A Bad Scare

After discovering that I was giving Ruggles far too much artemisinin I decreased it from a whopping 800 mg to 100 mg for the next four days, hoping I wasn't too late to have avoided lasting damage to other organs.

18th July: Starts to Lose Appetite

The fourth day with less artemisinin Ruggles worried me by getting tough to feed. Otherwise he was the same dog as before, although perhaps more affectionate, and I could feel no lumps. He was also no longer coughing, a sign that the lumps inside him were still down.

But Ruggles has always been a greedy dog on the lookout for more food and this lack of interest was uncharacteristic in the extreme.

July 19th: Still Not Eating..

There were still no lumps, but Ruggles wouldn't finish his food. He has become hyper-aware of supplements in his feed.

The K-9 Immune and Transfer Factor tablets arrived. But Ruggles wouldn't finish his food with the powder added and wouldn't eat the tablets. At least he'd had some of the immune booster.

20th July: Blood in His Stool

Ruggles woke me up constantly, needing to go to the bathroom. Even though I'd left the back door open, he still went several times on the carpet.

There was a lot of blood in his stool and I was terrified: this had to be because I'd given him too much artemisinin and it had damaged his vital organs. I gave him no more artemisinin.

Ruggles is now refusing to eat any white meat. Eventually I persuaded him to eat a little bolognese sauce with minced beef mixed with the K-9 powder.

At midday he ate fried minced beef with no added supplements.

In the evening he ate some more plain fried beef. He also lapped up some honey and yoghurt. I was feeling more hopeful.

21st July: Starts to Eat a Little

Pooped on carpet again, but there was less blood in his stool. It was still very worrying, and even more so when he refused to eat any more fried beef with K-9 in it.

At midday Ruggles was still refusing to eat, but drinking a great deal. Points to kidney problems, I think.

11:16 p.m. He ate some more bolognese sauce with 2 K-9 powders in it and one Transfer Factor tablet (needed to help the K-9 work). It was an improvement.

Midnight: Ruggles ate some more of the honey and yoghurt mix. I know he shouldn't eat sweet stuff because the cancer feeds on it, but I wanted him to have the probiotic benefits of the live yoghurt and I put more K-9 in it.

22nd July: No Blood in Stool and Has an Appetite!

6:30 a.m. This morning Ruggles was sitting up outside instead of moping indoors. He came running when I called him and was eager to eat something. Still drinking a lot. I bent down to pat him and he licked me on the nose. It's been a long time since he did that!

6:45 a.m. Greedily ate two bowls of minced beef with bolognese sauce with 2 K-9 powders mixed in (he needs 4 a day).

After that he flopped down by the AC. It's going to be another hot day (it's been in the 90s for several weeks).

There was one small accident on the carpet WITH NO BLOOD IN IT!

He is also no longer panting as he used to do. I hope that means he's not in pain and generally more comfortable.

I left him looking relaxed.

There has probably been some kidney damage: I just hope it's healing enough to take advantage of the immmune powders to prevent more cancer lumps.