Maxamillion
Max was one of those once in a life times dogs. He was a Rott/German Shepard mix. He was always a pleasure to have around, well trained, full of life, and a fetching machine. He would fetch anything for as long as you would throw it. Max was well loved by many and extremely loyal. He will be sorely missed. We lost Max in December of 2004 after a 4.5 year battle with Fibro sarcoma.
Max's cancer started in his lower lip. We had it removed and biopsies; were devastated with the result. The prognosis was 6 months to a year a best. It is a cancer that is predictable aggressive at the same location but rare to metastasis. Max's cancer did come back and quick. Fibro sarcoma's are not responsive to Chemotherapy and we choose not to pursue radiation as that will make the dogs weaker and sicker. It is a good route for a dog that is not felling great as it can extend life a few month. However, Max was still acting healthy as an ox . So we went the natural route. We put him on a home cooked cancer preventing diet with herbal supplement and upped his exercise routine. For a dog who loved to fetch he was very please to have another hour or so of fetching a day added to his schedule. Our theory was a strong healthy dog would last a lot longer and have the strength to get through the rough months.
Well, the lump came back with a vengeance as predicted. However, as we continued the diet, herbs, and exercise program the lump began to recede and disappear. It was amazing. This is not something that happens and his doctors were stunned. Then 6 months later a new lump appeared on his head between his ears. This was bad, very bad. Fibro sarcoma's rarely metastasis so we again removed the lump and sent it out for testing. The news was bad, it was the cancer and having traveled this far the outlook was very bad. We continued with our planned regimen and prayed for the best. Lucky us the lump came back as three lumps. At his point the vet recommended that we only remove lumps when we feel Max is in pain from them. It was predicted that he did not have much time left at all. These lumps got real big and we came close to removing them again, but then it happened again, the lumps slowly disappeared.
A year or so later another lump came up, this time in the leg. We had adopted a new theory, since it was not recommended that he have surgery to remove them. They only seemed to get worse as we watched them and worried about them, so this time we decided, lets ignore it. We kept the cancer plan going and almost never spoke of or looked at the site. One day I looked and it was gone. We breathed another big sigh of relief. We had already more than beaten the odds with how long he had survived. An the whole time he was happy, appeared healthy, and strong. That was the last lump we ever saw. Another year and a half rolled by with Max happy and in great shape. Then something happened. On the way home from a long weekend at the ocean and hours of running and fetching on the beach Max violently attacked another dog in the house, Melbourne. He was just weeks from turning ten years old. The behavior was out of character for him. So the next day we took him in to the vet for an exam. We found horrible news, the cancer had spread to and nearly consumed his lungs plus he had severe degenerative disk disease at the rear of his spine. This time there was little hope. He had finally succumbed to the pain of his dreaded diseases. We gave him steroid injection and pain medication to help him through and took him home. He stayed with us for 2 more weeks. It was very hard to say good by and he still appeared very strong, happy, and carefree, but he had hit a point where he was weasing most of the day, lower in energy, and having a lot of trouble sleeping. We decided not to force him to become a weak shell of his former self for and his best case scenario was another week or two for real this time. So we let him go. He had a wonderful 10 years. He was everything a great dog should be and surrounded by love from humans and canines alike. He was a constant playmate to the Leonbergers.
Max's caner took and extremely rare path in more ways then one. Fibro sarcoma spreads to the lungs in less than 10% of the time. Also no veterinarian we spoke with had ever heard of the lumps receding on their own as his did. An he beat the best odds for life expectance after initial diagnosis by years. 18 months is what they consider the best possible life expectance after diagnosis and we got 4 and a half years of quality life. We are truly thankful for every moment we had with Max. We know he is waiting at the rainbow bridge, stump tail wagging, stick in mouth, just ready for a game of fetch when we join him.
Thanks for reading this tribute to a best friend and canine soul mate. If you have any question about the cancer fighting diet, herbal remedies we used, facts on Fibro sarcoma, and any other information, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at Jenkemm@comcast.net or call 253-864-8379.