Last Thursday I took blind Helen over to our vet clinic in Helena to start her chemotherapy. We had waited an additional week for one more lab report to come back — an immunohistochemistry. Because Helen had lost a leg last year to fibrosarcoma, and the initial pathology on one of the growths our vets removed a couple of weeks ago indicated it was an anaplastic sarcoma, the immunohistochemistry would tell us the "cell of origin" to see if there was a common link between the two. This would help the oncologist select the best chemotherapy drug.
Well, the report came back and only served to complicate matters — the pathologists believed that one of the other growths our vets removed was actually a melanoma … so we had a veritable menu of cancers. Based on that information, the oncologist at Washington State University, Dr. Janean Fidel, recommended that our clinic administer the chemotherapy drug adriamycin to Helen.
We had used the same chemo drug for Shiloh, one of our personal dogs who had developed hemangiosarcoma in 2007. It was pretty rough sledding for Shiloh after each treatment — about 24 to 48 hours later he'd get sick from it — but so far Helen has tolerated her initial course just fine.
I took these photos of Helen getting her chemo at the clinic. I think she actually fell asleep during much of it. An hour later, she was back in the truck — along with Gabe — and we were headed up MacDonald Pass on the way home to the ranch.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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