Princess

Princess is a Great Pyrenees that my ex-husband purchased at the same time he purchased another dog, a Great Dane mix named Scooby; this was about ten years ago. His intention was that Princess would guard his goats and Scooby could keep her company. I have no idea why he thought he needed goats but he had recently moved to the country and I guess he thought that is what he needed to do. Well, Princess proved to be a very bad guard dog (or a very smart dog depending on how you look at it), the goats were all killed by a wolf hybrid that lived down the road from them and shortly after that, my ex decided he had had enough of country life and moved back to the suburbs. A day or two after the move, my daughter found out that he had left his dogs behind...I have a word for people like that and I cannot believe I was actually married to one.

My daughter and I went to retrieve the dogs the day she found out about them and we were hoping that we found them before something happened to them. We were thrilled when we found them still waiting on the porch for someone to come home. We put these two very large dogs in the cab of the truck and drove home.

Scooby found a wonderful new home shortly after that but my daughter was very attached to Princess and persuaded me to keep her as our own dog. Honestly, she is a pretty bad guard dog, she has a nice scary deep loud bark but when a stranger actually comes into the house, she hides behind me. Princess is getting a little old a cranky now but she is definitely a member of the family and we love her regardless.

Day After Nasal Infusion

My husband told me that when he was walking Clancey last night, he sneezed three times and each time blew out a lot of bloody mucus and tissue. This is good news as that means the infusion must of had some impact!!

Second Neoplasene Infusion

Clancey had his second nasal infusion today. We decided to do the same thing we did the last time only use a little bit stronger mix of the solution to saline. Last night when I was petting Clancey I noticed a lump under his jaw, it felt like a swollen lymph node and is on the same side as the tumor in his nose. She said it could be a tumor or it could just be a swollen lymph node, there really wasn't any way to tell exactly what was going on without doing a biopsy. She measured it and we will continue to keep an eye on it for now. I got more antibiotics for him as he seems to have another infection starting up. She told me that this is normal with large tumors as there is no blood flow in the middle of the tumor and infections form there....who knew?

I left Clancey with them this morning rather than waiting for him, needed to go to work so I could continue to pay for his care :)

The veterinarian had good news for me when I arrived to pick him up. She was able to get her scope up into his nose much further this time and actually see the tumor. In her opinion, it had definitely shrunk some from what she had seen in the CT Scan. She was able to apply the neoplasene directly to the tumor (she scrapped it first in order for the neoplasene to be better absorbed).

Since we seem to be getting some results, we are going to just continue what we are doing with the oral neoplasene twice a day, the supplements and the acupuncture. I am going to call her in a couple weeks with an update and we will talk about doing another infusion at that time.

When we got home for the vets office, I took Clancey for a walk, he was one tired boy. I was afraid I was going to have carry him home but he made it and crashed on his bed after eating. It was a big day for Clancey.

Cody

I have no idea what breed Cody is. He came to live with me about ten years ago with his brother Bo. These boys were pups, they were starving, smelly, full of fleas and ticks and scared to death. They had been left behind on some property when someone moved out and a woman I knew had heard about them and brought them to me. I kept them in a kennel in my backyard for a few weeks at first and it took them about a month to stop hiding from me when I came out to see them. Finally, they relaxed and moved inside the house where they became aquainted with the couch. They LOVED the couch and would sit there all day and sleep there at night. Once they were completely well, I tried to find them a home together. Normally I separate pups but these guys were tied to the hip and I couldn't bear to separate them. Finding a home for two dogs is next to impossible so evenutually they became permanent members of my growing canine family. Bo died about a year ago, it broke my heart. He was the sweetest dog you could ever know and he was a caretaker for the other dogs. There was a point when I brought in a new foster dog many years ago and one day, while I was at work, the foster dog attacked Cody. He was injured very badly (if you look close enough you can see that one ear sits nearly on top of his head). They had to pull his skin together to stitch him up and that made his ears a bit lopsided. Bo took care of him for weeks, barely left his side while he recovered. Cody and Bo are very special dogs and I know that Bo still watches over us. Here is a picture of Bo.

Bo

Iris

This is Iris, Clancey's other BFF and my soulmate. My husband (and anyone else that knows Iris) will tell you that she my dog period, end of story. My husband likes to call her the "dog of mass destruction" and sure, she tears up things from time to time like walls, doors, entire packages of toilet paper shredded to little bits, clothes, shoes, pretty much whatever she can find laying around but she is so darn cute! Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of living in the company of a pitbull will know what I mean when I say she has a wonderful sense of humor. Iris used to like to start trouble with other dogs (as you can tell by the scars on her face she usually lost those battles) but has learned to live peacefully with them now. My rescue group used to do pet adoptions every Sunday at an old night club that would open the doors for rescue groups. For weeks, an older gentleman would bring Iris in (he had found her roaming the streets) and he would always sit in same place and try to find a home for her. She wasn't very adoptable because she was a pitbull and because she cannot tolerate children, especially those on wheels. (She still can't to this day but honestly, who can blame her?) Don't ask me why but I was very drawn to this girl and after a few weeks, I asked him if I might try to find her a home through my rescue organization. He agreed and I brought her home with me. I couldn't bear to part with her (not that anyone was beating down my door wanting to adopt her) and she has lived with me ever since.

Cheyenne

This is Clancey with his BFF Cheyenne. She is about ten years old and was my very first foster dog. From day one she has always been the perfect dog. About three years ago Cheyenne had a massive stroke. Every now and then you notice a slight tilt to her head which is the only remaing affect of the stroke. My good friend Mary cared for Cheyenne for several weeks after her stroke as I had to go to work and couldn't stay with her 24/7 which is what needed to be done. I will be forever grateful to Mary for that. I doubt that Cheyenne's recovery would have been as quick or as successful without the massages, supplements and other care that Mary gave her.

Update on Oral Neoplasene and Acupuncture

Clancey continues to do well. I have been giving him .6 ml of oral neoplasene twice a day for a week now. I mix it with his food along with all the other supplements and so far, he eats it eagerly. Clancey has never been a picky eater and I am thankful for that. I know a lot of people using oral neoplasene recommend that you not mix it with food because there may come a day when the dog won't eat it's food and then you are in a dilemma of how to get the treatment and other supplements into the dog. Definitely a concern that has been on my mind. I have been reading about some people who fill gel capsules with the neo and I may go that route, I haven't decided yet and for now am just thankful that Clancey is willing to eat pretty much whatever I give him.

He has had some mucus production the past couple of days, nothing major but my understanding is that this is a sign the neo is working. I sure hope so.

As per my veterinarian, I bumped up his dose of neo today to 1.6 ml twice a day but now I am concerned that this might be too much. I posted my concern on the the blacksalve list and hope that I get some feedback. I am sure this stuff can cause stomach upset. I am actually surprised that Clancey is willing to eat it, I tasted the stuff and it isn't very pleasant and leaves a really dry bitter taste in your mouth. Even the tiny bit I tasted made my stomach queasy.

We have had success with getting the acupuncture done. In the evening, my husband feeds Clancey biscuits while I stick the needles in. He doesn't seem to feel them, just gets a little annoyed with me for messing with his legs but otherwise, that is going well. The neo drops in the nose are another story....not much success there yet. He fights so hard and is so strong that what little does actually end up in his nose and not all over me or the walls is probably not enough to do much good. A friend of mine suggested that I cover his eyes, she does this with horses when they have to have "stuff" done to them. Guess I will try that next.

We go back to the veterinarian in the morning for the second neoplasene infusion so I will report back after that.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

The First Neoplasene Infusion

Clancey had his first treatment this morning and it went very well. His veterinarian was kind enough to let me observe the procedure and I was very grateful for that. We had talked about either doing an injection of the neoplasene or an infusion. She was a little reluctant to do the injection because of possible side effects and the fact that she was going to be gone for a week but I assured her that if anything happened, his regular veterinarian and an emergency clinic were both nearby. Since it was early in the morning anyhow, any reaction would probably happen within a few hours of the treatment. So, we started the procedure anticipating an injection however, that plan changed after we had him sedated and she was able to actually look into his nasal cavity with her scope (this is a very cool instrument that I have never seen used by a vet before but you could actually see inside his nose and look at every crook and cranny in there).

After looking at the CT Scan that was done over a month ago now, it looked like the tumor engulfed almost his entire nostril and she anticipated that the injection would need to made no more than ¼” to ½” into the nasal cavity, however, she had the scope up his nose a good two inches if not more and we never did see the actual tumor on the screen. She said that it is possible that the combination of the supplements, nose drops and acupuncture may be working and have shrunk the tumor, I sure hope so.

Since the tumor was too far up in his nostril to get a needle in for an injection, she did the infusion. She mixed the liquid neoplasene with a saline solution and used a tiny tube attached to a syringe to get it up into his nostril. His noise bled pretty badly when she did this as she had to puncture or scratch the tumor itself in order to make sure the solution got in. After she gave him the dose, the tech held gauze to his nose for about thirty minutes while they let the solution do it’s work, then she flushed it out with a saline solution.

They also did acupuncture on him, this time on both back legs and on his back. She marked the spots for me in red ink so that I could find them and continue the treatment. I feel better about doing this now that I know exactly where I am supposed to put the pins.

After they finished, they brought him into an exam room on a gurney and lay it on the floor; he had a couple blankets over him. I stayed with him until he woke up. It took about an hour for him to wake up and start moving, poor boy could not figure out why his legs weren’t working very well when he got up to walk.

They sent us home with an oral neoplasene solution to be given in his food twice a day. I am also going to start the drops again, probably on Monday, and I will also be doing the acupuncture once a day for ten minutes, assuming he will cooperate with me.

We are going to go back the Monday after Christmas and do another treatment. Now that we know that he handled the liquid solution okay, she wants to try a salve next time that she can leave on his nose for thirty minutes and then wash out. She thinks this might have more impact than the solution.

Update On Clancey

Clancey was boarded at our regular veterinarians office for a few days as my husband and I made a trip to California to see my son graduate from College. They reported that they had not noticed any nosebleeds during his stay but he did not want to eat his food. He did drink a ton of water when he got home and then proceeded to throw it all up along with a few chunks of kibble. After that episode, we gave him a bowl of his beloved chicken necks which he ate with no problem, I suspect he stopped eating because he was stressed from being away from home and possibly because he thinks kibble is beneath him now.

I have noticed that his nose has not been bleeding at all and I don’t think that is a good sign. The good news is that his infection seems to have cleared up as there is no more yellow snot coming out of his nose or eyes and he has more energy.

He has an appointment in the morning with the holistic veterinarian. We are going to start either the nasal infusions or possibly injections of the neoplasene. I don’t think she knows yet, we are supposed to talk about this in the morning. I assume that once we start up the neoplasene treatment, his nose will start bleeding again.

I have not done the acupuncture on him like I was supposed to. I just don’t feel very comfortable doing it and honestly, I am not sure that I understand what putting a few little needles in his legs is going to do for a tumor in his nose. I know there are people who feel very strongly that acupuncture works and I guess I need to figure out a way to get comfortable with it. I am going to see if the vet will let me try again tomorrow when Clancey is sedated. Maybe I can get her to mark the spots on his legs so that I can see them, like a bulls eye or something.

I stopped giving Clancey the astragalus as someone pointed out that it was also used as an anti-coagulate. The nosebleeds stopped when I stopped using it. I need to ask the vet about that in the morning as well.

Clancey’s regular vet told me on Tuesday that she was not opposed to trying the neoplasene treatment but that she hadn’t had a chance to read the documents I gave her or do any research on her own. She wants the holistic vet to write up her protocol for her first. I guess that is good news but I don’t understand why my vet can’t just call her or one of the other vet references I have given her who are using this treatment. It would sure save me a lot of driving as his regular vet is right on my way to work while the holistic vet is about an hour away. This is something else I need to talk to the holistic vet about in the morning.

You definitely have to be an advocate for your animal’s health when they have cancer and you also have to be very, very pushy. That is completely out of my character and I am having to get outside of my comfort zone in dealing with this alternative treatment of neoplasene..

Doing Better

Clancey is nearly back to his normal, playful self again. The antibiotics have done their work. We have an appointment next Tuesday to start neoplasene infusions on him. This will mean that the vet will be sedating him and then putting the neoplasene solution into his nose and let it sit for a few minutes, an impossible task unless he is sedated.

I have had some success with the nose drops, however, everytime I think of a new way to get them into his nose, he remembers it for the next time and takes evasive action.

My husband and I are going to California this weekend so Clancey will be boarded at my regular veterinarians office. I have an appointment with her tomorrow morning and am going to show her all the data I have compiled about neoplasene in hopes I can get her on board with his treatments. It would be so nice not to have to make an hour drive to the vets office two or three times a week.

Our First Visit to the Alternative Veterinarian

We met with the alternative veterinarian Monday afternoon. Clancey seemed very comfortable at the clinic. In the waiting room, there was a tiny pitbull puppy that had just finished her appointment so Clancey and I both got a little “puppy therapy”. Clancey has always liked puppies and this one was no exception. Clancey brightened right up, his tail was wagging and he was giving her some big sloppy kisses.

The veterinarian did confirm my suspicion that he had another infection in his nasal cavity so prescribed Baytril for that. I suspect this is the reason that he wasn’t hungry yesterday morning and why he seemed to feel so tired and out of it. He seemed better this morning after a couple doses of the Baytril.

In addition to continuing the supplements he is currently taking, we are going to add a few more, she suggested I look into Hoxey and possibly mushrooms. She sent home Astragalus to help his immune system and Enzymes which apparently, when given away from food, helps heal damaged tissues. She also sent me home with a bottle of Phosphorous that should help inhibit the bleeding from his nostril. I have not noticed any change in the amount of bleeding so far but will keep watching this.

I am also going to start him on CoQ10 and small doses of Probiotics that we will increase once the infection is gone.

We are starting him on twice daily doses of a Neoplasene solution in the form of nose drops. This has already proven to be a challenge, I was able to surprise him with the syringe last night and got the drops in his nose successfully, however, this morning things did not go so well as he took one look at the syringe and knew exactly what was going to happen, I couldn’t fool him again! This boy is much too strong to man handle so I am going to have to find a way for him to willingly accept the drops. I think I will start with a saline solution so I don’t waste the Neoplasene and see if I can win him over with treats etc. Once he gets used to that, I will use the real solution. If anyone knows a good way to convince a dog that nose drops are good, please, please share it with me.

The one other treatment we are going to be using is acupuncture to “help him get his energy moving”. I don’t know anything about acupuncture and need to do some research on it, any personal experiences with acupuncture would be very much appreciated. We are treating the “Chong Mai meridian in the eight extra”. Again, I have no idea what that means but I figure it can’t hurt.

The vet showed me where to put the needles, one in each of his legs, and I was able to place them correctly while I was at her office, doing it at home with no coaching will be a little scary. I am going to try tonight so we’ll see how it goes. Clancey actually cooperated with the acupuncture as they were feeding him treats while I was placing the needles. I think this will prove to be easier than the nose drops, as long as I can keep him occupied with treats, he didn’t seem to even feel the needles. We do this daily and leave them in for ten minutes each time.

I did have a discussion with the veterinarian about quality of life and have decided not to pursue the radiation treatment at this time. There is no cure for this cancer, the best we can do is try to inhibit it from growing larger and hopefully even decrease the size of it with the Neoplasene so that he is more comfortable. We can enhance his immune system with therapies that will help his body to fight this unwanted monster that has set up residence in his nose.

Clancey is a survivor and other than this tumor, he is in good health. I may change my mind down the road and I will be watching Clancey for signs but for now, we are going to stay on this path and see where it takes us.

Helpless

Clancey was not doing well this morning. Up until now, he has seemed pretty much himself other than the persistent bleeding from his left nostril. This morning both nostrils were bleeding and from looking at his bed, they had been bleeding most of the night. His left muzzle was twitching and his left eye seems swollen. He did not want his breakfast this morning, this is the first time that Clancey has ever not wanted to eat. Up until now, I have been so focused on finding treatment for him that I have been shoving my feelings aside. It hit me this morning that I could actually lose him. My stomach is in knots today, I am having a hard time focusing on my work. We have an appointment this afternoon to talk to a veterinarian about neoplasene treatment. The hardest part about all of this is the waiting. I feel this urgent need to fix this right now and am helpless to do so.

Neoplasene

I was trying to dig up anything I could find on the internet regarding nasal cancer and ran across a woman who was treating her dog with palliative radiation and something called neoplasene, she is having good results. The more I delved into this treatment, the more people I found that had used it with good results on all kind of tumors. I mentioned it to my vet, sent her the link for the website where I had been reading case studies about it:

http://www.buckmountainbotanicals.net

I don't think my vet even looked at the website, I assume she saw the word "herbal" then called me and told me I needed to find a holistic vet. So, I contacted Buck Mountain to see if they could give me a referal to someone nearby who was using the product, I ended up talking to Terrence Fox Phd. (best I can tell, he developed the product) for about thirty minutes. Dr. Fox did not have a referral for a vet in Dallas, however, after more digging, I was able to find a vet not too far away who does use this product, we have an appointment on Monday. You can read more about the product on the website and also just by doing a web search on Neoplasene, a lot of information is available.

I figured it can't hurt to at least talk to a vet about the Neoplasene treatment and possibly start it. The therapy for nasal tumors is in the form of nose drops and I have no idea how I am going to get Clancey to to accept nose drops, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I have never done a blog before but have decided to track our journey with this nasal tumor on a blog. I didn't find a lot of personal experiences on the internet that were specific to this type of tumor and the ones I did find were very helpful, I am hoping that my blog might be helpful to others as well.

Nasal Adenocarcinoma

On November 25th, 2008, Clancey was diagnosed with a Nasal Adenocarcinoma, henceforth referred to as a "nasal tumor". I had noticed about a month before this that Clancey seemed tired, he had actually fallen over a couple times while we were walking. I made an appointment with our veterinarian for him, we walked in the front door of the vet office and Clancey's nose started to bleed profusely.

They did some tests and also took an x-ray which indicated that there might be a mass in his nostril but it was hard to tell from an x-ray. It was determined that he definitely had an infection so we treated him with antibiotics. He started to feel better but his nosed continued to bleed, just a slow drip most of the time. His veterinarian was concerned that he might have a tumor, we made an appointment for a CT Scan and that is when the tumor was found.

According to the CT Scan, there is some brain involvement although fortunately, Clancey has not shown any neurological signs to date. I met with an oncologist and we decided to proceed with palliative radiation therapy, his first appointment has been set for Thursday, December 11th.

Clancey The Day He was Rescued

Clancey’s Story… His “new beginning” and how he came into our lives!

My name is Sande, and this is the story of how a simply wonderful dog, named Clancey came into my life and consequently, the life of my friend, Carol and her husband, Gary. I am forever grateful that I was so fortunate to have such an inspiring, hopeful and loving experience here on this Earth, and in being a part of saving the life of such a beautiful and worthy, canine Soul!

It was winter of 2004 and for a couple of months I had been helping a homeless man and his dog with some money, some warm clothes, blankets and food... They were living under a highway overpass bridge in a very rundown and poor part of town (Dallas).

One day, in mid-November, on my way home from work, I made my usual stop, to talk to the man and drop off more food for him and his dog. It was a particularly raw, gray and cold winter afternoon, and in the fading light he pointed out an almost indiscernible form in the near distance, moving slowly along side the road towards a small, dingy quick stop grocery store. You could feel the ground shaking and vibrating from the huge, noisy tanker trucks rumbling by and kicking up dust near the industrial intersection.

The man was pointing towards this slow moving form, but at first I didn’t see anything in the dusky gray light… Soon, however, I could vaguely make out, what appeared to be a fairly large, light colored dog. The dog seemed almost invisible; blending in with the fast, fading, gray light of day and the cold dusty clay colored streets and with head hung low, he was making his way, slowly along the edge of the street; it seemed with no real purpose. This was Clancey.

The homeless man told me that this dog was starving and also seriously injured. In fact he’d seen that the dog had a big, gaping hole in his nose! I went on home that evening, not being able to get the fuzzy, melancholy and surreal picture of this poor dog out of my mind! In fact, I determined that if I got the chance, I would try to save this dog.

The next day, on my way to work, I stopped by and asked the homeless man if he could get the dog. He said, he had a rope and thought that he could get him when he came by for some food and to visit with he and his dog, as he often did. The dog was wary of people, but somehow knew that the homeless man and his dog were no threat.

So, as I left work (a bit early that day), my thoughts were with this poor, emaciated and injured dog, who I never really got a good look at, and wondering if I could help him. Could I save him? As my car angled off of the highway and down the hill of the exit ramp, I could see the homeless man and there he was… with two dogs; his dog and also, there at the end of the tattered and fraying rope, the dog who was later to be named, Clancey.

I got out of the car and was horrified and appalled to see the extent of this poor dog’s injuries! How could this dog even be alive, I wondered? You could see his ribs and the gaping hole in his face, was so startling, I could hardly believe my eyes. I took a few quick photos of his awful condition and then we opened my car door to the back seat and hoisted, a weakened Clancey inside on the blanket I’d placed there on the seat for him... and then we were off to my vet’s office as fast and safely as I could drive us there. I had precious cargo, indeed. As I looked in the rear view mirror, I sensed a relief in this sweet dog, so near death. He seemed to be content in the warm car. I told him, “You’re going to be ok. You’re safe now.” I like to think he understood me.

Once at the vet’s office, Clancey followed me dutifully (and I think, thankfully) into the warmth of the waiting room. We were soon in an exam room and as we waited for the doctor to come in, I looked down at his sweet and trusting, but bewildered face, wondering how anyone could pass by this dog and not help him. Too, I wondered what Clancey was thinking.

When the vet came in I told him I wanted to do all I could to help this poor dog. All his vaccinations, tests and an operation to close up the hole in his nose were planned. I told the vet he should have “everything he needs” to get well again. Clancey was to be boarded for about a week after his operation. His stay at the vets was about two weeks, total.

That was, two weeks out of the cold and off of the mean streets… now receiving medical care, regular meals and a soft blanket to lay on…. now protected from the hard and cold world that he’d so recently come from. Clancey was no longer abandoned, no longer alone and no longer on his own. Now, someone cared. Finally, someone came to help him.

Meantime, fate put me in touch with Carol, a wonderful, compassionate doggie advocate and pure angel (and unbeknownst to any of us at the time…his future mom!). Carol was co-director of Tassie’s Hope Animal Rescue (http://www.tassieshope.org/), and although she had many other foster dogs at her home, she kindly agreed to foster Clancey, too. This was “a real God-send”, since being at my limit with dogs at my house; I didn’t know where I could keep Clancey so he could recuperate! This was another piece of the Divine puzzle.

Turns out, that as time went on, and now after four years, this wonderful dog, Clancey has become a much loved and integral part of Carol and her husband Gary’s life and family. This sweet dog, Clancey who had, literally, no hope and no one in life, finally did receive the miracle that I prayed for him: a committed, responsible and loving forever home! I’m sure Clancey would not have lasted one more day on the cold and lonely streets; he was in such bad shape. But that cold, gray November day, a miracle did happen. I had the privilege and honor to save a precious, wonderful dog’s life… It was one of the most important and meaningful experiences of my life. I feel like I was the lucky one!

Clancey is a part of us, now and always will be – he’s a very special dog ---an unlikely hero in our hearts. What a privilege to have this wonderful dog in our lives!
And that is how Clancey came into my life and the life of his mom, Carol and his dad, Gary… both of whom just adore him.