After that first chemo experience, I was sick over the thought that my poor dog was going to have to endure all of that and then face a week of nausea, fatigue, & refusing food as a result of the treatment. Well, thank goodness, that didn’t happen. 

NC State sent us home with Zofran (Ondansetron) & Cerenia — both to treat nausea & lack of appetite, so that we could “get out in front of it.” We only gave her the Cerenia and just for 3 days, so there’s no way to know if the chemo side effects would have been worse, but all I can say is that it wasn’t that bad.

The worst was Day 2. She was a little lethargic & kind of “dazed,” but I think that was more due to the sedation on the treatment day. She’s never reacted well to sedation — it just seems to hit her especially hard & takes longer than it should to wear off. She also had some loose poops, & think that was due to the stress of the experience. She was prescribed metronidazole for that, which seemed to do the trick. Day 3 was much better, and by Day 4, she was racing brother Wolfy in our friends’ pool — and beating him. 👇

Whew. What a relief.

Note: As a general rule, it seems that NC State insists on sedating all dogs for chemo, even if they’re low-key. I get it for hyper dogs…it’d be too risky, obviously — but if your dog is chill, it shouldn’t be necessary — and it wasn’t when we took her to a different clinic for chemo. I will write more on this soon.