Big Puppy & Gwen Cancer update

I weighed Lincoln this evening and he is 32lbs at almost 19 weeks old! Big boy! He is also almost 18" tall, which is great progress.  He has had quite a growth spurt since his 15 week check up. He was 24.8lbs then.  Quite a difference.  He is eating very well.  He eats 2lbs of raw food each day.  I feed a higher fat and bone content than in an adult because he is growing.  He also gets organ meats about twice weekly.  Here are some examples of the aussies meals recently:

Duck feet, turkey hearts & ground beef for Mac. High fat ground beef and a duck foot for Linc.

 Wild caught Indian mackerel and beef lung for both.

 Spanish sardines, beef liver and turkey hearts.

 Lamb breast and turkey hearts

 Fresh green tripe, turkey neck section and ground beef.

 Ground venison for Linc and chicken feet and ground beef for Mac.

 Turkey neck section, lamb kidneys and ground beef for Linc and lamb kidneys, ground beef and chicken foot & a chicken drumstick for Mac.

 Duck head, duck wing and turkey hearts.

I finally found a source for fresh, uncleaned beef tripe! It smells horrible, but is so good for them! Linc inhaled his tripe.  It is a wonderful meat that everyone should feed their raw fed pets, cats and ferrets included. I bought 30lbs and feel so privileged to have access to it now. The previous tripe I fed had been rinsed and ground.  This still has the plant material and enzymes, which adds to the benefits.

 This past month I also bought a 5# bag of duck heads.  They are a great change from the dogs normal bones.  They also have other organ meats, so it has more benefits than just bone and fat.

Lincoln has definitely become a little carnivore.  His appetite is fantastic and he'll basically eat anything.  He has yet to turn his nose up at any meat I offer.  he has eaten lung, head, tripe, heart, bone, fish, etc. He also has learned to use his paws while eating and while he still takes forever to eat bone pieces, his teething is advancing faster than it he ate kibble. His adult teeth are almost all in place!

Another photo of him working on that turkey drumstick.

Alright, an update on Gwen.  We and the vets truly believe that the cancer is an aggressive localized cancer.  Her CBC comes back basically perfect except for her kidney functions, which are elevated.  She is probably dehydrated and needs to drink more.  She is eating pretty consistently, she did get bored of the homemade diet and is currently eating boiled chicken.  We are going to try her on the cooked diet off and on and try to change things up.  Gwen had never been a big eater and this has always been a problem.  We need to continue to put the proper nutrients into her body, especially now.  The tumor is growing a little and because of this, we have made the decision to try a cytotoxin drug.  Cytotoxin drugs are drugs that kill cells.  They are more commonly known as chemotherapy drugs.  Yes, this is a more drastic approach, but it is a less toxic chemo.  We are basically attempting to slow the tumor growth and allow her to live out her natural life.  Otherwise, she is doing very well.  Her surgical wound healed within a week and the vet who performed the surgery was shocked at how well she is doing.  She is 12.5 and when you treat cancer in animals, it isn't to cure them.  There is a very different mentality than in humans.  We will see how this treatments works. And it will be chicken flavor apparently, so we'll see if she'll tolerate it.