Ceilidh's Journey - Week 10

Tomorrow, 21 Apr 2010 will mark 3 months since Ceilidh's surgery to remove a mast cell tumour from her left hind inner thigh. Not a great anniversary to recall but so far she is doing well, although she has some issues with the medications including some diarrhea, some appetite changes and at times seems very fatigued.

Last Thursday 15 Apr 2010, we went to see Dr Beltran, a holistic vet at Blair Animal Hospital. A 90 minute consult, that was very overwhelming. He took a complete history of any medical problems she has had, did a complete physical and an acupressure physical. He also did a mini-Darkfield, a live blood analysis. He said that she was quite strong except for some stress in her large bowel. The Darkfield test indicated that she had eaten and she hadn't so he thought perhaps she wasn't metabolizing food efficiently.

He put her on a vitamin supplement, L-glutamine and arginine for her GI tract . He also gave us HMF powder, a probiotic, which is supposed to help with the diarrhea. The diet that was recommended was vegetarian (root vegetables) with high quality protein preferably turkey, lamb or fish ( but no tuna or tilapia). Ceilidh also got a B12 vitamin shot.

Dr Beltran also asked me, if and when I'm comfortable to talk to Dr Bravo, our veterinary oncologist about taking her off prednisone and possibly reducing the chemo drug, Palladia. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with that, I wanted the holistic treatment to complement the standard protocol but not to replace it. If Ceilidh has severe side effects to the drugs, I would consider just holistic treatment.

But despite everything, she still seems happy and, for the most part, very energetic especially in the agility ring. I sent in her entry for the 2010 Ontario Agility Regionals this week. I only entered her in the warm-up games and the Regional events. I don't want her to be overly stressed by the event. She ran well this past weekend despite having some diarrhea. We didn't get any Q's but had a good Jumpers run with only 5 faults and two good openings to her Gambles.

Last weekend, she was in five events and had a wonderful opening in the Gamblers getting 36 points including the mini Gamble which was a teeter out to a tunnel followed by the chute. She also got her first All Level Team Q with a Golden named Tessa. She also had a great time jumping off the teeter in Standards which came before the Gamblers event.

Hopefully the next month will see her remain happy and healthly. Enjoy every day, life is just too short.