Is she depressed? Next steps...

This morning, Presley would not get up and it scared the hell out of me. When Diesel woke me up at around the usual time of 6:15AM for potty time and breakfast, Presley was laying halfway on Diesel's bed up against the wall, but she wouldn't budge.

I tried to coax her with treats to get her to sit up, but again she just stayed still. I petted her for a bit talking to her and she just stared straight ahead, breathing very slightly. I thought she was dying right before me. Her eyes were dull and lifeless as she stared straight ahead. She did close her eyes for a little but then she opened them slowly, still staring.

I woke Scott up and he was able to get her out of bed. She went potty and had a dry coughing fit before drinking some water, eating her breakfast and taking her meds. We all sat in the living room for a couple hours and she seemed fine as she lay on her cushion with her piggy and Furcedes.

I thought maybe she was a little depressed and just did not want to get out of bed this morning. Depression is very common in dogs who have undergone major surgery. The dry, hacking cough is a little disconcerting. And Diesel is doing it too. Presley only seems to cough after getting up. Once she is up and about, she seems fine.

Later in the day, I called OVRS to follow up on the biopsy results. Dr. Riggs is out of town so I spoke to oncologist, Dr. Sauerbrey, who confirmed that the tumor is a sarcoma, most likely osteosarcoma, just as Dr. Bannink and Dr. Riggs had diagnosed. She said we can start chemo when Presley gets her stitches out next week. I rescheduled her suture removal for Wednesday at 11:30AM so we can get the stitches out and start chemo on the same day.

On Wednesday, they will do a blood test to check her blood count, especially the white blood cells. Then, she'll be on an I/V catheter drip of Carboplatin for about 20 minutes. Possible side effects are GI upset and decrease in white blood cell count.

Then, in three weeks she will have another I/V drip of Adriamycin, which may also cause GI upset. They may also recommend supplements to offset the GI upset and perhaps an antibiotic.

This protocol will alternate for a total of six sessions (three of each) at three-week intervals. Dogs do not react to chemo like people do. They do not lose their hair and the nausea generally isn't as bad.

Later in the afternoon, we all took a car ride over to my mom's house. Presley stayed in the van but Dakota and Christine came out to say hello. Presley really seemed to enjoy the car ride. She kept wanting to stand up to look out the window.

When we got home, she took a brief nap (snoring softly -- so cute.) At dinner time, she went potty, ate her dinner, took her meds. She has seemed pretty bright and alert all evening. I think she was getting cabin fever and really needed some fresh air and a change of scenery.

I'm definitely going to monitor her cough. I hope this is not a sign of the lung mets (metastases). Her chest x-rays taken last week and four weeks earlier have all been clear, although the mets could be microscopic.

Dogs can live for a long time with tumors in their lungs but eventually the tumors will get so large that breathing is too labored. The cough could be kennel cough, allergies or maybe fluid in her lungs from laying down so much. If it continues or gets worse, we will have to take her to the vet sooner than Wednesday.