Bonnie was very distraught when she found herself in a NH shelter after being picked up as a stray. For 14 days this petite senior girl barked, panted, and begged to be free. The shelter contacted NEESSR telling us that Bonnie (they name they gave her) had a medical issue that was beyond what they could handle and NEESSR only had a few days to decide if rescue could help. A month has passed. Bonnie has happily been in her cage-free foster home enjoying all the good things in life despite a large tumor in her lower mandible. Biospies and a series of other medical tests have resulted in a diagnosis of Acanthomatous Ameloblastoma -- a benign but aggressive lesion. Bonnie will be undergoing localized chemotherapy injections at Tufts in the hope that the tumor will regress and she will not have to have a large part of her lower jaw removed. This is a very sweet, pretty little Springer who is loved by all she meets. Bonnie tells us by the wiggle in her butt and the adorable way she seeks affection that she still has a lot of living to do and love to give. Please consider making a donation for her treatment....

10/12 - Bonnie had her first chemo treatment on 9/26. Bonnie did great today! Dr. Joo was very pleased that Bonnie came out of the anesthesia quickly, did not overly stress-out afterwards (maybe because of a month of crate training?), and didn't have excessive bleeding or swelling at the injection site. Dr. Joo doesn't anticipate that we will see any reduction of the tumor until after the third chemo treatment but she seemed very pleased with today's procedure.

Her second chemo treatment was yesterday, 10/11. Her foster mom reports she is doing well but did have some interesting behavior post-anesthesia which we believe was because they had to use different injectable sedatives due to the unavailability of the propofol they used the last time. Mostly she was just more agitated and whiney. The tumor has grown by 5mm but Dr. Joo again pointed out that we may not see any results until after the 3rd treatment. Also, she felt that the increase in size might be from the volume of chemo drugs injected the last time or could be due to tumor growth. Dr. Joo did tell me that the tumor seemed softer and it was easier to inject the drugs into.

Bonnie will be having her third treatment on 10/25. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

11/16 - Despite the challenge of getting from Nashua to Walpole during the Nor'easter, Bonnie had her 4th chemo treatment Thursday morning. She is tolerating the treatments and anesthesia very well and Dr. Joo commented on how much less stressed Bonnie is when kenneled post-procedure (we've been working very hard on her crate training). The tumor has not changed in size but the composition continues to change. Initially the tumor tissue was very hard and mineralized but is now much softer and thus Dr. Joo is able to inject the bleomycin into new areas on each visit. Bonnie's next chemo will be scheduled for the Wed. before Thanksgiving after which we will discuss how to proceed. Brighter news is that the Metacam seems to be working well for Bonnie's arthritis. Dr. Joo felt that Bonnie's whole demeanor was dramatically improved. Dr. Joo and the rest of the staff at Tufts have all grown very attached to sweet Bonnie. Hope you all can see this picture of Bonnie in her caterpillar costume. As you can see the old girl was not all that impressed with the whole Halloween thing!
Photo: Update on Bonnie: Despite the challenge of getting from Nashua to Walpole during the Nor'easter, Bonnie had her 4th chemo treatement Thursday morning. She is tolerating the treatments and anesthesia very well and Dr. Joo commented on how much less stressed Bonnie is when kenneled post-procedure (we've been working very hard on her crate training). The tumor has not changed in size but the composition continues to change. Initially the tumor tissue was very hard and mineralized but is now much softer and thus Dr. Joo is able to inject the bleomycin into new areas on each visit. Bonnie's next chemo will be scheduled for the Wed. before Thanksgiving after which we will discuss how to proceed. Brighter news is that the Metacam seems to be working well for Bonnie's arthritis.

12/01 - Bonnie had her 5th chemotherapy last Wednesday. Dr. Joo altered the procedure somewhat this time. She diluted the bleomycin a bit to increase the volume injected and thus potentially reach more of the tissues. Although Dr. Joo is a bit disappointed that we haven't seen any decrease in mass size she does feel that we are seeing significant changes in the mass (much more "squishy" - her word - and much less boney.) Dr. Joo's experience with this protocol involved tumors that started out much smaller and less boney. So -- the bottom line is that Dr. Joo feels that we would not be out of line to continue chemo as long as we are seeing changes. We spoke with Dr. Joo about the possibility of debulking the tumor and then continuing with chemo but she feels that at this point would prohibit her from being able to identify the "root" of the tumor in future chemo treatments (assuming we see a reduction in tumor size). We will continue the chemo, however if we don't see something more dramatic in the next month (2 treatments) we will look at other options.

12/06 - Bonnie had her 6th chemo injection today. Dr. Joo seemed pretty excited as we are finally seeing some actual shrinkage in the mass! Previous results have been a softening of the mass. Last time Dr. Joo tried a new strategy where she diluted the bleomycin with the hope that by increasing the volume injected into the mass the drug would reach more tissue. Looks like that may have worked. We are on unchartered ground here but as long as we are seeing positive changes in the mass the plan is to continue with the chemo. Bonnie's next chemo appointment is in 2 weeks. Meanwhile Bonnie wants John W. (one of Bonnie's friends on the NEESSR facebook page) to know that she is too a hunter! She was out chasing turkeys in Maine this past weekend.

Much to her chagrin it's turkeys 2 - Bonnie 0 - but she'll keep trying!

Sophie is a rescue who was returned because her owner couldn't handle her medical needs. Her ears are are badly infected. The vet is doing a culture and expects drug resistant rods of bacteria. She has a ruptured cyst on her back that is badly infected and a ruptured anal sac. She has a bad yeast hot spot on her neck and her eyes are oozing. Her feet are raw and she has inter digital cysts. The vet has drawn blood for allergy testing, a full panel for general health, and she's going to retest the thyroid since there was a previous diagnosis for hypothyroidism. Sophie will be on a special diet, and she was put under this past Thursday 4/28) to take care of the infected and ruptured cyst and anal sac and flush out her ears. The one good thing is that the trunk of her body is mostly ok and she is a very patient girl while she goes through all her treatment.

06/03 - The growth on Sophie's hind-end was benign, thank goodness. I couldn't begin to tell you what kinds of cells they were, but their best guess is that it all began as a hair ball hat became a cyst and got infected & then ruptured. No connection to the anal gland or any of those kinds of cells, what-so-ever. She said that this was a very strange and unusual thing, indeed. Its going down as a "ruptured cyst" in her records, I believe.

The ear still has the pseudomonas, but the good news is, that it is still sensitive to and should respond to the current ear drops. (Triz EDTA and Surolan.) Yay!! So--hopefully at her next check up, we will have some improvement on that front. :)

Her skin had 3 different things going on. The worst is a drug resistant Staph and the anti-biotic that she is currently on, (Ciprofloxacin) won't touch the Staph. So, the veterinarian is calling in another anti-biotic that is in the Sulpha family and hopefully that will kill the Staph. There can be GI side effects of vomiting & diarrhea and dry-eye, too (which she already suffers from in her right eye)--So, keep your fingers crossed that these aren't too bad. Given all that she has been through, I'm really surprised that she hasn't had a bit of diarrhea and she has only thrown up once, in the past month. She seems to have a pretty sturdy GI system, I guess. Thank goodness for some things going for her!

09/09 - Sophie's skin issues have required very regular visits to the vet and we have started her on Atopica. We have already spent over $1000 on her vetting and she will be seen next week by a dermatologist at Angell Memorial in hopes he can get her stabilized.

09/22 - Very encouraging visit with the super dermatologist at Angell! With the loving and diligent care provided by Sophie's foster family - and the very expensive meds ($$$$$) that NEESSR is providing - the prognosis is good. Sophie has improved a lot - but will have to stay on Atopica as well as a cocktail of other meds to get her at 100% good health. We will then work with the dermatologist to figure out how to keep her that way. Please consider contributing to help Sophie.

12/06 - Sophie's dedicated foster parents are pleased that there has been progress, but Sophie's ears are still not clear. Also - her lipfold infection has gotten worse and will require "nip and tuck" surgery. The hope is to remove those areas where all the nasty germs hide and allow for nice healthy skin. With the help of the veterinary specialists, we will continue the mission to GET SOPHIE HEALTHY. NEESSR has spent $4,500 on Sophie's vet bills and meds already. Donations towards her expenses would be gratefully accepted.

Sophie

04/16 - Well, there are changes in the road ahead for Sophie. She had a checkup with the vet last week and she is now in worse shape than when she first saw him. The food trial and atopica have not solved the problem and there are no more medical alternatives. In addition, she is showing signs of Cushing's Disease. She is having a Cushing's test today and will be seen for intake by a holistic vet on Monday, April 30. We are hoping that a change in treatment methods will bring the result we have long waited for.

04/22 - Sophie's Cushings test came back negative.

06/13 - It's been 2 months under holistic care and her foster mom reports Sophie's showing some improvement. She does not smell as badly as she did, and although her ears still have some gunk in them, they stay cleaner longer and do not look as bad. I can also tell that her ear canals have opened up quite a bit. When I cleaned her ears before, I could barely get my finger in her ear. Now it's much easier. She is also itching her face and body less. If I had to assign a percentage to her improvement, I would say she is about 40 percent better than she was. Her stool is normal now, and she is no longer drinking and urinating as much. I did ask the vet how long it might be before we notice more of an improvement, and she said with a dog like Sophie whose issues were so serious, it might be three months or so. Hang in there Sophie...we're all rooting for you!