PRINCEY'S PUPDATE.....

Haroo efurypupper, it's me Prince!

Well I had a fun week last week with my Mom, it was just me and her and some other fury nice people and puppers! We stayed with Suki's old family too so that was fun, her old Mom Lyn and old Dad Ken sure were nice to me!!! Mom said she wants to say a few words to all of woo so I better let her.....I'll be back to show woo some photos after Mom has finished!

Hi everyone, well it was a strange week last week ~ it was nice spending so much time with my main man (that's Princey!) but it was a very tiring and emotional week too.

We left home at 5am on Tuesday morning and headed to Christchurch. The trip up was pretty uneventful, just one stop for a coffee and lunch for me and drink and piddles for Prince. We arrived in ChCh almost an hour early (darn, could have slept a bit longer!) so went to a little reserve where I ate my lunch and Prince explored and did all the things doggies do in a new place.

At 1pm we had our consult with the Internal Medicine Specialist at Vet Specs (Surgical Specialists). She was very good with Prince and explained what was going to happen. Just before 2pm I left Prince in her capable hands, they were going to run a few tests, put a catheter in his leg and prepare him and transport him to the private hospital he was to have the CT Scan.

They told me it would be at least 6pm before he would be back at their clinic, so I had a few painfully long hours to fill in. I hate waiting! I went to Animates and bought some doggy treats and had a good look around, went to a small mall and had some sushi and an ice cream sundae (wasn't even hungry, just filled in some time and made me feel sick afterwards!). I then went for a drive to the Botanical Gardens and had a wander around and waited, waited, waited for 6pm to roll around.

I headed back to the clinic at 6 and at 6:15 was reunited with my boy. I was so happy to see him ~ they said he had been very good and that everything had gone to plan with the CT Scan. I drove my groggy boy back to friends place we were staying and we relaxed (well as much as we could) for the rest of the evening and caught up with our friends.

I got a phone call the next afternoon to say the images and report from Radiologist were back ~ the news wasn't good. They couldn't excise the whole tumor and the prognosis was a lot worse than I had hoped. Here's part of the Radiologists report:

The tumor extends down to the posterior chest wall and has expanded, eroded and invaded through the right T11/12 foramen, causing a significant central canal stenosis of at least 50%. Cord is effaced at this level. Tumor has also extended through to a subpleural position here and also extended medially and posteriorly, destroying posterior elements of T10 and T11.

The main concern is for Prince's spinal cord. If the tumor continues to grow and put more pressure on the spinal cord he will start to lose movement in his back end and will eventually become paralised. For Fibrosarcoma tumors, radiotherapy is the most effective treatment if tumor cannot be excised. At present there is nowhere in NZ that performs radiotherapy on animals. Our only other option is chemotherapy which is not as effective.

I have decided Prince will have low dose chemo (called Metronomic Chemotherapy). This is a relatively new form of treatment and doesn't have the same side effects of full chemo (I hope!). Prince's tumor is low grade which means it's slow growing and chemo attacks and kills all fast growing cells. The full chemo treatment would have been every three weeks for 4-6 treatments and the Specialists felt the low dose chemo would be more suitable as hopefully it will kill off a few cells each day. I can administer this from home each day in the form of a capsule, Prince will also be on Piroxicam (an anti-inflammatory which seems to compliment the Cyclophosphamide).

Prince is at the vet right now for tests ~ CBC and Chemistry (bloods), Urinalysis (urine) and a Neurological exam. He will have these tests done again after being on the treatment for one week and after that they will be weekly for a while, if all goes well the tests will then be run each fortnight and then monthly. Prince will be on the Chemo for the rest of his life or until I decide he shouldn't be on it.

It was a very hard decision to make as I didn't want to put him through chemo but the alternative was to let the tumor take it's course and watch Prince become paralised. I felt he was too young (only just turned five) and that I had to try some form of treatment to give him a chance.

Thank you to everyone for your emails and support, I will keep you updated about Prince's treatment and how he is doing.

Aleeya

Haroo, I'm back!!!

Here's some photos of our adventures in Christchurch!!! Hope woo like them!

This was me checking out the reserve where we had lunch (actually Mom didn't feed me anything which was really really mean)! She said I wasn't allowed anything but water:( These show me doing what us doggies do best in a new place ~ sniffing, exploring, peeing, pooing and exploring and sniffing some more ~ so follow me.....

Dis is my next door neighbour at the place we stayed ~ his name is Bodie and he is a BIG BOY.....

This was me in my own special back yard......yes that is farm fencing in the background and I was a good siberian and didn't even try and escape.....

Have a yummy treat inside.....

Resting after a big day.....

The third day we were in Christchurch Lyn and Mom went into a place called Rangiora for lunch and a look around. I got to meet some of Lyn's doggies and I stayed in one of their houses with them....in separate cages just incase. I was right next door to two lovely girlies so that wasn't so bad.

Here's one of the girlies ~ Satuh.....

and the other one, her daughter Chena.....

Here's Tserko, he was in the doggy house with us too.....

Here's Suki's two brothers Mauya and Anui.....

This is Shino.....


and this is Shino's son BJ with his uncle Mauya on his left.....

This is Nardy, Mom said she is really sweet and I heard her calling her 'fuzzy butt'.....

That was just some of our trip, Suki was sure interested to smell me when I got home......she knew where I'd been!

Woo Woos

Princey