Roxie’s Story of Courage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before Roxie came into my life, I was one of those people who thought that a dog was “just a dog.” Maybe it took her illness to bring out the fact that I loved this dog just as much as my human kids. Maybe that was the reason God allowed this to happen.

Roxie came into our lives when my oldest son Greg attended LSU in Baton Rouge, La. We live in New Orleans about 75 miles away. He moved into an apartment for his second year of college and started to feel his independence. So without asking mom and dad, he decided he was responsible enough to own a dog. It didn’t matter that we already had 2 female dogs at home. He went to the kennel and there he found a female puppy estimated to be about 10 weeks old, guessed to be a Rottweiler by her markings. She had been picked up by a veterinarian on the side of a rural road outside of Baton Rouge, flea bitten and malnourished. The vet made sure she was placed in a no-kill kennel.

Thinking such a huge dog would make him a big man on campus, Greg named her Roxie. As she grew older, the big bad Rottweiler actually turned out to be a mixed Border Collie with an extremely sweet disposition. Greg did an excellent job of training her and the first time I met Roxie, I fell in love with her. She was not the type of dog to jump in your lap but her affection is prevalent nonetheless.

When my three other kids started LSU the following year, we decided that it was financially smart to purchase a house near campus for them to live. Needless to say Roxie became the family dog in Baton Rouge. She experienced college life much the same as my kids. Partying, jogging around the campus lake, roaming the subdivision, even spending nights in the sorority house. All the neighbors and kids’ friends knew Roxie. She was a real part of their crowd. My kids tell me she was a great icebreaker for meeting members of the opposite sex by having her perform tricks on demand.

After graduating, Greg let Roxie stay in the college house with the others while he got situated in his new job in Houston. Eventually Roxie moved to Houston with Greg and shared an apartment along with Greg’s roommate’s cat. A year later, Greg received a temporary assignment to St. Louis that prevented him from taking Roxie with him. Without me knowing, he approached his mother about keeping Roxie ‘for a while’ till he returned. When I found this out, I was furious. I didn’t want 3 dogs but I finally gave in when the only other option would be to return Roxie to the Pound (never really an option).

Roxie’s move to our house was not easy. She didn’t feel at home with 2 other dogs claiming their territory. In the past, she would visit us when Greg came home to spend some time, but never more than a few days. Our oldest dog, Inky, who was given to us as a puppy when the kids were very young, was the “head of the house” and a lot older than Roxie. Our other dog, Tootsie (Roll), was given to my daughter Laura by a boyfriend in high school. She and her mother convinced me at the time that Inky needed company. Because Tootsie is only a year older than Roxie, they instantly became soul mates. Several years later, Inky died of old age at the age of 18. Tootsie instantly took over the dominant “head of the house” role. Even though Roxie would no longer try to leave with Greg when he visited, I always sensed she felt like an orphan. No matter how much we loved her, she was always very subservient to the other dogs and acted like a stepchild. I think the reason I’ve gotten to love her so much is not only because of her sweet disposition, but also because of her orphan behavior while living in my home and her abandonment as a puppy.

With all the kids finished college and working, and Roxie now a permanent resident, my wife Donna and I started MAJOR renovation of our home in Sept. 2002 that lasted for a year and a half. I often blame this as a possible reason for Roxie’s illness. We, along with the 2 dogs, moved to an out of the way bedroom while the work was in progress. There was major demolition work resulting in an environment of mortar dust, sheet rock dust, termite treatments, etc. It was in Feb. 2004 when Roxie’s problem surfaced.

We brought Roxie to the vet for her annual check up. Her blood test came back as being slightly anemic. Everything else was normal. Prior to this vet visit, I can remember her waking me up several times at night to go outside in order to eat grass. But I didn’t suspect anything major because it wasn’t consistent. We mixed her food with Transfer Factor Plus for the next several weeks hoping to improve her red blood cell count (RBC). Her count did not improve and she became lethargic and lost weight. Because she was an eater, Roxie was slightly overweight before this all started. Her weight dropped from 52 lbs to 37 lbs. This led to her first crisis. An X-ray showed a severe infection in her stomach cavity. That also caused her white cells to increase, with fever. Her stool became clay like color. Her RBC became critical. Her stomach was full of food, grass and mud and her intestines filled with stool. The vet kept her for a few days and managed to clear the infection, clean her stomach and intestines out and brought up her blood count. He diagnosed her problem as pancreatitis and gave her a favorable prognosis.

Crisis 2 developed several weeks later. Her RBC once again dropped to critical. The vet felt a large mass in her stomach cavity and an X-rays confirmed the mass. It was not known if it was cancerous. This tumor had to develop in a period of 2 weeks since the prior X-ray did not show it. We scheduled an exploratory surgery on April 12, 2004, the day after Easter. The vet prepared us for the possibility that the tumor could be inoperable. This was the first time I felt that Roxie was in grave danger and developed that fear that we all in this forum have experienced. The morning of the surgery, I dropped Roxie off at the vet and immediately went to Church to light a candle. The vet told me he would call me if, after opening her up and determining the mass to be inoperable, to let me make the decision whether to put her down before bringing her out of the anesthesia. I prayed all afternoon, hoping that the phone would not ring. I finally called him at 5pm. He told me the surgeon removed a 4 lb tumor and spleen. The surgeon examined all her other major accessible organs and found no visible signs of cancer. She also received a blood transfusion. Sections of the tumor were sent to a lab for analysis. Again the vet felt that Roxie's prognosis was good. The lab report came back in about a week. The findings were: “ROUND CELL TUMOR, CONSISTENT WITH LYMPHOSARCOMA.” A Giema stain section was further analyzed with the supplemental report: “REPEAT SECTIONING CONFIRMS THE DIAGNOSIS OF LYMPHOSARCOMA. MORPHOLOGY OF THE NEOPLASTICCELLS IS CONSISTENT WITH IMMATURE LYMPHOCYTIC AND LYMPHOBLASTIC (INTERMEDIATE GRADE) LYMPHOSARCOMA.

From that day on I became closer to my Catholic religion. I think there are more people praying for Roxie than most people have praying for them. My vet is an older gentleman, a graduate of Auburn vet school, who has seen a lot of strange things in pets during his career. He told us to continue to have hope and he would work with us to provide Roxie her best chances. Because of the quality of life issue, both he and the surgeon recommended that we do not go the chemo route and we followed their suggestions. This is also before I discovered this forum and did some research. But I don’t think Roxie would have been a good candidate anyway because of her anemia. Roxie stayed on B12 injections, I/D canine food and Transfer Factor. We also fed her boiled chicken, beef and eventually liver.

Crisis number 3 occurred the end of May. Her RBC became very critical again. We knew a blood transfusion would be needed if the RBC did not improve soon. I woke up on June 1 to find her hardly having the strength to get up and walk. We decided that the transfusion was her last option. It was a risky procedure because of the fact that it was only 6 weeks since her prior transfusions. All went well until 3 days later. Several of Roxie’s blood numbers went critical, only 3 days after the transfusion. The vet told us to prepare the family for her death over the weekend because of the apparent shutting down of her hemoglobin system. The vet said she would probably die in her sleep but he was prepared to put her to sleep if she was in any laboring pain. We brought her to the lakefront that Friday afternoon thinking it would be her final sunset. I kept waking up all weekend thinking I’d find her dead. But come Monday morning she hopped up for her morning walk for getting the morning newspaper. After researching several cases, the vet took the direction that her hemoglobin system was still functioning and the low count was maybe due to a malignancy bleeding. He prescribed Delta Albaplex 3x, which contains Prednisone and an antibiotic and Val syrup, an iron supplement, fish oil and daily B12 injections.

She made it to July 1, which was considered to be her 10th birthday. The vet took her off the Delta Albaplex 3x when her RBC went up. This didn’t last long as her RBC once again dropped. The vet put her back on the Delta Albaplex 3x.

Roxie’s case was so different from most lymphoma dogs because she never had swelling of the peripheral lymph nodes. She never had diarrhea. I never saw her vomit. Other than the cancer, she was a healthy dog with no arthritis and a beautiful healthy coat. Her only symptoms were the splenic tumor and extreme anemia.  We soon found out that the reason her symptoms didn’t match most lymphoma patients is that she didn’t have lymphoma after all.  In fact, she was finally diagnosed with the very rare Chronic Myelogeneous Leukemia. 

After making approximately 30 trips to the LSU vet school (150 miles, round trip), where Roxie received numerous blood  transfusions and high risk chemo treatments for the new diagnosis, Roxie past away on March 17, 2005.  An autopsy was performed the next day which hopefully will benefit the canine species. 

Roxie's loving spirit touched so many lives while she was here with us and was an inspiration during her fight against cancer, beating the odds time and time again.  We still miss her so much.