Copper's Chemo Visit -- 3/27/2006

Copper had another great Chemo visit today! His blood cell count is normal, and he is still in remission!!
The Oncologyst wants me to consider Half-body radiation therapy because he is doing so well, and they believe that it will help put him into remission for up to 3 years. I have to do some research on this process before I decide if it is something we will do. The cost is $500 a half, or a total of $1000 for the treatment. He would continue to do his chemo schedule on top of this, so it would add an extra $1000 to the bill.

So if anyone has ever had this treatment or heard of this treatment, I'd appreciate your comments on the subject.

Here are the costs so far:
Recheck: $59.00
QBC or CBC In Hospital: $40.80
Chemotherapy injectable handling fee: $16.30
Vincristine (Chemo drug): $32.50
Chemotherapy Infusion: $21.30
Regulatory Agency Compliance Fee: $4.23
Total: $174.13

Grand Total: $1541.84

Copper's Chemo Visit -- 3/19/2006

Today, Copper went in for his Chemotherapy visit and is still in remission! This is wonderful news! He did lose a little weight (about 1/2 lb). I'm going to give him a little bit more food at dinner time and see if that helps.

Here is an update on the costs:

Recheck by oncologist -- $59.00
QBC or CBC in Hospital -- $40.80
Chemotherapy injectable handling fee -- $16.30
Cytoxan (Chemo drug) -- $50.00
Chemotherapy Infusion -- $23.30

Total for visit: $189.40

Grand Total So Far: $1367.71

Update on Copper

Besides reducing the size of Copper's lymph nodes, the Prednison has had some side effects on Copper. First, and the side effect that bothers him the most, is the fact that he is always hungry. He walks around looking for all kinds of food. He also has started eating poo... a behavior that I'm trying to stop.

He is also panting a lot, and he has been having a lot of gas.

The vet says that all of these are normal and not to worry about them.

Starvin' Copper

Copper has been feeling very good over the last couple of days, but boy is he hungry. He is following me around the house hoping for some food. I've never seen him so hungry! I'd give him a treat, and then he'd look at me with basset eyes, asking for another one.
The Prednison is the reason he is hungry. The drug tends to make him this way. I feel sorry for him, however, this drug is also helping him out as well, so I just have to watch what I feed him so he doesn't gain a whole bunch of weight.

Copper's Chemo Visit -- 3/13/06

I dropped Copper off for his first real Chemo visit today, and received good news...
Copper is in remission! This is great news! Hopefully this will continue! He is acting more like himself, but a lot more hungry due to the prednisone. I baked him some small little treats so that he can eat a few every now and then and I don't have to worry about him gaining too much weight.

Today, the visit was not as expensive as expected because of his remission. Here is a breakdown:
Recheck by oncologist -- $59.00
QBC or CBC in Hospital -- $40.80
Chemotherapy handling fee -- $16.30
Vincristine Injection -- $32.50 (Chemo drug)
Total: $152.83

Grand Total So Far: $1178.31

Copper is feeling better

Today, Copper is feeling more like himself than he has since I noticed he was ill last Saturday. He has been running around with the other bassets, and has even barked at the neighbor. However, I have noticed some changes in him that kind of worry me.

1. Because of the prednisone, he is drinking a lot more water than he usually does — which is not a problem — however, he has become very messy when drinking. Half of the water he drinks ends up on the floor rather than inside him. He will drain one bowl, and then drink out of the other bowl. I have put cloth place mats under the water bowls because the floor gets drenched!
2. He doesn’t have the energy to jump up on the furniture like he used to. He will put his front paws up on the couch or chair, and try to climb up using his hind legs. However, because he is so short, it doesn’t work, so he spends all of his time trying to get the leg up.
3. he seems to have lost some coordination. He will step over something on the floor, and end up falling over. For example, he will walk across the memory foam dog bed, and when he tries to walk off of it, he will fall over instead of walking.
   

I’m not sure if the loss of coordination stems from lack of energy, or from something in his brain that isn’t telling his legs to do things right. At this point, I think it is lack of energy for other than the problems listed above, he appears to be understanding things quite well. I plan to bring these things up with the oncologist when I take him for his appointment on Monday.


Copper pushing down the couch pillows so he can lay on them. First time he has done this in over a week.

Costs so far

Copper's treatment is not going to be cheap, so I felt it important to include the costs in his blog.
Here is what I have spent so far:
March 6th:
On March 6th, I took Copper to the vet because he was not feeling well.

• Cytology - IDEXX -- $95.75
• General Chem Panel -- $98.05
• Urinalysis -- $37.50
• Vet Visit -- $48.00
• Collection fees -- $34.50
• Total: $313.80

March 8th:
The vet confirmed that he had lymphoma and said that we needed to take x-rays so that we could see what was going on inside him

• X-rays -- $261.90

March 9th:
This was my first visit to the oncologist

• Oncology Consultation -- $138.00 (at least she spent a good hour with me)
• Immunophenotyping -- $120.00 (to find out if it is B cell or T cell)
• Chemotherapy injectable handling fee -- $16.30
• Elspar -- $136.00 (Chemo drug)
• Dex Sod Phos 4mg/ml -- $30.25 (Chemo Drug)
• Prednisone -- $19.23
• Total: $449.78

Total so far: $1025.48

Signs that Copper had lymphoma

While Copper's lymphoma came on quite sudden, there were some signs that he had a problem. The lymph nodes throughout his body were enlarged. While the graphic I made of the basset is not to scale, it should help anyone who wants to feel their bassets lymph nodes. If you feel the areas where I have put the pale blue dots, and feel any bumps, you probably should have your vet take a look at the basset hound. With Copper, all of the nodes throughout his whole body were enlarged, had I known what to look for, I might have been concerned sooner. But then again, the vet said that it can come on very quickly, so I might not have felt anything.

The reason I took Copper to the vet in the first place was because he was panting, breathing heavily and was lethargic. I knew something was wrong, but what it was I could not tell.

Copper's Story

I rescued Copper the basset hound several years ago when his family gave him up due to a divorce. I rescued Copper the basset hound several years ago when his family gave him up due to a divorce. Copper came with some medical baggage. He has epilepsy, and from the minute he came into my house, I could tell that he had been over medicated. He tended to lay round the house and sleep a lot, which is not really typical for a basset hound.
I had some blood tests done and got his medication regulated, and found that Copper had a very silly and calculating personality.
In future posts, I'll share some of Copper's antics. I'm sure they will make you chuckle.

On March 8, 2006, Copper was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. He had not been feeling well over the weekend, so I took him to the vet on Monday March 7th. The vet felt his lymph nodes and found that the majority of them were enlarged. So tests were run. The tests came back confirming her suspicions, so x-rays were taken, and an appointment was made for him to see an oncologist. The oncologist reviewed all of the paper work and recommended that he start chemo-therapy. He was given his first treatment during the visit. He goes back on Monday, March 13th.
While Chemo is very expensive, after talking to the Doctor, I felt that he deserved to be given the chance to live for another year which is the doctors best guess at his life span. I plan to conduct lots of research on lymphoma in animals and see if there are other things that can be done to prolong his life. The one thing I will not do is to try and prolong his life if he cannot have a good quality life.