Josie's Grooming Garage

01/29/2025

❤️ Teddy & Rue ❤️

01/25/2025

Dinner is always quite the production when you have 5 dogs of ypur own but, adding another 4 house guests makes it even crazier!!
🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚🍚 Nine happy dogs though!!!

01/20/2025

Last Thursday we went to the oncologist. I was hopeful and optimistic but those feelings were quickly dashed by the statement I have heard far too often lately... "There's nothing we can do." Kaeto's case of HSA has presented quite uniquely. Generally, it presents as a mass on an organ (commonly spleen or heart) and then spreads to other parts of the body. The mass on Kaeto's spleen was tested and retested but no HSA cells were found. The smaller mass near his sublumbar lymph node is what tested positive for HSA. The oncologist wasn't quite sure what to make of this but she made it pretty clear the normal route of surgery and chemo wasn't viable. The mass can't be removed... She said chemo could be done but it would be a matter of possibly buying weeks, not months or years, and she didn't recommend it. Chemo is administered in office via IV where I would have to leave him. He'd need blood work often and imaging requiring sedation. He'd hate it. Further complicating his case is the fact he has a MDR1 Medication Sensitivity and limits the type of chemo that can be used and increases the liklihood of adverse reactions.

We are six weeks post splenectomy. He looks great, he moves very well, and he's even jumping on the couch. His current condition gives me hope, but I know there are no miracle cures for this awful disease. Hearing over and over that "there's nothing we can do" can be quite demoralizing but I refuse to give up. There may be nothing *conventional* the veterinary community can offer us but we continue with his fresh diet, herbal supplements, pain management, and overall focus on wellness. He has already out lived many burdened by this diagnosis.

This journey has created a lot of frustration with the veterinary profession... Having to seek multiple opinions just for a diagnosis started it. The unuseable xrays I paid hundreds for, the wait lists, being told I need to pay a fourth office visit fee just to discuss palative care, to the lack of pre-screening by the oncologist, all of it. Even though the oncologist had every single chart note, image, pathology report, history, and medication list they still had me come in for a consult that cost hundreds. Before we walked in they knew he wasn't a candidate for treatments. I work in healthcare, I know these are businesses too. Some of these things just don't feel right to me. I don't mean to overgeneralize. The surgeon that performed Kaeto's splenetomy was amazing and the one that finally diagnosed him. I am just frusterated(/needed to vent) and wanted to remind all of not to be afraid to advocate for your pets, your self and loved ones. I've never been afraid to fight.

We will continue to fight as long as he wants. He doesn't look sick and he doesn't act like it so we fight on.

01/15/2025

One month til Valentine's Day!
Hunny

01/15/2025

Never too late to have a happy new year!
Louie, Ella and Emma

01/14/2025

Thank you all for being on this journey with Kaeto and I. Everyone has been amazingly supportive with words of encouragement and understanding. He is doing extremely well so far. His diet is all fresh now and he's on several supplements/Chinese herbs. We were actually able to find an appointment with a veterinary oncologist and we go this Thursday to learn what options are available. Having been thru chemotherapy with one dog already I am uncertain about going thru it again...
Trying to take any positive out of this process, I will say I am paying more attention to ingredients and nutrients in food. It's really astonishing what's allowed in our foods! Kaeto is on a low carb. Here he is supervising me in the kitchen. All day Sunday was spent prepping meals for him and us.

01/13/2025

I have followed this story for awhile... you don't want to know details. I am in shock he is allowed to continue to practice.

Send a message to learn more

01/09/2025

Good boy Cleetus has a message for all of you:

🎆HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! 🎆

01/08/2025

Happy 2025 to all! May you be as happy as Guinea Pig rolling in literally everything...
I owe many of you a reply to schedule but, don't worry, I am getting there!! Today was my first day back to work in about three weeks and we had a change in IT companies in the meantime. 😵‍💫 So, it's been a bit of chaos today and I was only able to access work schedules now. I'll be sending replies tomorrow. 📨 Thanks for everyone's patience. 💌

12/31/2024

Having to write this pi**es me off... but, I don't have time for the emotions right now.

12/26/24 Kaeto's histopath results came back as evident for cancer. The rear mass near his lymph node (the inoperable one) showed evidence of hemangiosarcoma (HSA) and the splenic mass was indeterminate. If you know about HSA I'm sorry, because that likely means you've had experience with it. In the veterinary community this is basically a death sentence with weeks to a couple months to live. I was given no hope and was only told, "just keep him comfortable."

F* #& THAT!!!!!

He isn't ready to give up and neither am I.

Another blood cancer... I thought lymphoma and chemo with Zeke was horrible, but HSA is worse with little response to conventional cancer treatments. However, there are success stories out there. I've found a network of fighters that are informative and supportive.

I haven't stopped researching and networking to find alternative treatments. We've implemented a protocol with diet and supplements. We continue to explore other alternative treatments and enjoy every day we have together. We fight together.

We are leaving this diagnosis in 2024 and opening the new year with optimism, hope, resilience, and gratitude.

Stay positive, friends!! Happy New Year.
..but also, f**k cancer and fight on!

12/26/2024

12/25/2024

❤️💚Merry Christmas to all💚❤️
Best present under the tree. 🎄🎁

12/18/2024

Hi Everyone.

Thank you so much for your patience this month. To say it has been a rough patch for my family and I is an understatement!! But, most importantly, everyone is alive and well.

Kaeto had been lame in his right back leg- to the point of not using it at all. It took five appointments at three different vets for a diagnosis but Dr. Spall at Oceanside Veterinary Hospital was thorough enough to really dig in to what was ailing him. He had a basketball size mass on his spleen and another near his back causing pressure on his spine. The goal was to remove both masses. The large one on his spleen was removed without complication but the one near his spine was too vascularly involved and the risk of bleeding out too great. Although that mass remains, he is now back to using that leg without pain! Not only that, he is 100% himself again with energy and an appetite like no other!!

Kaeto is 12 years old. He is not a puppy... but I knew he still had fight left in him!! Thanks to Dr. Spall's expertise they saved his life. My shadow is back to supervising my every move and I am thankful beyond words!

Biopsy results will be discussed at his staple removal appointment on Saturday. So, we could still use those positive thoughts! Thank you all for your understanding this month!

12/10/2024

I think she makes a pretty cute reindeer! 🦌

12/05/2024

Alright everyone... Send us good juju for this weekend!!! Kaeto has a surgery consult in Washington. We have exhausted all of our resources with his rear leg pain. Nothing seems to be making it better. Ice, red light therapy, several different concoctions of drugs, massage... and now he isn't using it at all. Think positively for us!