Making sense of canine healthcare

.....................................CALEB......................................


The medical world has always been a mystery to me – all those hundred dollar words (and hundred dollar prescriptions), complications, interactions, and contraindications. Increasingly, though, I have been leaning toward alternate health care both for myself and my animals as I learn more and more about the effectiveness of such treatments as homeopathy and acupuncture, and the inherent problems (not to mention expense) of pharmaceutical treatments. Educating ourselves on healthcare alternatives, advocating for our own treatment, and seeking out solutions for the health problems we face is each person's responsibility - the doctors are merely one resource we can use in the quest for comfort, wellbeing and longevity.

Nowhere has this become clearer to me than dealing with Caleb’s cancer. Although I have a great conventional vet, I am also reading everything I can and consulting a holistic vet in an effort of give Caleb the greatest quality of life for whatever time he has left. But talk about confusing! Probiotics, prebiotics, transfer factor, digestive enzymes, Essiac tea, immune enhancers, immune suppressors, vitamin this and vitamin that, and so on and so on and so on. Trying to figure out what Caleb should get, when he should get it, in what dosage, is enough to make my head spin.

Caleb has been on prednisone for five weeks now, in an attempt to shrink the cancers. His lymph nodes have decreased from golf ball size to the point where my unprofessional touch can no longer feel them. So Tuesday I had the bloodwork repeated, thinking that it would help clarify if we had successfully kicked those nasty cancer cells into remission. Today I got the call with the results, only to discover that the bloodwork can’t answer that question. What it does tell me is that the white cell count is still about the same, but the kidney tests show a bit of a problem – slightly above the acceptable range, where it was within range before.

So now I get to chase Caleb around the yard (which is a foot deep in slushy, heavy, slippery snow) trying to catch his pee in a cup so we can check it out. Right. I’ll be really skilled at that, with my less-than-stellar balance, bad back, and somewhat overweight bulk. Obviously the vet has never seen Caleb racing like a demon around my yard, snow or no snow.

I suppose next they will tell me the elevated kidney readings are the result of the high protein diet he is on (a common argument used by those that don’t like high protein dog foods). However, carbs and sugars feed cancer cells, so foods with fillers (most dog foods contain tons of corn) are out of the question. I guess I’m going to become a rawfood or homecook convert yet. As it is, I have more food in the fridge for the animals than for myself. Belle's pancreatitis requires different foods than Caleb's cancer, and sensitive-tummy Charley requires something else again. My dogs need a personal chef, and I seem to have been elected.

As for the cancer, a definitive answer would require another aspiration of a lymph node and possibly a repeat of the xrays and ultrasounds which led to the diagnosis before – a $1000 day and a trip into Vancouver through rush hour traffic. Oh joy.

Sigh……..I really think those of us who dote on our dogs should be able to claim them as dependents, at least on our health care plan if not on our income tax. And I’m pretty sure my dogs would agree.