Koda enjoys friends, the park, and yogurt... medicine - not so much

So how is Koda doing? It's now been 2 weeks and 2 days since he was diagnosed with cancer...

Saturday, July 23 - Koda ate his whole bowl of "Raw Food+" at 3:00pm (I'm calling it Raw Food+, which is the raw meat, veggies, gourmet canned food and Fractional Pectin - I'm getting tired of typing all that out every time and it's probably a detail only I care about.) At 4pm, we attempted to give him the liquified meds. I need to be better about aiming for the back of his throat, because he is able to suck it around his gums and expel it out the sides of mouth. He seems to be pretty alert today. He went out to sun himself on the deck around noon.

Peekay & Jackie visited tonight. They are such sweet, supportive friends. Jackie made her special mac & cheese and yummy chicken. She even cooked a plain drumstick for Koda! I think Koda enjoys having people over, and just relaxed while we watched "Rango" - a very strange animated movie about a gecko with the voice of Johnny Depp, posing as a tough-guy cowboy/lizard. Anyways...

Sunday, July 24 - We took Koda to Cook Park for a sunset stroll. He seemed really happy to be there, sniffing to his heart's content. He even seemed to walk better when he was completely engrossed in his environment. Maybe I'm just being optimistic (delusional?). Here are a few pictures of him enjoying the outing. Except that he can't walk far, we make-believe that we have a perfectly healthy dog.

Lately, Koda has had a really healthy appetite - thank goodness. On Tuesday (7/26), Koda ate half his meals on his own. I only had to spoon feed to get him to finish the rest of them. I'm not sure if he just gets tired of trying to eat... or just wants to be babied, because he eats off the spoon with gusto. It's amazing how things we once took for granted become small victories when disease incapacitates our pet.

So he's been eating 2 regular meals a day, plus treats. I've started steaming fresh kale, mincing it and adding it to his Honest Kitchen veggie mix. He doesn't even notice the added greens - which are supposed to be good cancer fighting veggies. And string cheese is still a favorite. I'm going take him to the holistic vet to step on the scale next week to see if he is keeping his weight on.

But when it comes to the twice-a-day liquified medicine via syringes - it's a drama drama drama... Koda is demonstrating uncanny strength when it comes to his syringe meds now. He can nearly out-wrestle BOTH of us at the same time! It's getting harder and harder to get those meds in. And while I want him to be docile while I do the syringes, I'm kinda happy that he has so much will and strength to fight us on it. It would be far sadder if he just listlessly opened his mouth.

Yeah. That's the thick brown medicine smeared all over his pretty white fur... and all over my hand... and sprayed all over P's neck and face. I got to share in Koda's extreme displeasure by sampling the meds first hand. That's right. Some of it got into my mouth and I tasted it. It's AWFUL!!! Dear Koda, I don't blame you for hating this stuff. Yuck!

On Wednesday, July 27 - Ever evolving, we decided to not restrain Koda for all 3 syringes. We are giving him "intermissions" between syringes. We let him "walk it off." Then we added "intermission with treats" and now I offer him licks from a bowl of vanilla yogurt after each syringe... and lure him back to the front door with the bowl. While he's swallowing a dose, I dab yogurt on his lips & peek-a-booing tongue, to encourage him to keep swallowing. This new method seems to keep him calmer and he sort of "resets" himself before each dose, instead of getting more and more wound up. Hurray for vanilla yogurt!

It's amazing how quickly Koda carries on - grooming himself - after all the syringe struggle-fest is over. I come offering a dish of ice cream/yogurt and he laps it up as if nothing ever happened. I doubt his memory is that fleeting, so I can only assume that "all is quickly forgiven" when it comes to dogs.