Two Months and Counting

In just a few hours, we'll be celebrating two months since Harvey's splenectomy. That's still within the window of time for average survival rates without chemotherapy for dogs with HSA (1 to 3 months, typically), but it's two months longer than the emergency vet thought we'd have.
Harvey's doing very well, now that I'm cooking for him. Frank's a little envious, I think. :) Harv decided he didn't care for the canned cancer diet - after we bought 3 cases of the stuff, of course. It's always concerning when a cancer dog stops eating, so I tried cooking up some ground beef, broccoli and eggs and he gobbled it up. I'm alternating that with chicken and adding liver as a "dessert", so he's really happy at mealtime now.

For those who may be interested in our protocol for Harvey, he's taking:

astragalus - for immune system support
milk thistle - for liver health
essiac tea - also for immune support
yunnan baiyao - a blood clotting chinese herb
hoxsey formula - an alternative cancer treatment
dok's formula - for hind quarter weakness (a remnant of his back surgery two years ago)
neoplasene - our primary cancer treatment
electroacupuncture every two weeks

We'll have an ultrasound and x-rays done at the 3 month mark to make sure there's no metastasis going on.

Hemangiosarcoma can be a very deceiving disease. Seemingly healthy dogs can be taken very quickly with no warning, so we're still watching our boy closely for any symptoms that could indicate an internal bleed (pale gums, lethargy, fluid buildup in the chest or abdomen). As all pet-parents who've received a life threatening diagnosis with their pet, we're hoping and praying that Harvey is an exception to all the "rules" of HSA and beats the odds by a wide margin!