just to make it look better and more appealing.

When the news came out in July of 2018 about Grain-Free foods possibly causing cardiomyapathy in dogs, like much of the country, I completely freaked out. We had been feeding our dogs Grain-Free for years bc of allergies. I quickly did some research and then reports starting coming out that talked about how the report was premature in it's findings and that the heart issues are more breed specific, having issues with lack of Taurine, etc.

I spoke with our vet and I calmed down a bit and kept them on their Grain-Free food. If you want to read a great article about this, check this one out that my friend Sue passed along to me:
https://drjeandoddspethealthresource.tumblr.com/post/176405475391/fda-dog-heart-disease?fbclid=IwAR32eIQpa6M9sBmNxLIfw3kLITY5EXQFoiheVX5f0lH2Fcj9cg_WP2F6L0I#.XUIaNOhKjIU

With all of the research I was doing on Max's cancer, the topic of food came up a lot. Research shows that cancer may feed off sugar, carbs, and inflammation. Diet can have a big impact on those things and how cancer reacts so I wanted to do what I could at home regarding their food to not only help Max, but for preventative measures for Sammy Lammington.

I have always given both dogs veggies and fruits as snacks but I needed to change up the types bc some veggies (especially colored ones) and some fruits are high in sugar.

After all of my research, we decided to make a drastic change in foods for both dogs. Please know, just because you may not be feeding your dog(s) this way does NOT mean you aren't doing the right thing for your pooch and it doesn't mean you are feeding them wrong. There are excellent dry/wet dog food companies out there (we had been feeding our dogs from those companies for years).

For us, we want to turn over every stone we can to try and help Max and to do what we can with Sammy Lammington to maintain his health (I mean he eats poop so he needs all the help he can get.) :)

We decided to change their food over to Dr. Harvey's.

Dr. Harvey's follows the principles of a fresh, organic, holistic, natural and top quality nutrition dehydrated food. Their products contain absolutely no added chemicals, no preservatives, and no synthetic additives or coloring agents and they produce their products here in the USA.

Their food is dehydrated raw vegetables (plus grains & fruits for Sammy) and then I make organic protein for them to add to their veggies.

Along with his poop (hahahaha), Sammy Lammington dines on 6 organic grains and 9 dehydrated vegetables and then an organic protein that I make for them.

Max will be on a ketogenic diet so his food contains no grains and is very low in carbs. His is a holistic blend of 6 dehydrated vegetables and healing herbs and then I add my own organic protein.

There is meal prep to do their food but I can make 3 days worth at the same time and it's VERY easy to make. I rotate their proteins to ensure they are getting different nutrients throughout the week. They get organic turkey, chicken, beef, or eggs. Sometimes I feed them eggs in the morning with their veggies and then give them meat for dinner with their veggies. They get coconut oil mixed in with their dehydrated veggies, too. 

For snackies, Max gets a frozen kong filled with peanut butter (JUST creamed peanuts with flaxseed - only 2 ingredients) and then Sammy gets a kong with frozen peanut butter. Then, they get green veggies like broccoli or green beans (either raw or steamed), and low sugar fruits like blueberries, raspberries, or watermelon, as well as cottage cheese.  

We started their new food regime on 7/16/19 and I was scared. Haha! I wasn't sure if they would like it, think the texture was weird, and I REALLY needed them to like it! 

If you had seen me in my kitchen preparing their first meal, you would have thought I was crazy! I was acting super excited, getting them pumped up, and acting like this food was going to be life changing for them (maybe it will ;). 

I said a little prayer when I put the bowls down ..... stepped back.... and watched. 

It was a beautiful sight, let me tell you!

Look at Sammy licking his chops and look at those empty bowls! Max was looking for left overs! 

Hallelujah!

Wahoo!!!

Happy mama right here!

For the first week, I mixed in kibble with their food and I am going to add kibble to their snacks throughout the week because I want their bodies to still be use to it in the event they need to have it for a meal (like when my husband had heart surgery this week I didn't want my aunt to have to deal with their food so I had her give them kibble). I know it's a high quality kibble and giving them 1 cup worth throughout the week intermittently will also add vitamins and nutrients they may be lacking.

Sammy Lammington will be given supplements of Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil and Turmeric every day. Max will not be on any of these supplements while he is doing radiation or chemo bc it can affect those treatments. 

Here are the links to their food:

Their food: https://www.drharveys.com/

Sammy's food: https://www.drharveys.com/products/dogs/1-canine-health-miracle-dog-food

Max's food: https://www.drharveys.com/products/dogs/450-paradigm-a-green-superfood-pre-mix

They have been on their new food for 2 weeks now and their poopy looks really good and they aren't having any issues with digestion, constipation, or any other adverse effects. I have noticed they don't have stinky farts any more either!

Here they are waiting for their dinner! Mom! It's time!

If you have any questions on anything above please let me know! We are very pleased with how they've transitioned and we feel confident on what we are feeding them and how it's going to be an investment in their health!

Side note: We learned a lot over the last 2 months of Max and Sammy being on this new food regime. One thing we learned was that Max would lose weight due to him being on this Ketogenic diet. This is not optimal for a dog with cancer, so we had to adjust our feeding plan to add in healthy fats for him so he could gain and then maintain weight. More on this in these blog posts:



Thanks for reading friends!
xoxoxo

Research, Research, and Research OH MY!

Oh boy! There is so much research to do when you find out your beloved pet has cancer and it can be VERY overwhelming.

I will admit, I cried.... A LOT. I felt like every time I would learn one thing, I found 20 other questions and things I had to research. I started jotting down notes every time I came across a new treatment option or a new therapy just so I didn't forget to research it.

I think at one point I had at least 26 tabs open on my browser while researching along with articles, columns, and books that I bought on Amazon.

If you are going through this journey, let me give you some advice. You will never know everything. You won't have enough time in the day to learn all you need to know. You will get overwhelmed.

But it's ok.

Once you understand all of that, now you can take a deep breath and realize you aren't the first person to go through this. Many have gone before you on this journey and it's a great idea to find people you trust that can support you, guide you, tell you what they learned from their experience, and to simply be there to listen to you cry.

The next thing I will tell you is to be your pet's advocate. They can't speak for themselves. They rely on you for literally everything. They rely on you for food, for water, when they go potty, and for their healthcare and well being. Plus all those snuggles, wet kisses and occassional pillow humping they do. :)

Ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask your vet or specialists questions. There is SO MUCH information out there along with support groups, research that has already been done, blogs, articles, columns, etc. that you have a plethora at your fingertips for you.

Don't be afraid to get a 2nd opinion either. If we went off what Max's 1st diagnosis was, we'd be sitting at home waiting for him to die. We were told there is nothing that could be done. That simply was not the case. If I had not pursued other information, treatments, second opinions, etc. we would not be where we are today.

Some doctors give the advice of what they would do. Some vets may not think you would want to spend the money on treatment so they don't offer any.

Remember, you are your pet's advocate. In my opinion, keeping their quality of life at the forefront is of utmost importance, but just taking the advice of 1 doctor may not be in their best interest. My husband and I never wanted to look back and say "We should have looked into this more" or "We wish we would have known about that treatment bc maybe it would have helped". We wanted to do everything we could for our boy.

We were having a little fun while Max was recuperating from his surgery. The boys love bacon (what dog doesn't!) and one of our friends, Rebecca, sent the boys some bacon sizzlers after reading their signs! It made our day!!! Hahaha!










Back to research.

I was researching like crazy. I started the day of his diagnosis after his first ultrasound that showed that it was cancer. That was on 6/18. Today is 7/30 and I am still doing research.

The research was intense at first.

I cried a lot.

I felt like my head was going to explode.

I would research all day long.

The first thing I started researching was prostate cancer in dogs and how they get it, how they get rid of it, treatment options, prognosis, etc.

I researched TCC (transitional cell carcinoma) which is the type of cancer Max has. Those 2 things alone took me days.

There is just so much to know and learn.

During the same time, I researched specialists, oncologists, and vet schools to see which ones would be the best for our Max. We wanted a second opinion and we didn't want to just go off of what 1 vet said, so I was doing research on where to take him for treatment.

This step is crucial if you are at the beginning stages of your treatment bc if you want to schedule an appt with a vet school or specialist, sometimes those appts are weeks out. For MSU, it was a 4 week wait. I put us on a cancellation list to see if we could get in early, but some of these initial consultation appts take weeks to get.

Do this right away.

I ordered a few books on Amazon that were recommended to me and I joined as many FB groups regarding his type of cancer that I could (CBD Oil groups, specific breed health issues group, canine cancer group, etc). 

I will say, I did not find that the extra FB groups that I joined were all that helpful only because Max's particular cancer is pretty rare.

What I did find super helpful was being a part of a FB group for my dog's breed (Brittany) years before and making connections with people and becoming friends with so many other Brittany people that when it came time for us to get support going through this tough cancer journey, I found more support from those groups than I knew what to do with.

So many people have walked this path before us and being breed specific, it really helped to learn from trusted people that I already knew (or my trusted group would refer me to someone they knew and many connections were made that were SUPER helpful).

If you are not in a FB group for your particular dog breed, I would highly recommend it.

Max's cancer is very rare to have. Generally if dogs get prostate cancer, it's because they are still intact and it has to do with their testosterone levels so in those dogs, simply neutering them takes care of the issue. My vet in her 22 years of experience has only seen 1 other male dog with prostate cancer. She reached out to 2 of her colleagues and together, they have 66 years of experience. All together, they have only seen 2 cases.

My vet was very interested in learning anything she could from me regarding his treatment, my research, etc since she didn't know anything about this particular cancer. If your vet doesn't know the answer, find someone that does. Advocate for your pet.

When doing research, I would keep running into things that would make me need to research 10 more things. For example, diet change can help with pet's with cancer. Cancer feeds off carbs & sugar and inflammation. Certain foods can cause inflammation. Certain meds are not effective when taken with dairy. Certain meds are hard for the liver to process. CBD oil is processed through the liver. If you give CBD oil and certain meds at the same time, it can be very hard on the liver to process, thus making those treatments not as effective. Did you know that when giving dog's chemo, it's best to rotate the chemo given bc cancers can adapt to treatment? Did you know that dogs should get roughly the same amount of protein per day as their weight?

Is your head swelling?

Do you see what I mean?

How in the heck would I know any of that?!

I wouldn't even know to ask the vet or specialist those questions!

When doing research I found that Fish Oil and Turmeric can be beneficial for dogs with cancer (also dogs without cancer) BUT you can't take those supplements if you are doing radiation or chemo bc antioxidants can have the adverse effect on those types of treatments.

Head is spinning.

Here come the tears again.

There is just so much to know.

Breathe.

Things that I learned through this process:

-You will get overwhelmed. Don't give up. You won't learn it all in one day. Tomorrow is a new day to learn and you will learn.
-Get involved with a FB group that is breed specific. Even if your dog does not have cancer I would get involved. Those groups are pretty fun, they are a great place to ask questions, to learn about your breed, and to make new friends. This group, for me, has been a GOD SEND. God knew we would need this support. We have had SO MUCH love and support from our FB groups and it has helped immensely. A lot of my questions were answered through people that have walked this path before us. Even though I would cross check everything people were telling me, it gave me a good direction to go in for my research.
-Do not take just anyone's advice. Even the people that have walked this journey before you. Every cancer is personalized. Even if your friend has a Brittany with the same type of cancer - all cancers are different, at different stages, dogs tolerate medications differently, and not one dog will have the same experience. Get advice from people BUT THEN cross check. Cross check through your own research and then follow up with your vet, specialist and/or oncologist or treatment team.
-Dr. Demian Dressler has a few great books out there on Amazon that has really good info on cancer for dogs. Look him up and read some of his articles.
-Once you get a treatment plan in place, everything else will start to fall in line. Once we met with MSU and decided on them for Max's treatment, putting together a treatment protocol and plan gave me confidence in what we were doing with his treatment. Find a group or specialist you can feel confident in.

My last bit of advice is this: I promise, you will stop crying when doing research bc it will get easier. Once you start learning and once you put together a treatment plan for your dog and get use to their needs, you will feel more confident in how to care for them and things will get easier.

I am not so bogged down in research now and I am finding I am getting into a new routine/starting a new norm with my Max. We have our medication routine down pat and I have a good routine for his new food plan and the load feels to be lightening up a bit now that I have a clear course of action.

It will get better.

Don't forget you are living with a dog WITH cancer. He is living. Don't forget to enjoy him while he is here and make the time he has left the best it can be. Remember, too, that he doesn't know he has cancer. Only you do. Here is Max during my research time. He's relaxing and enjoying his nappy nap not having a clue what is wrong with him. I will do my best to keep it that way. xoxoxo

Torigen Vaccine......

This picture was from when Sammy was just a wee pup at a few months old. Oh these boys!

Here is some general information on both Immunotherapy for people and the Torigen Vaccine for dogs. If you have the time, I would HIGHLY recommend reading through the "Facts of the Day" regarding Immunotherapy on the link below. I believe there are 30 days (not long reads) and they are FULL of great information about cancer research, treatment options, etc. Very very enlightening on the research and strides being made by using this type of treatment.

Click here to read the "Immunotherapy Facts of the Day":
https://www.cancerresearch.org/join-the-cause/cancer-immunotherapy-month/30-facts/01?fbclid=IwAR350vBFKQlmtYE4VLM5R57cDPNx1zesRm7of8ZlrFP7JuumUCEOVmdoPqI


Torigen is an Immunotherapy vaccine that is in the next stage of research. There were 10 years of research done with rodents with positive results so the company has moved onto a canine vaccine that is being administered to dogs. They have hopes that within 5 years, they will be able to use this vaccine in people, so the research being done now, and the treatment Max is getting, is being used not only for him, but for the greater good of mankind.

We feel very blessed that he can partake in this study to possibly help other dogs and people in the future!

Here is information straight from the Torigen website (word for word). I can't say it any better than them, so here is their explanation of what exactly Torigen is:

"Immunotherapies are growing traction in both the human and veterinary market as a sole, or adjunct treatment to chemotherapy and/or radiation. With over 10 years of supporting pre-clinical research, our treatment is a whole cell tissue vaccine. Treatments like these allow for a variety of tumor associated antigens to be presented to the immune system. This abundant choice of antigens may increase the likelihood of a successful response.

Immunotherapeutic approaches to cancer are emerging that will complement surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy by generating specific adaptive immunity to both tumor cells and altered host tissues. Tumors evade normal immune surveillance mechanisms through a variety of means. Some of these include interfering with dendritic cell antigen presentation, down regulation of cytokines that can destroy tumor cells, stimulation of regulatory (suppressor) T cells, and by altering host tissue to further mask it from the immune system. Our goal at Torigen is to develop innovative veterinary cancer treatments that allow for the body to recognize tumor-associated antigens as foreign and overcome immune senescence. "

What this basically is saying: By removing a portion of the cancerous tumor, they can make a vaccine with it, placing the cancer back into a shot form (along with a bunch of other good stuff) and then introducing the cancer back into the dog through 3 different shots (1 shot per week for 3 weeks). The body should identify these tumor cells as "foreign or bad strangers" and hunt them down and kill them. The dog's immune system will then continue to hunt down any other "foreign or bad strangers" (aka cancer cells) and kill them.

The hopes are that along with other traditional treatments, such as chemo & radiation, it will give the dogs a better chance of survival, remission, or extending their lives and improving quality of life for longer.

Since this is just in a testing and research stage, there is no way to know for sure which treatment is going to help the most. They can't even give us a "Torigen has put _________ dogs into remission." This research is still on going and it's such a new vaccine for dogs, that this information just isn't available yet. There are only between 250-500 dogs that have been given this vaccine world wide so far, so we feel very blessed Max can be one of them.

Things to know:
-Not all vets have access to this vaccine. I am not sure which specialists have access and how they are granted access, but if your vet or specialist doesn't have access, maybe you can see if they can reach out to Torigen to see which affiliates they have.

-Cost of treatment: $1500 total for all 3 shots. This is a one and done charge and once the 3 shots have been given, he will be done with this portion of his treatment.

-There is evidence that dogs with cancer (of course all cancers are different and including stages of cancer) that couple treatments together (Immunotherapy, Chemo, Radiation) are showing signs of success in regards to slowing down progression of tumors and/or stabilizing the cancer all together.

For us, we wanted to do everything we could to help our Maxie. He is our fur child and he still has 1/3 of his life left. We want to keep in mind his quality of life as well, but if we can stabilize his cancer to extend his life while keeping his quality of life at the forefront, that is what we are trying to do.

-Administering the Torigen shot each week was super easy. We drove to the specialist that has the vaccine (the vaccine is made each week at a lab in Connecticut and then sent to our specialists office) and they give him the shot near his boy part area. We then sit in a room for 45 minutes to watch for any adverse affects (seizures, fever, fainting, etc). After 45 minutes, they check his heart rate and body temperature and if everything looks good, we can go home! The only side affect we noticed was a small red mark where they gave him his shot and the next day he was a little tired. Other than that, he had no side affects.

-One good thing to know about Immunotherapy is that it builds up the dog's immune system to fight off the cancer cells. If you are coupling this type of treatment with Chemotherapy & Radiation, know that those types of treatment can have the adverse affects on the immune system. Chemo (and some radiation) will impact your immune system negatively and will suppress the immune system. We purposefully did the Immunotherapy FIRST so that Max's immune system would be built up prior to starting chemo & radiation. We spoke with Max's oncologists, and it wouldn't help him to do all 3 treatments at the same time, bc we would be undoing or hurting what the immunotherapy was meant to do, so we waited 3 weeks for his Immunotherapy treatments to be over with before we started chemo/radiation.

Camping Out....

Here is Maxie on our way home from his surgical biopsy. He has about a 3" incision on the side of his wanks where they went in and cut out a piece of his tumor to have it biopsied and then they cut out another piece of the tumor so we could have a vaccine made of it (Torigen Vaccine which I will talk about soon).

He did fantastic with his surgery and recovery. Definitely keeping him overnight at the hospital was the BEST decision for him so he could rest off the anesthesia and more importantly be monitored overnight and the next day to make sure he could urinate and poop.

When dogs have a tumor where Max has his (prostate area) this can and will eventually cause an issue with not being able to urinate or defecate. This is life threatening and needs to be addressed asap if this happens.

When surgery happens in this area, it causes inflammation so it's really important that Max is monitored to make sure he still has his faculties in the potty area. Max had 24 hour care post surgery to ensure his comfort and to make sure there were no obstructions. If you are going through this I would highly recommend they stay over night in the hospital. I know it's hard to not have them home with you, but, it's definitely what is best for them.

When we picked him up he was tired but oh so happy to see us and he was urinating well. His aftercare was to make sure to keep his incision clean and to watch for signs of infection. Up to this point before his surgery, we had Max wearing diapers since he was having accidents in the house. After his surgery, we didn't want to put his diapy back on bc we didn't want anything rubbing on his incision or making him uncomfortable.

He was on several different medications including a lot for pain. His pain would not only come from his actual incision, but, just like humans, dogs have layers (epidermis skin layer, the dermis layer, and then the subcutis or innermost layer) and they had to cut through all of that PLUS then cut into his prostate. Because of what the function of the prostate is and where Max's tumor is, going poopy can be especially uncomfortable and painful after this type of surgery. So it was important that I kept track and was timely with all of his meds.

He was taking:
Gabapentin 100mg (2 pills every 8 hours for pain)
Carprofen 100mg (1/2 tablet every 12 hours for pain & inflammation)
Cephalexin 500mg (1 pill every 12 hours - antibiotic)

I had to make myself a chart so that I could stay on top of what he was taking and the times. I put him on a schedule of taking his pain meds at 4am, 12pm, & 8pm. I'd set my alarm for 4am and then give him his pill and we'd all go back to sleep until 7am when he was ready for his next round of meds and their breakfast.

I had a friend tell me that she uses the "bark" alarm on her iphone for all of her dog's medications so I followed suit and knew it was medication time every time my phone would bark at me. :)

Max did well with all of his medications. He tolerated them all well and although the Gabapentin says that it may cause sedation, he never experienced that.

We decided it would be best to camp out in the living room for at least the first week after Max's surgery bc we were really concerned with him making the big jump up and down from our bed or to the couch. The best way to keep his strides and jumps short, was to bring our mattress top out into the living where we all slept for 8 days or so. Also, this REALLY kept the dogs from playing rough or doing zoomies in the house during his recovery. The mattress took up most of the room so there wasn't a lot of space to run and jump. I kept all of the drapes and blinds drawn for

the first 10 days post surgery so that they didn't see squirrels or chipmunks that they wanted to chase and so when the UPS guy showed up, they wouldn't see his big brown truck and go absolutely cracker dog. I kept things pretty low key, put all the toys up, kept the house darker than normal, and put on Netflix movies and just chilled out with the dogs. I think they just appreciated the extra snuggle time and quiet.
Remember, our family had just been here for 3 weeks, too, so the dogs were totally out of their routine and our house was really full of people so I think the timing of everything was perfect bc they were ready to rest and get back into their routine, as much as they could anyway with the new sleeping arrangement and medication wake up times.

Max was given a shot during his surgery that would act like a nerve block. This shot numbed EVERYTHING having to do with this surgery, so he was quite comfortable and we didn't notice any pain he was having. Yet. This nerve block type of shot was going to last 3 days. He didn't have any external stitches. His surgeon sutured him on the inside and then glued his incision shut. He had quite a bit of bruising and redness though but that diminished after a few weeks.

Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday all went great. I was getting into the swing of things with his medications, we were sleeping pretty well in living room, and the dogs were doing great during the day just resting a lot while I continued my research. I was taking Max out on a leash for every potty break and we celebrated every poopy he had! His stools prior to surgery were very long and ribbon-like. Just imagine poop looking very stretched out and lengthy. Post surgery, his poop looked

PERFECT. It was normal size, nice and fat, and it didn't look like sick dog poop. This was something to celebrate bc I hadn't seen poop like that from Maxie in over a month. If we had neighbors, they would have heard me cheering after every poop. Not even kidding!!

Most likely, the reason his pooped looked this way is bc they removed a chunk of the tumor and shifted things around in there which created some space and allowed his poop to come out smooth and normal, instead of a tight squeeze. This would only last so long, but, we were celebrating anything we could at this point.

On 7/11, only a few days after his surgery, we received his biopsy results. We knew it was a tumor from what the surgeon told us but at this point we were holding out for a benign status. I received a

text from the surgeon that said it was in fact cancer. I read the text when I was alone and I just remember gasping and having to take deep breaths. I had to keep reminding myself that we knew this was a big possibility so we just needed to make a plan now for his treatment and work that plan. I had been doing so much research at this point and knew that there were some options. The surgeon told us he was stage 1, which was a HUGE relief to us (although we later found out this was not the case). They were sending off part of his biopsy to have the Immunotherapy Vaccine made so we would wait to start that.

I had made an appt. with Michigan State University's College of Veterinarian Medicine weeks ago after his very first ultrasound so we had an appt coming up with them to discuss treatment options. I was holding onto hope that they would have some encouraging news and treatment options for us. That appt would uncover Max's true staging and would shed some light on treatment and prognosis.

Back to our patient..... Max was doing great UNTIL that darn nerve block wore off. I could tell almost immediately. It was day 4, exactly what the doctor told us. We got up on that Friday and I was still leashing him outside bc we have almost 1 acre fenced in for the dogs and they have lots of space to run so we still didn't want him running yet. This time, I could tell he was visually uncomfortable pooping. He would pee just fine. His first stream was always heavy & hard - normal dog pee. He would walk around the yard and try to urinate more, only with dribbles coming out. This is normal for his condition. (Side note: keeping him on a leash during this time was important so we could manage how long he was out there. It isn't good for him to constantly try to urinate, bc all that does is cause inflammation and eventually, he would pee blood. We found taking him out to do his business and then coming right back inside was the best for him during his recovery so he wasn't straining so much).

This time though, when he went to poop, I could tell he was very uncomfortable. He would tuck his butt and get low low low to the ground and then walk around straining to poop.

He was in pain.

It was AWFUL to watch. I had to keep reminding myself that for now, I know this pain is surgery related. It wasn't that his tumor grew so much in a few days that it was causing a blockage. I had to keep reminding myself of that. I would cry every time I took him out to the bathroom. There was nothing I could do and I knew he would just have to heal from the inside out and once that happened, it wouldn't be so uncomfortable.

I checked with the surgeon and he confirmed everything I was thinking and at that point we decided to switch him back to Baytril and take him off the Cephalexin bc we knew he did very well with Baytril and that could possibly help with any inflammation he was having.

The pain Max was experiencing lasted for 3.5 days. The only thing I could think of was to talk to him and praise him while going poopy and to talk to him through my tears to reassure him that I was there. Thankfully, we saw major improvement on Monday with this. His insides were healing which was helping him physically and me mentally.

One week post surgery, Max was doing well. He never had any issues with eating (he's always hungry!) and he is still doing well with his medications. We are still leash walking him but we would stop doing this around day 15 or so, when his incision was completely healed and when we felt confident he didn't need to be restrained any longer.

During this time I was doing research on transitioning Max to a ketogenic diet (info on that in another post) and we were introducing both dogs to a new menu and way of eating.

To close this loooonnnngggg post (thanks for reading up to this point)..... I wanted to share with you all the things we are learning up to this point. I have been researching so much stuff (from food, to chemo, to radiation, to NSAIDs, CBD Oil, Immunotherapy, SO MUCH STUFF) and I had been feeling pretty overwhelmed bc there is just so much to know.

You want to do what is best for your pup, while maintaining their quality of life, keeping him as healthy as you can, trying every option we could, while not forgetting to live and love him. Max is a dog living WITH cancer. Cancer does not define him. Cancer does not define us. I am learning to embrace that fact. I am learning to embrace the good days (boy do I embrace them) but I am learning to ALSO embrace the bad days, bc there will be bad days. I can't fall apart on every bad day. I can't just praise God during the good days either.

I need to thank God that we even have our boy Max. There were SO MANY things that had to happen in a very specific order in order for us to even have this lovable and spirited dog in our lives so I need to praise God in this storm, to thank Him for all He has done, and remember that He goes before us.

We are not alone in this. There are so many people that have traveled this road with their precious dogs and we are being supported by so many of them. Just another way God takes care of us and shows us that He loves us.

Below is a perfect example of how God loves us. This beautiful picture was painted by my friend Jill Martin who wanted to do something nice for us as we traveled this difficult journey. God shows us His love working through wonderful people just like Jill. Look at my sweet boy and look at her talent. If you can bless someone, do it! We are so grateful!

Max's Surgical Biopsy....

Max has been helping me do research. He's a great partner and is always there to keep me company while we research everything we can about his cancer.

Colin is still sick at this point but his family is starting to feel better. I ended up going to the doctor because I was hoping to get a quick Z-pac for my sore throat and to ward off any further sickness coming my way.

Stress really screws me up, as it does everyone else. I have zero appetite at this point. I've lost 10 lbs from basically forgetting to eat (don't worry, I have plenty of fat to feed my body -HAHA). I am starting to lose my hair at a rapid pace, which always happens when I get stressed and I still have this weird pain in my side. Colin is home puking his brains out so I just wanted to get into the doctor and head home. My doctor told me to go straight to the Emergency Room because she thought I had appendicitis because I will admit, I did have most of the symptoms of it. I stared at her and thought "Do you have any idea what I have going on right now? There is no way I am going to the ER".

So, I left without a Z-pac, telling her I'd head to the ER but came straight home to take care of Colin. Honestly, I had this pain for weeks now and I knew it was stress related. Appendicitis gets really bad within 24-48 hours so I knew that wasn't it. At this point, I didn't even care bc I had a husband that was getting dehydrated from hours of puking and a dog that needed to go out every 15 minutes. My family needed me more than I needed this stupid pain to just go away. I think God knew how desperate I was to feel better bc He knew I wasn't going to go to the hospital bc the very next day.... no more side pain.

Colin finally turned the corner and started feeling better a few days later and we were coming close to Max's surgery on 7/3. It made us really nervous to be bringing him home the same day as his surgery bc this is a major surgery. This isn't just a simple biospy. The doctor was going to try and get a good sample for the pathologist but he was ALSO going to try and get a large enough sample so that an immunotherapy vaccine (Torigen) could be made from it.

With all of the research I had done, immunotherapy is a ground breaking new treatment still in the experimental phase for canines. They are seeing good results from it though, and when coupled with other traditional treatments, they are seeing success.

Max's doctor mentioned immunotherapy and we enthusiastically said YES! I researched the company he was going to use and was pleased to see their results using this type of therapy with prostatic cancers in rodent studies. More to come on Torigen in a later blog post.

Back to his surgery..... The doctor called us the night before his surgery and we all decided it would be best if we post-poned his surgery until 7/8 so that he could stay the night and be monitored for 24 hours. It calmed our nerves and gave us peace bc we knew it was what is best for him. If something happened to him after his surgery here at home we would've had to take him to an Emergency Vet a half hour away with them not knowing anything about his medical history so it was a blessing that we were waiting.

It gave me more time to do research and learn as much as I could about immunotherapy so we felt good about that treatment protocol as well.

Here is a picture of Maxie on our way to the Animal Surgical center the morning of 7/8. We had to be there at 8am for drop off and then we weren't going to see him until the next evening. Sigh.

We prayed over him and went inside to do our drop off. As we were waiting in our private room for the vet tech to come and get him, we both started crying again. It was the same room we were in when we got his diagnosis and everything just came flooding back.

When our vet tech walked in the room she immediately came over to me to comfort me. She was the sweetest girl ever! Her name is Jen and she has a sweet fur baby named Jacob that has been living with cancer for over a year so she knows exactly what we are going through.

She was going to be taking care of Max during his surgery and she would be monitoring him afterwards. She put my phone number in her phone and told me she would take pictures of him later when she updated me. It gave us so much peace that he would be with such a sweet girl and we felt instantly calm and comforted. Big wet kisses and huggies and Max was off to surgery.

We drove home praying and crying and praying. This surgery is very low risk so we knew he would be ok and we were thankful we would finally have answers. We were trying to not get excited about the fact that his first biopsy came back negative for cancer but it was hard to not have that hope. I started to talk myself into it being just an infection again and told myself everyone was wrong and that he'd be just fine.

At noon, Max went in for his surgery and everything went smooth and well. He came through it with flying colors. Here are pictures that Jen sent us during his recovery.

Max did great! He was resting comfortably and did well with the anesthesia and the doctor was able to get enough of the tumor removed to send part of it to have the Torigen Vaccine made of it.

Hip-Hip-Hooray!

We were so excited! The doctor did tell us it looked "grossly like a tumor" so we knew that night that it was a tumor. Our only hope left was that it was a benign tumor, however, in my research I read that that would be very rare. If it was a prostatic tumor it would be malignant.

The night Max stayed over in the vet hospital was the last night our family was going to be in town so we took advantage of the fact Max was not at home and went to dinner. We had not been able to go anywhere during their 3 week visit since everyone was sick and since we couldn't leave Max for long periods of time. I also told Colin I wasn't leaving my boy. With everything happening, I didn't want to be away from him for one single second.

Even though our vacation time with our family turned out VERY different than what we had hoped, we were so thankful they were here. We laughed together, we cried together, and they were there to support us. Taking care of everyone was what I needed so I didn't just sit and cry all the time so their trip here was exactly what it should have been.

Colin took his family to the airport the next morning and then he stopped by the house to pick me up and we headed 2 hours north to go and see our boy! We could not wait to pick him up!!!

When we got there and people heard we were coming to get Max they said "Oh we love Max!!!!! He's been running around here all day!". It was so good to hear! He makes friends wherever he goes!

We got our discharge instructions and then we had to pull around to the back of the building to the discharge door where they would bring Max to us. It was like we were waiting to walk through the doors to a surprise party or something! The anticipation was killing us and we were BEYOND EXCITED to see him.

We could hear him coming before they even opened the door with the sliding and clickity clack of his toes running! He burst through the door and came running to us and it was such a happy reunion! Tears of joy that our boy was ok and the pack was back together (or we would be soon once we got home to Sammy Lammington).

In the car we went and then the loooonnnggggg wait would continue as we waited to hear Max's results. We were told it would be 7 days again.

It wasn't.

Cost of his surgical biospy: 
$2,800

Max's Biospy Results....

It was day 7. We hadn't heard anything back from the vet yet about Max's results. We hadn't called either because we were too scared to.

We were still busy taking care of everyone and trying not to get sick ourselves. Unfortunately, Colin started not feeling well and within 24 hours, he had fallen ill, too.

I was feeling sick myself, but had to keep going. I had a throbbing pain in my right abdomen that I was convinced was stress induced and I honestly didn't have time entertain it. I had 4 people sick now and Max still needed a large amount of attention.

Max was needing to go outside about every 1/2 hour to pee. After his biopsy, we noticed that his poopy looked better; not being so ribbon-like and more like normal stool. He was still having to go to the bathroom a lot, not because he really needed to go, but because he felt the urge to go. This happens from the interference of the tumor and how it makes him feel like he always has to urinate. That, on top of him still drinking excessive water, I needed to take him out often.

We don't have a doggy door and in this situation, I am glad we don't. We need to monitor his urination and stools to make sure he doesn't get a blockage, because with this cancer, that is what could eventually happen, which is a life threatening issue.

I had 4 sick people in the house now, a pain in my side, bleeding and cracked hands, and the start of a sore throat and a dog that has to pee (or not pee) every 10 seconds it seemed.

By this point, we had so many people praying for us that I truly feel like God was keeping me strong. There is no other answer to why I hadn't completely freaked out. I was getting sleep with the help of ZQuil. I had the energy to take care of everyone and I was still standing on my own 2 feet. That certainly did not come from my own strength but His.

We decided it was time to face the truth so I went into our bedroom where Colin was resting and shut the door and we called the doctor to see if Max's results were in.

They were.

I had my phone on speaker so Colin could hear.

The doctor said that Max's test results came back and they showed "no signs of cancer".

His results showed that he indeed had a bad infection.

We were stunned.

We were in shock.

We were so happy.

We knew it!

The doctor had told us the day she diagnosed Max (last week) that cancer causes secondary infections so that is why he had a UTI. We were told we'd probably need to keep him on Baytril forever to help with ongoing infections.

Today, she said told us that maybe this was just an infection and maybe it wasn't cancer. She said that it did seem odd that he had a UTI, because cancer does NOT cause secondary infections so they have reason to believe now that it is just a UTI.

WHAT?!

This contradicted what she told us last week. We were very confused.

She went on to tell us that there is always a chance that she could have missed the cancer and instead, gotten a sample of good cells. That is always possible. She did say however, that she was CERTAIN that she hit the tumor and the right spot.

Again, WHAT?!

So there is a chance she only extracted good cells if she missed the tumor but she is certain she hit the right spot.

Well this is good news and gave us so much hope!

She went on to say that she thought it would be best that we do a surgical biopsy because that will give us the exact answers we'd need.

If it was cancer, we would for sure know.

If  it was a bad infection, it is important that we know what kind of infection so that we can make sure Max is being treated with the right medications.

We scheduled a day to go in for his surgery (7/3) and we were told we'd be bringing him home the same day since they are closed on the July 4th holiday (this is now the end of June).

Before we got off the phone with her after hearing all this news, the doctor said to us "We can be very cautiously optimistic but know there is a 90% chance this is still cancer".

We got off the phone and were elated. Confused. Happy. Confused. Excited. Confused.

And confused.

Did she hit the right spot with the needle or not?

Does cancer cause a secondary infection or not?

Does our boy have cancer or not?

So now, we wait.

We wait for his 2nd biopsy now which is a week away.

We process and over think everything the doctor said.

We research and research like crazy.

At this point, when I wasn't taking care of humans or 4-legged furry ones, I was researching.

I was on every site I could for TCC.

I was joining FB groups like crazy trying to talk to other people about their experiences.

I was researching foods and cancer diets that we'd need to switch Max over to.

I was researching treatments, radiation, chemo, immunotherapy, medications and whatever else I could think of.

Research.

Research.

Wash my hands.

Research.

Ouch my side still hurts.


Cost of this testing and biopsy:
Ultrasound: $440
Biopsy $850

Max's 1st Biopsy

We left at 6am the next morning after Max's diagnosis to head back to Animal Surgical Center for Max to have his 1st biopsy.

We had to drop him off at 8am and we couldn't pick him up till 4pm. Thankfully we had family in town visiting us for a few weeks so they were able to stay with Sammy Lammington while we were gone all day.

The drive up was a tear filled trip as we processed everything and let our hearts rip open before God. We still couldn't believe what was happening.

The biopsy for today wasn't invasive. Max would get sedated because they would need him to be very still. The doctor would use a live ultrasound to guide her to the right spot where she would insert a needle and draw out cells that would then be sent to a pathologist for testing. We would get the results in a few days.

We left Max and had 8 hours to kill so we drove around trying to find something to do. We realized how close we were to Bronners (Christmas Store near Frankenmuth, Mi) so we decided to head that way. Every year we go to Bronners around the holidays to get personalized ornaments made for both boys. We thought it would be too difficult to get this done later, not knowing what would lie ahead in the months to come, so we took the opportunity now.

If you didn't know this about me - I am a Christmas
fanatic. I love everything about the holiday

season and try to embrace all there is from the Christmas music, to putting up our tree on Halloween (This has been a decade long tradition) so that I can enjoy it for as along as possible. I usually do a "12 days of Christmas" with the dogs, hanging signs around their necks and putting silly hats and clothes on them. They put up with me and do it for the treats. :)

I have always loved the feel and the hustle & bustle of the holidays and going to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland has always been something I've looked forward to every year.

This trip was very different. We walked around the 320,000sq ft building in a daze. There was nothing exciting or fun about it. Even the Christmas displays and piped in Christmas music did nothing for us. We walked around and tried to hold back our tears with every step we took.

Walking by the baby ornament section has always been difficult for us and when we see it in the distance, we take deep breaths and then start a quick conversation so as we walk by as fast as possible, and be focused on something else. The same sadness and grief happened as we entered the pet section of the store. We held hands and looked through all the dog ornaments looking for the pawfect one for our Maxie, knowing it would most likely be the last one we'd buy for Max while he was still with us.

More tears. We picked out a few ornaments and stood in line to have them personalized with their names and once the artist was finished, we were ready to go. We didn't want to meander and stay. We just wanted to leave and get back to our Max.

We drove around for a few more hours and then called around 12pm to see how Max was doing. He hadn't had his procedure done yet. Deep sigh. They said they were getting him prepped and should be done around 1pm and then we could pick him up at 4pm.

We went and found a restaurant and ordered some drinks and spent a few hours researching what we could about his cancer and what others had experienced. This was the start of what would be extensive research on TCC (transitional cell carcinoma).

Finally, we were told Max was ready and that we could come back and pick him up so we headed that way. We could hear Max coming before he even got to our room. He was so excited to see us but incredibly groggy and out of it. His back legs didn't work too well and he looked more like a dog that was just coming off an all night binge.

Max only had a small puncture near his private area where the needle had gone in. He didn't need any stitches or medication and once his sedation wore off, he should be back to normal. He was super groggy and slept the entire way home and for the rest of the night.

Now, we hurry up and wait.

We had to wait to get the results and pray our hearts out to God that the doctor was wrong and that it is indeed just a bad infection that needed some help.

So we waited.

1 day
2 days
3 days
4 days.

We waited.

During our wait, our entire family that were staying with us from out of town all got sick. Like really sick. We had to take all 3 of them to the urgent care and this began 2 weeks of having a house full of sick people. We had everything happening with Max which was taking an emotional toll and now our poor family caught something awful from the airplane and they were all so sick.

I am convinced my family took one for the team, and that God had that happen to help keep us from going insane while we waited for Max's test results. We were too busy taking care of our family and Max to really have any time to worry.

God always knows what we need when we need it.

Colin had taken 3 weeks off work while his family was here and his first day off was when we had gotten Max's cancer diagnosis. He went from being a Network Engineer to a care-taker and nurse. It is difficult when 1 person in your family gets sick but when you have 3 adults sick, 2 with already compromised immune systems, it takes care-taking to a whole new level.

We were thankful our family was there for support and thankful they were there during our wait.
Colin and I were VERY intentional about keeping our hands clean and sanitizing the house so that we didn't get what everyone else had. We couldn't get sick right now. We just couldn't. We had too much on our plates and we had others to take care of.

We were washing our hands so much that they were cracked and bleeding. We were popping vitamins and zinc, trying to stay healthy and focused on the needs of everyone, including Sammy Lammington, that had taken a backseat to everyone else's needs.

We needed to stay healthy.

We were doing well and everything was fine.... until it wasn't.

The Specialist Appt.....

Off to the specialist we go! We were referred to Animal Surgical Center in Flint, Mi to have an abdominal ultrasound done. Max LOVES riding in the car and is always a great passenger so off we went heading north to try and get some answers.

We had no idea the storm we were about to walk into. We honestly thought this was a bad UTI infection that had worked it's way into his prostate, which was causing inflammation, and that is why his prostate was enlarged on one end.

We processed and talked through everything a thousand times trying to convince ourselves that's what it was and I even remember talking to my family on the drive up saying "We are 90% confident it's just an infection". We honestly thought we would be told to keep him on Enrofloxican for 8-12 weeks in order to treat it and life would go back to normal.

This specialist is a surgical center so their main goal is to diagnose issues with pets and then present the best surgical options. When we walked in, there were pets there for leg breaks, leg amputations, and various other surgical issues.

Max was taken back for his ultrasound and Colin and I continued to process things aloud, trying to keep ourselves calm and feel confident about the fact that this was a bad infection. We were talking about how we'd need to keep him on medications and use diapers for him and we thought after a few months, he'd be back to normal.

The vet tech came in our room to deliver some paperwork and she told us Max would be right in because they were finished and when she left the room I just knew it. I could tell by her demeanor that something was going to be coming through that door that was not going to be good news.

The doctor that performed his ultrasound came in with Maxie and he was happy as ever and jumped right in between us on the bench. She sat down on the round circular cushioned seat (it's funny how we remember these things) and scooted towards us.

She said a bunch of words that I can't remember. I remember her saying calcification, tumor, and carcinoma. I remember her saying "he has probably had this for a very long time" and the words "fast and aggressive".

Colin and I were in disbelief. We were stunned, shocked, heartbroken, confused, and we were just trying to hear her words, process them, and understand what the heck was happening.

I remember rocking. It was my way of comforting myself. We both started balling our eyes out. She handed me a tissue. We both had our arms around Max as he sat in between us not having a clue what was happening and giving us the "I'm ready to go" look.

I rocked.

We tried to take in all she was saying. I asked her his prognosis and she said "maybe a few months?" with an influx in her voice that made us to believe she was just being hopeful for us. She said there was nothing that could be done because treatment didn't work on this type of cancer.

I continued to rock.

Our heads were spinning. I felt nauseous. I cried. I remember saying "Um. Um. Um." several times because I couldn't form words.

Colin and I looked at each other and I can't explain the sadness we felt. The only other time we felt sadness close to this pain was when we had our ultrasound and found out we had lost our baby.

Ultrasounds are bad for us it seems.

I asked her "Can't this just be a bad infection and how can we know for sure"? She said if we wanted to know for sure, she could perform a needle aspiration and send it out for a biopsy to see for sure if it's cancer or an infection. We wanted to do that because we just needed to know.

She suggested since we had such a long drive, that we leave Max there for the night and she would perform the biopsy the next morning and then we'd have his results in a few days. We couldn't leave our boy there. We couldn't feel good about hearing we have such a limited time left with him and then leave him in an unfamiliar place where he didn't know anyone and where he would not be comfortable. We wanted him to be home with us. To sleep in his own bed.

We planned to come back the next morning for his biopsy. We left the room feeling in shock.

Colin took Max out to the car and I stood in line waiting to pay our bill. As I stood there, people were talking to me and trying to have a conversation with me and I just stood there.

Rocking.

I gave fake nods and fake smiles bc I didn't want to be rude but I was in shock. The doctor's words were racing through my head and all I could hear was "there is nothing we can do" and "maybe a few months".

I started to cry all over again. I couldn't help it.

I was at the counter now to pay and I just cried the entire time. The cashier didn't offer me any comfort, not bc she is a mean person, but probably bc she didn't know what to say.

The conversations stopped around me and people just looked at me now with "I am so sorry eyes".

I rocked. I paid. I cried. We left.

The car ride home was awful. How we even made it home safe.... only God knows. We were devastated. Our boy Max has cancer. We know we can't keep these babies forever but Max isn't even 10 yet. He has 1/3 of his life left to live and we aren't ready for him to go.

How could this be happening?

We wept.

Our boy Max just sat next to me in the backseat kissing my tears offering me comfort.

My friend Cathy Sizemore reminded me this week that it's such a blessing that dogs can't understand what is happening. They don't worry. They just continue to live life and be happy. What a blessing that is and what a lesson for us all.


The biopsy will be tomorrow and we will have clear answers in a few days.

So we thought.....

The Beginning.....

Do you see this? This is Max. He is a spunky monkey with personality oozing from every inch of his body.

This post is about the very start of Max's cancer journey. Before my husband, Colin, and I noticed visible signs that made us start the testing for Max, we noticed he had been drinking a lot of water.

Believe it or not, there is a technical term for when dogs drink excessive amounts of water. It's called Polydipsia.

Generally, water intake will vary a little with diet. If dogs are fed wet food, they may drink less, while dogs that are fed dry food or salty snacks may drink more. There are certain diseases that could make a dog drink excessively (organ disease, Cushings Disease, Addison's Disease, Diabetes, Kidney failure, etc). For some dogs, drinking excessively can be behavioral. This is called Psychogenic Polydipsia. It is a behavioral condition with a physical manifestation of excess thirst. Bored puppies or dogs that love water may fill up on water but sorting these out for a vet can be very challenging. 

We noticed Max drinking excessively about a year ago. We found ourselves constantly saying "That's enough bubbas" and sometimes we would even have to go and move him from his water bowl. Now, Max LOVES water. He loves to swim, he loves to be in the pool and he loves splashing in it. When I bring out his baby pool at the start of summer he gets SO EXCITED!!!  He takes flying leaps into the pool, lies down in the freezing water, and has 'splish splash I was taking a baf' kinda fun! See pics below!

The ONLY time he doesn't like getting wet or to be in the water is when he gets a bath. He literally throws himself on the floor and we have to drag him to the tub and then hoist him inside of it. It is hilarious and ridiculous! See pics!

We took Max in to the vet to discuss the excessive drinking and it was thought that it could be behavioral. Max LOVES attention and he usually gets it if he's drinking too much because we have to move him along from his bowl, so we honestly thought it was just that. But, to be sure, we wanted tests ran.

Our vet ran tests for Cushings Disease and Addison's Disease because those were the 2 that we were concerned with the most. His labs all came back good for his kidneys and just about the only thing the vet did not do was an ultrasound. It was thought that his drinking excessively was behavioral, our vet said we had a healthy dog, so we went on with life.

It was May 1st when we first noticed that something was wrong (besides the excessive drinking). Max pee'd in the house for the first time. There was no warning at all. He didn't try to get our attention and he didn't go to the door either.

Then, on May 2nd, he did it again. Max has never had incontinence issues and he knows better so we weren't sure what was going on. On those particular days, we did have company in town visiting us and Max LOVES company! He wants to play with them, sit with them, eat with them, and be their 6am wake-up call in the mornings. Max and Sammy Lammington even try to unpack their luggage for them by digging through their bags and they both offer a turn down service by tearing apart their beds, kicking their pillows onto the floor and then demanding a snack. :)  Yes. We are awesome dog trainers. :)

The 2nd time he pee'd we had set up a gate so he couldn't get into the kitchen while we ate dinner because we didn't want our guests to be bothered while trying to eat because.... well.... the dogs are spoiled rotten and this is what happens....

Max was very mad that we wouldn't let him in the kitchen and he just stood there at the gate barking at us and stomping his feet. We honestly thought he was just acting out when he pee'd.

We had a lot of changes happening around our house during this time, too. We were doing remodeling that spring and we had just finished installing all new flooring throughout the house. We were remodeling our bedroom and bathroom as well, so there were a lot of moving parts during that time and lot of new people and contractors in & out. We thought maybe this could be Max's way of "marking his territory" with the new carpet, etc.

Max had just been in for his annual exam as well. They gave him a great report and said "You have a very healthy dog". We had no reason to believe anything was physically wrong with him and chalked it up to the imbalance in the home and the new smells, flooring, company, etc.

We took him back in to our vet after those 2 pee-pee accidents bc we never want to take chances with our dog's health. We are overly cautious pet owners. If we had kids we'd be the parents taking their kid in to the doctor for every sneeze, hang nail, and burp (we are ridiculous, we know).

I took in a urine sample to have it checked for a UTI. The results came back inconclusive. There are so many reasons for this but it most likely was because it was a "free catch" sample which means I just held a container under his wanker and when you do that, it isn't sterile because there could be contaminants on the container, the lid, on the outside of his wanker, etc. It also has the chance to not give accurate info because the final product is not necessarily what started out in the bladder since the urine passed through other locations like the prostatic urethra and his wanks.

So, I wasn't happy with those results because it didn't give me any answers so I wanted a full urinalysis done. The next thing the vet suggested was to insert a catheter to get a more sterile sample, so that is what we did. Those results came back that Max had a UTI so we started him on Amoxicillin right away. This did NOT alarm us because Max and Sammy had stayed the night at daycare recently and Max tends to get UTI's when he is there because he loves to swim in their pee filled pool (you know those dogs pee in there!) and he tends to mark a lot at daycare which inflames his wanker and that irritation can cause this.

We had him on Amoxicillin for about 2 weeks (so this takes us into the middle of May). During this time, I noticed he started straining to go poopy. He had never done this before, but we chalked it up to having a bad UTI and wanted to run through the course of his meds.

After 2 weeks on the Amoxicillin, I took him back in to have them do another urinalysis (catheter insertion again). He still had a UTI. I wanted to have his anal glands expressed because I thought maybe they were full which was causing him to strain as well, so they did that for us, too (they were not near full). We also had our vet do an x-ray at this point to see if she could see anything that looked abnormal.

His x-ray came back and it showed the tip of his prostate (nearest the bladder) was a little larger than what it should be. There could be several reasons for this. At this point, we knew Max had a bad UTI so our vet thought that his infection penetrated his prostate (which is very possible with bad UTI infections). When this happens, this needs to get under control.

The prostate is a tough bird because not all medications will penetrate through the prostate lining (Amoxicillin is a good example of this as it is not a strong enough medication to do this). At this point, Max was put on Baytril (Enrofloxacin). This medication is effective against stubborn and hard to treat infections (it is effective against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterias).   

Max was on this for a few weeks. We noticed during this time that his straining seemed to be getting worse when pooping and his poop started to look different. Instead of being normal dog poopy'ish (thick'ish in nature) it was long poop (ribbon-like) in nature. With the research I was doing that could be because the prostate had inflammation due to the infection which would make the opening where the poo would travel through a bit squeezed and smaller - making his poop stretch out like stretch armstrong.

Max wasn't done with his Baytril medication but something in my gut was telling me that I needed to take him back in because he was still straining to go. I took him back in and told our vet I think we needed to do something else.

Our vet decided to do a Cystocentesis this time, which would give her more accurate information regarding his UTI. A Cystocentesis is used when you want a clean urine specimen directly from the bladder itself and it is performed by inserting a small needle through the skin directly into the bladder (much in the same way that a blood sample is obtained). This would give very clean and accurate information about the urine in the bladder.

This post is almost finished but I thought it was getting too wordy so I figured a cute picture of my Maxie Max was in order. :)

After getting the results of his Cystocentesis, it looked like his numbers for his UTI were improving. My vet did the old "finger up the bum" salute to check to see if the inflammation in his prostate had reduced at all (it would suggest that if his UTI is starting to get under control that the prostate would return to it's normal size).

My vet said his prostate still felt enlarged on the end so she decided it would be best to go to a specialist at this point, to have an abdominal ultrasound which would give us a clear picture of what was happening with our boy.

You can read about our specialist appt on my next post.

I would like to add at this point, Max has shown ZERO signs of anything being wrong. The ONLY issue we have seen is when he goes to the bathroom. He not only is still having issues with ribbonlike poopy and straining to defecate, but, we are noticing he is now starting to strain to urinate when he is around the yard. His first peepee is great. He has a long and hard stream at first but then dribbles when he tries to urinate around the yard. Other than potty issues, he is eating like a horse (which is quite normal - Max is VERY food motivated). He is playing and is active and acting like his goofy little silly self.

What I learned going through this part of Max's journey:

-Now that I know what I know, I should have asked for an abdominal ultrasound way earlier when we were ruling out disease for Max with the excessive drinking. What a tough lesson to learn. Part of me feels like I failed him here, but, it's hind sight and can't be changed now. If I had asked them to do that test, we may have caught this earlier but I honestly just didn't know.

Even though ultrasounds are pretty expensive, in the future if we are concerned with disease and if other tests are coming back negative, we will definitely go with an ultrasound. A radiograph (x-ray) just isn't detailed enough to see what is happening if you suspect a disease.

-We are those pet owners that go out with their dogs every time they go to the bathroom. Yep. You read that right. We have an acre fenced in for the boys so they have a ton of room to run and play and we have had issues in the past from when Max was a puppy, where he'd step in his poop and me not know it. What happens then? Well thank you for asking! There is poop ALL OVER YOUR HOUSE! :) It is not pretty and I am SURE many of you are shaking your head 'yes' right now bc I am sure it has happened to you, too. We also have a poop eater (Sammy disgusting Lammington). So, to avoid the poopy kisses, poopy burps in my face, and poopy barfs inside the house, we choose to go out with our dogs every single time. We don't stay outside the entire time, but once they go peepee and poop, usually they are finished and just run and play and we go back inside. By doing this, we pick up their poop right away and it affords us to see exactly what their potty routine is and what their poop looks like. We are poop experts basically. By being so vigilant we know our dog's potty routine VERY well.

One of the very early signs of Max having issues even before the UTI, the straining, the peeing in the house was when I noticed Max changing how he pooped. He would go out and poop once and then go to another part of the yard to poop again. He started this about 3 months prior to the UTI and peeing in the house. Now that we know what we know, I wonder if this was a VERY early sign something was wrong. His poop didn't look different but that slight change in how he was pooping was different and out of his routine. We thought it was behavioral but now we wonder.

If your dog's potty routine changes in any way (this is just my opinion and not from a vet) I'd take them in to get checked. Even the slightest change.

-Always go with your gut. Be your pet's advocate. I had many gut intuitions since Max started his journey and I am so thankful I listened. One of those gut promptings I had was to get all of our summer projects done this spring. We had a TON of summer projects we wanted to get done this year and they were BIG ones. My husband and I were going to do them together but something in May was telling me to not wait and to get these projects done so I busted butt in May, not knowing what we had just around the corner for us. I am thankful I listened. I am also thankful I listened to my gut and took him back in even when his meds were not finished yet. I have no doubt these were all promptings from God bc I am just not that smart. :)


Cost of treatment so far:

I want to be very transparent with people so they know what to expect. We had extra tests ran that you may not be doing and we went through 3 different urinalysis tests, which may not be necessary for you. Once I get all my papers together I will fill this part in.