Buzzupdate

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Buzz had his iv chemo (vincristine) on Tuesday.

He's doing ok. Picky about eating, so I know all is not well, but for a cancer dog who just got his chemo, he's fine.

The weird thing that happened isn't about the chemo.

He's been on enalapril for the last few months. It is a blood pressure drug. He doesn't have a problem with his blood pressure, but he spills protein into his urine, and enalapril messes with the pressure around a kidney's glomeruli -- raising it on one side and lowering it on the other side of the glomeruli, which hinders the protein-spilling. At least that's how I understand it.

Buzz has always, his whole life, on occasion wandered into the other room at night to pee.

For the first few months of this year, I got up with him at least once essentially every single night to let him out. And still there would sometimes be pee on the floor. Sigh.

The enalapril was like a miracle. Dried him right up. No more peeing on the floor, no more eager to go out in the middle of the night. On the enalapril, if I get up, myself, in the middle of the night, and ask him if he wants out, he declines, almost always.

In addition, I think he just feels better. Before the enalapril, I think he felt about 95%, 97%, something like that. Of how I would expect him, at his age (11 in Sept) to feel. On the enalapril, he is 100%. That last bit of "not quite right" gone; just all-ok.

We are totally loving this........................

Anyway. The enalapril came in 10 mg tabs, and he's supposed to have 5 mg twice a day.

Naturally they are not scored. My pill-splitter is old, and only rarely gets a nice even split. I was splitting each pill, breaking off the end of the bigger "half" with my fingernails, and putting that with the smaller "half"............... Not the least bit precise or scientific.............. Though I did give him both "halves" of a pill on the same day, rather than splitting a whole bunch of pills ahead of time. At least he was getting 10 mg a day.....

I mentioned the difficulty splitting the pills to the vet, who said it comes in 5 mg tabs.

So when I (well *Buzz*) needed a refill, I asked for the 5 mg tabs. Which, of course, are scored............ (And white, where the 10 mg ones are pink....)

Anyway, he had one 5 mg tab morning and evening, instead of ~half of a 10 mg tab, starting on Monday the 14th. And he started peeing on the floor again.

Sigh.

After the second time we found pee, I went back to the vet and said "Thank you eversomuch for the 5 mg tabs, but I suspect and fervently hope they don't work, and I would like more 10 mg ones. Please."

Did I mention that they cost the same per pill, so the 10 mg ones get you twice as many days for the same dollars? Not a very big deal since 100 are $16, but still.

We got some more good old pink ones last Monday, and, knock on wood, so far that very wood (comprising our floors!) has been dry all night, every night. YAY.

Now it was hotter last week than it has been, so *maybe* he was drinking more, blah, blah, blah, but...... I didn't think he seemed quite right. And then he started peeing on the floor.............

Cross your fingers for us that it's really the pills, and now that we're back to the pink ones, all will be, well, rosy. And dry.

And if all is rosy, and dry, I'll be going back to the vet and buying pink ones out as far as their expiration date will allow! Just in case............ Just in case the formulation for the pink ones gets changed to that of the white ones. Or something.

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