We had an epic summer, and if you are following Murphy on Instagram (Murphyformayor) you got a full play by play.
But in September, we just could not catch a solid poop. Sorry for the TMI, but if it helps another dog, I'll share it. Murphy's scans were coming back clear and there was nothing in his blood work "wrong" but he wasn't at 100%, and he seemed like he was slowing down.
I made an appointment with the holistic vet ahead of his next oncology scan just to see if we could fix his diet and settle into the "next phase" of Murphy being a 9-year-old dog. And then within the week, he really started to decline. We ended up in the emergency room, it was easy to take him and I figured at least we'd get some fluids. They did a scan in the emergency room. Nothing. Oncology did a follow-up scan. Still nothing.
None of us were sleeping. Murphy wasn't eating, and what he was eating...wasn't coming out very well. Then Murphy stopped eating & showing any interest in anything.
Dr Cronin suggested a colonoscopy ASAP. The "hope" was that it was IBD or IBS and not cancer. Unfortunately, the colonoscopy revealed it was left over cancer from last year. So the good news is that it's not different cancers or "back" or "everywhere". It's in the same spot where they found it in September 2020. So interestingly enough, we're on the EXACT same chemo schedule, every 3 weeks. Since Murphy responded well to MOPP, the idea is that you start it again. Last year we started in September. Finished in Feb. Here's hoping we do it again!
Follow the play by play on Instagram on "Murphyformayor"