Chemo for Maddie...

Yes, the Inflammatory Bowel Disease saga continues... Over the last six months or so, Maddie has been to the vet numerous times and was eventually diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease. There is no cure for the disease, but the symptoms can and need to be controlled. We have tried several different treatment options, but she is still waking us up at least once in the middle of the night to go outside and is pretty miserable with an "upset stomach" ALL of the time. After consulting vets at Texas A&M, we are now on to an immuno-suppression drug similar to chemotherapy. It's pretty scary stuff considering we have to wear gloves to give it to her! At this point, she is taking a steroid, a powder on her Rx food twice a day, and now this new drug. This was the last step of the action plan which we hoped not to get to, so this better work. She goes back in a week to make sure that her bone marrow is okay. She will need constant monitoring to make sure that she doesn't develop tumors from the drug. Our hope is that this will get her back to normal and then we can cut back to just the steroid again. Although the last year has been rough, she still has plenty of pep when we walk! She'll be ten years old June 1st!