[nagdu] major dilemma

[Katrin Andberg]

Hi Bernadette

 

Last July my guide dog, James, was diagnosed with bone cancer and I had many
of the questions and decisions that are now facing you with Kipp.  I also
had an experience with a veterinary surgeon who I felt was not giving me
straight answers and pressuring me to treat James in the way that she
wanted, ie: amputate his leg, do chemo or radiation, all of which would only
have extended his life by about 6m to a year and in my opinion not increased
the quality of it due to all the vet visits and recovery time and which I
also could not afford.

 

In the end, after much deliberation I decided that I would not treat James
in the traditional ways, except for vet prescribed pain medication.  Instead
I am currently treating him with alternative methods such as Chinese herbal
medicine, acupuncture, dietary supplements and a homemade high protein, low
carb, no sugars diet.  

 

That vet surgeon had told me that if I did not treat James the way she
recommended in 4 months he would either be dead or in massive amounts of
pain.  On Nov 2nd, James happily celebrated his 4 month anniversary post
diagnosis.  If you saw him, you would have no idea he had cancer.  He is
happy, he runs around, he plays with his toys, he eats with gusto, he is not
limping, he shows absolutely no lameness or favoring of the leg he has
cancer in, and he is 100% his usual happy retriever self.

 

Due to the cost of his pain medication and acupuncture I did end up finding
some grants to help cover the cost of those.  IAADP has a great grant
program, up to $1000 through Nutramax Labratories and also there is a
program called the Land of Pure Gold Foundation that gives grants up to $500
specifically for service dogs (assistance dogs, guide dogs, SAR dogs, police
dogs) with cancer.  Both of those programs have really helped me to give
James the support and treatments he needs to continue to have  an excellent
quality of life even though he has cancer.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to email me and I will try to
help with what I have learned since James' diagnosis.

 

Good luck and all the best.  

 

Katrin Andberg

 <mailto:katrin at maplewooddog.com> katrin at maplewooddog.com