Hi our 3-legged friends:
Well, it seems wild that it’s already been 2 weeks since Finn’s amputation. I won’t sugar coat anything for you either, it hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped. I honestly feel like the first week was cake compared to how the last 7 days have been. Most of it has been due to pain management issues and trying to figure out the timing/dosage of his meds and getting him comfortable. He also continues to have trembling in the muscle at his incision site. Talking to the vet and reading lots here, it seems like it might just be nerves regenerating/mis-firing and not necessarily painful for him.
He got his stitches out Friday and his incision site is looking great. We also discussed with the vet on Friday what I’d like to do for Finn’s treatment – with their consideration, of course. After doing a lot of research and contacting the doctor in charge of the Yale immunotherapy clinical trial, we are going to do the immunotherapy vaccine before starting chemo. The thought there being we would get the immune response established first. I am a firm believer in getting the body “primed” to fight the cancer. We are still waiting on Finn’s histopath report to come back from his surgery, but as soon as diagnosis is confirmed, we will do the vaccination. After the first vaccination, he will have another at week 3, and can then start chemo a week after the second dose. I know this path forward is a crapshoot but I don’t feel we have much to lose right now.
In the meantime, I am continuing to make batches of bone broth (using grass-fed beef center cut marrow bones) for him and have also added an immune system booster supplement to the mix. Oh, and lots of massages and love. Hopefully we can get his body ready to kick the cancer for as long as possible!
Xx and slobbery Finn kisses
Hi Casey! Finn looks so sharp with his Tripawds medallion! The video of him is amazing – he looks so strong! It sounds like you have a solid plan for Finn’s treatment. I agree with your thinking about the vaccine before the chemo, but I didn’t even know about the clinical trial until you joined this site (thank you!) and by then, Griffin already started chemo. Are you going to the clinic in Connecticut? If so, I’ll look forward to reading your updates so I know what to expect. Sending healing vibes to Finn from Griffin and me! ~ Stacy
Thank you, Stacy! You and Griffin are our inspiration! He is absolutely rocking the tripawd life!
We actually live in Cincinnati so going to the clinic isn’t feasible for us. We will have them mail it to our regular vet who will administer. I don’t think it will be much different other than I have to pay the donation. I will definitely keep you posted on the steps though. I’m just anxious to get his pathology report back at this point so we can get going!
Aww look at that snuggly boy, he is such a sweetheart.
I’m sorry things have been ruff. It is so tricky sometimes to get that pain management dialed in. You’ve made great progress though! Sounds like your vet team is pretty amazing.
Yes, the stump will twitch occasionally. It does that for Wyatt too, even ten years after amputation, and it’s not painful to him, he doesn’t even notice.
Your treatment plan sounds terrific! Would you mind sharing a direct link to the Yale vaccine information in another blog post? Unless you did and maybe I missed it? I want to make sure people know which vaccine you are referencing as there’s quite a few out there. Thanks so much.
And that bone broth you are making sounds terrific. Finn’s a lucky dawg 🙂
Love the Tripawd Power tag, I’m so glad you like it! Thanks for shopping with us 🙂 xoxo
I have a Dane/mastiff mix tripawd and we did the Yale study a couple of months ago! Fingers crossed it works! Good luck Finn 🙂