Mimi’s Story

Mimi is our blind double dapple dachshund that we adopted in 2008 when she was 7 years old. She was born blind, but has absolutely no problems getting around. Her hearing and sense of smell have more than made up for her inability to see. In 2009, the vet found a tumor on her anal gland. The tumor and anal gland were removed and a biopsy was done. The test results confirmed our fears – the tumor was an anal gland adenocarcinoma. At the time, blood tests were normal, and the surgeon told us that he was very sure that he had gotten all of the tumor. Accordingly, we didn’t pursue any further treatment. In 2010, almost exactly one year later, we noticed that the tumor had returned. We opted to have this one removed as well. After the surgery, which was successful, we weighed our options as to whether chemotherapy was appropriate. We considered that the chemo could make Mimi very sick, and that it might not be successful in the end. We also considered the fact that doxies tend to be a very long-lived breed, and that living to 15 or 16 years was fairly commonplace. We also took into account the fact that Mimi was (and remains) a very healthy, alert and active dog, even at the age of 10. Furthermore, we knew that if the chemo made her too sick, we could stop it, because we did not want her to have to be so miserable without knowing why. We decided that we would start the chemo treatments, and see how they went. Mimi went through a chemo protocol alternating between two different drugs for 6 treatments, one every three weeks. She was an awesome patient, and had very few bad reactions to the drugs. There were about two episodes where she was pretty sick, to the point where she didn’t even want to eat. However, the doctor gave her Cerenia to control the vomiting, which definitely helped. Ultimately, Mimi completed her chemo regimen, keeping her ever-sunny disposition firmly intact. She has been doing quite well, and we hope that she has many years left to boss us around.