Treating the untreatable

Don't tell me there is nothing to do. I went to the Special Needs Doberman people and asked for their suggestions. A plethora of information came to my inbox. Overwhelming really. I printed it all out, spread it out on the desk and researched every suggestion. Some stuff is very mind boggling. I thought that doing everything would make her sicker, so I chose the following tack, which so far has proven to be very successful. That is why this blog has been started, to document how this goes for other pet lovers faced with similar dilemna. Here is a list of the suggestions, at the end, I'll say what we're doing.

Ozonated olive oil -http://www.oxystore.com/ozonated_olive_oil.asp
Essiac - http://www.seacostvitamins.com/misc/floressence.html#info
Colostrum- http://www.newlifefoods.net/products/other_colostrum_products.shtml#capsules_powder
Organic cottage cheese -1/4 cup per day with 1 lbsp Omega flo or flaxseed oil- http://www.cancure.org/budwig_diet.htm
Artemesia http://www.msnbc.com/news/667259.asp
BARF http://bestfrisbeedogs.com/diets.html

I decided to feed her organic cottage cheese and flaxseed oil with Essiac. I started this on October 18th. The gacking has gone from every 10 minutes to twice a day. She doesn't seem as sad as she was, I gave her back rubs as I thought the hacking was making the muscles in her back sore. I would like to go to BARF, but with three dogs, and a full time job, it's going to take some planning. I hope to work that out in the next week or so. If one gets BARF, they're all going to want it. It is suspected that the sugars in kibble cause the tumors to grow. There are many other advantages to BARF and I've been considering it for about a year. It might be time. Speaking of time...we're now in REAL TIME! I hope to keep this going so other folks can benefit from our experiences.

The Hack, Gack, Yack

The Gypsy Doberman developed a cough back in September. I talked to my friends at Special Needs Doberman and they suggested Kennel Cough, allergies, congestive heart failure, aspirated food or (hopefully not) cancer. I took her to the vet, he poked around a little bit, couldn't hear anything, felt around, nothing seemed too wrong and of course, she wouldn't hack for him. He ruled out Kennel Cough, aspirated food and congestive heart failure. He suggested a run of antibiotics. I think antibiotics are over prescribed, so I asked if he thought it would be ok to wait and see for maybe ten days. He thought that would be fine. It didn't get better, actually worse. So I went back and got a run of antibiotics. We did the ten day run, and it was still getting worse. I decided it was time and bucked up and paid for the X-Rays.

I still cry when I think about what I saw on those X-rays. I didn't need a Doctor to tell me that there shouldn't be something where something was. She had a tumor the size of her heart pushing against it and another one pushing against her diaphram. Toby had lung cancer. It was inoperable and they couldn't treat it with chemo either. It was my job to make her as comfortable as I could for as long as I could. Have a nice day, thanks for playing our game. That was October 16th.

The Adventures of Toby the Gypsy Doberman

Toby came to me in February 2003. I was checking out the newly uploaded webpage for Special Needs Dobermans for their Senior Dobe Project. There on that page was the face of an 10 year old Doberman who was in rescue. Her owner had died and no one in her family wanted to take her. So the vet got her owner's family in touch with Dogworks who took her in. I saw this picture and thought that no 10 year old dog should be sitting i rescue. She should be spending the last days of her life laying by a fire place in the lap of luxury, as should all Doberman. I contacted Jolene at Dogworks. She didn't think I had the best situation since two Hellhoundz already resided here and I worked full time. I asked to meet her anyway. Being a Doberman, and a Gypsy, my heart was stolen immediately. She had a lump on one of her paws and we agreed to have it removed and checked for cancer. It came back clear. Then we agreed that I would take Toby for two weeks, if it worked out I would keep her, if not, she'd go back to rescue and no harm no foul. After four days, I called Jolene and told her she couldn't have her dog back, she was already part of the family.

Toby spent the next year training me. Leave a shoe out and I will steal it. Leave a sock around and I will steal it. I will trade it back with you later for your wallet. She never damaged anything, just stole things. I learned to put my shoes away and pick up after myself, or run around the house searching for shoes and socks. Toby has bad hips, so she takes slow somewhat dragging steps. If she wasn't getting enough attention, she would step into the room where you were, show you that she had stolen something, as it dangled from her mouth, and go back into her bed. She stole the heart of every one who came through the door.