Rusty

Most of you already know that our dog Rusty has been diagnosed with Leukemia. It's really chance that we discovered it and I am so thankful that we caught it when we did. Those of you who know me well know that my animals are also my children, they just have fur instead of hair and four legs instead of two. 

     I have always heard (as weird as it may sound to some of you) that if you notice a change in your dogs breath, it could be cancer. So in February I was at home one day and was thinking about how Rusty's breath had gotten worse. I thought yes, a bit eccentric but I would take him to the vet just to have it checked out. Turns out, I was right and wrong. His bad breath was mainly due to built up plaque on his back teeth, but when the blood panel results came back, his white cell count was high. This of course can mean many different things including infections, etc. So, we tried a few different meds for different possible things but to no avail. We went to the vet the month after and had another panel run. His white count was higher. Boo! Then we had another blood panel run and the sample sent to Colorado University. They specialize in veterinary cases.

When the tests came back from that, he had high lymphocyte counts and white blood cell counts. After we got these results we were referred to a veterinary internal specialist in Columbia. We met with the doctors there back in July and had Rusty's blood panel run AGAIN. His CBC count was 18,000 and his Lymphocyte count was 13,000. It was concluded that he did in fact have Leukemia and so we started him on chemotherapy (I can see some of you rolling your eyes but that's okay!). Since we caught it so early, we are able to put him on a pill form of chemo which he now takes every other day. He doesn't show that he feels any different than before. Chemo from my understanding rarely shows side effects in animals and nothing like it does in humans. 

I took Rusty back to the specialist right after Thanksgiving to have another blood panel run since he's been on chemo for 3 months. GREAT NEWS! When the results came back, his CBC count was down to 6,700 from 18,000, and his Lymphocyte count was down to 2,300 from 13,000!!!! Please continue to keep him in your prayers! We go back at the beginning of March to have another panel run and I will keep you updated! Thanks for all the prayers you have already said and please continue to do so!