Syd is doing so-so. He had his last chemo treatment 10/2/03. Last Sunday 10/5/03, he refused to eat his dinner, but he would eat hot dogs. Monday did the same thing. Monday night tried to get him to eat and he only ate half his small portion that he normally gets. Monday night, we woke up to him having gut wrenching dry heaves. I fed him some liquid pepto bismol in a hot dog and he seemed to sleep better. But Tuesday morning he would not eat again. My husband went to the store and got a completely different brand of canned dog food for him and he snarfed it right up! So he must have been sick of his other dog food all of a sudden.
For the past week, he also has been moaning and crying a lot more than he has been. He has also thrown up just a little bit here and there besides the dry heaves. He ate fairly decent Wednesday, but Thursday my husband asked what I fed him because he threw up a bunch of mucous looking liquid. I called the oncologist and she said maybe the chemo was just catching up to him and to stop giving him his 2 pills for 2 days (the pill he's on the clinical trial for...either a placebo or piroxicam), let him have just 2 spoonfuls of food and if he kept that down, to give him a little bit of water, not much and if he kept that down, I could start gradually feeding him again.
Yesterday morning, we gave everyone a large raw chicken thigh/leg for breakfast. Syd seemed fine. Last night before we left for a birthday party, we gave all the dogs some beef kidneys and were going to feed him when we got home. We fed everyone later than normal (around 8:30pm instead of 5:30-6:00pm) and Syd ate all his dinner. But once again, about 3:10am, I got woke up to him having those gut wreching dry heaves again. I gave him pepto once more and laid down beside him and he fell asleep. He didn't wake me up again, but I did find a small spot where he had thrown up in the other room. I called my vet to see what we could give him that was a little stronger than pepto and he said that he would give me melclopromide (he said that's like regulan....sorry, not good at spelling) to give him 3x per day for 7 days. He said sometimes when they start not liking their food or even eating just smaller amounts, they will feel good, but their stomachs will get all that acid churning because the food isn't there and will cause them to vomit. But I thought that was weird that of all the times he has dry heaved, it didn't matter what time we fed them (early like at 5:30-6:00pm or 8:30pm), he would dry heave at almost the same time every time (around 3:10-4:10am). The oncologist also said I could give him a bland meal for a day or two by cooking up some rice or some something that is bland.
Another thing I've noticed and wondered if this was normal. After he gets his treatments, he smells funny. I know that is part of the chemicals they give him. But the past few days since he hasn't been eating well and dry heaving, I noticed the he smells stronger than he normally does. Would that just be the chemicals building up in his system? I'm guessing it is. I did follow him as he was pooping today and while one of the stools was a little loose, it was not dark and tarry, but normal brown.
So that's how it's going so far with Syd. He's been doing well, but the crying more frequently (which could also be a ploy to get me to lay down beside him) and the dry heaving and throwing up more concerns me. My husband did say he was downstairs and he heard Syd upstairs just crying away. He kept checking on him and Syd would wag his tail. About the 3rd time of doing this, my husband told him if he wanted down here to come down and Syd did. He came down and laid down by my husband and went to sleep. So I think a lot of it maybe is him not feeling good and just wants comforted?? Geez, I thought we had gotten through the crying/moaning stage!!!
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