What do you do when your pet has cancer?

So what do you do when you are told your beloved pet has cancer?

We happened to receive the news on our 15-year-old daughter's birthday, which made it even tougher to deal with. We knew we were not ready to say goodbye to our friend, so we made an appointment the next day with an oncologist at Purdue Small Animal Hospital. We needed to know what all of our options were before we made a decision.

Nacho enjoying his backyard

Nacho was in poor condition the next day, and in addition to a few more diagnostic tests (including an ultrasound), he spent the day at Purdue getting fluids as well as an anti-nausea shot. I also opted for a single dose of the chemotherapy drug Elspar to see how he would handle it. After his day of initial exams, the oncologist recommended the CHOP chemotherapy treatment since his lymphoma was very aggressive. We decided to wait over the weekend to see how he handled Elspar before we committed to chemo, as in his current condition, we did not know if he could sustain the rigorous chemotherapy protocol.

Our weekend was blessed with an energetic Nacho who ate heartily for the first time in weeks! He played and enjoyed his very favorite pastime - grazing and walking through the backyard grass. His joy for life again gave us new hope that we could give him a quality life for a few months yet. We decided to schedule the CHOP protocol and give him the best chance we could for as long as he could tolerate it