Hey Doc, are you for real?
Dear Dr. Forsythe: We recently moved to Sonoma and began reading the Sun. We really enjoy your column but some of the questions are very unusual. There was a person who saw her cat inside the neighbor’s house! I was wondering if the questions come from your own clients or people who go to other veterinarians. Also, please don’t be offended, but are some of the questions made up for entertainment? Just wondering because sometimes it is hard to believe the things I read. Thanks for taking the time to answer all the questions. We enjoy it every week.
Kip, Sonoma
Dear Kip: Thanks for a question that has been asked several times! The questions come through the Sun, others write to me on my Web site: altimiravet.com. Other people write to me at my e-mail address [email protected]. I get many of the questions in person by clients and by non-clients either at my hospital or at various places I visit such as the grocery store, the gym, a restaurant, or anyplace I socialize. The majority of questions come from non-clients, but if a client asks a question that might be interesting in the paper, I always ask them “Hey, would it be OK to use that in my column?” As for the purple elephant in the room: Do I make up any of the questions? No. Believe it or not, there are more than enough wacky, loony goings on regarding pets to keep “Dear Abby for Pets” going as long as people are interested in reading. Though I’d rather the column be Dear Fabby than Dear Abby. When I first began writing for the Sun I included mostly mainstream questions and filtered out the bizarre hard to believe ones. When I let the editors know I was leaving out some of the sillier questions, they reassured me it was fine to choose from all types of submissions and as long as a person asked the pet question, no topic was off-limits. This freedom allowed me to have more fun and address a wider range of interesting and compelling subjects than I had been previously. Thanks for writing, and please write back if you have another question for me – even if it is a little unusual.
Dr. F
Dear Dr. Forsythe: My 8-year-old Mastiff Athena is getting chemo every week for Lymphoma. She has been getting treated for the past month, and she is in remission now. I am worried about continuing because it is expensive and almost every week she needs to have another IV put in and get different medications. On the other hand, I’m worried if I stop treating her, the cancer could come back. What are your thoughts on this?
M.W. Fairfield
Dear M.W.: The good news is she is in remission, and this means the protocol is working as planned. Most protocols for Lymphoma, such as the University of Wisconsin protocol, involve weekly infusions of medications that target the cancer cells. These are specific drugs given at precise intervals over a period of time – often six months in duration. Frequently, the pet will go into “remission” rather quickly, but the protocol needs to continue to make sure all the cancer is completely gone from the body. In many cases, stopping the protocol mid-stream causes a rapid recurrence of the cancer, and once it comes back, it is harder to get into remission a second time. Although chemotherapy is costly, in my experience pets who tolerate the therapy usually do much better than those who don’t receive it. This is a personal decision you must make with your family and your decision should be supported by the veterinarian and staff. Good luck during this difficult time. My best thoughts are with you and Athena.
Dr. F.
