Can you please refer a great reasonable price chemotherapy in LA?
I read a lot about financial stresses and poor services and since it will be a long journey (We really hope), I wanna find out a right one.
What I found right now is VCA west LA, city of angeles vet cancer group, animal specialty group and vet cancer fererral group (I don’t know they are hospital or just referral center).
So please let us know a great vet, great hospital for our Hero.
And also to do chemotherapy,
1. do we have to go to oncologist?
2. how they actually do (oral medicine or injection…)
3. how often he should get treatment
4. how much does it cost (I have no idea how much it is, it is $10/time or $10oo/time or… I know every case is different, but anybody can share your info or experience, then at least I can estimate…
I have no where to ask, so please please help us.
I’m not familiar with California, so I can’t help you there… Have you posted your request on the Tripawds forum yet? Most members are on there all the time (not all of them go to the blogs) and I know that there are quite a few from California that could probably give you some good advice on where to go for treatment.
As for chemotheray, yes you should see an oncologist. I’m not sure about the costs of chemo, as we didn’t do chemo for our Jake… couldn’t afford it after the surgery, etc… But many of the Tripawd members did chemo, so they can give you alot good information…
Good luck with Hero… He is such a sweetie!
Angel Jake’s Mom
Thank you~!!! ^^
Hero, check out the comments in The Forums.
Consultation with a veterinary oncologist is going to best for any chemotherapy recommendations. We never did IV chemo with Jerry, but have compiled plenty of links about his oral metronomic chemotherapy treatment in the forums. Cost varies greatly and depends on the medicine used, size of dog, and treatment plan.
Hi Hero! I also am not familiar with any vets in California, but your regular veterinarian will probably know of a veterinary oncologist in the area.
1 Some drugs you can get from your regular vet, but we had Jack’s chemo done by his oncologist
2. There is some oral chemotherapy, but I think they are most likely part of a metronomic protocol. Traditional chemotherapy is administered through an IV over about 20 minutes. A vet tech will usually set the IV up and sit with your pup while the drugs go into the system. Although the actual chemo takes 20 minutes, the whole process takes about an hour and a half. Before they administer the drugs, they do a series of blood tests to make sure everything is OK.
3. Chemo is administered every 3 weeks (usually). I think that for the most part, the drugs have the most effect when they are administered within a 3 week window or so. You may have an extra week if you need more time because of finances, but a much longer wait than that will decrease the effectiveness of the chemo. I think most studies are done on between 4 and 6 treatments, but there’s no “set” amount of sessions.
4. The cost varies based on drug type, the size of the dog, and/or the facility where you receive the treatments. For Jack, a 40 pound dog, we had Adriamycin administered every 3 weeks at an oncology center. We had to pay almost $500 each time. The week after, you will need to get a blood count test. Our oncologist would charge about $75 for the test, but our regular vet only charged $35 (luckily for us, our vet and oncologist were about a block from eachother)
You may have gotten your questions answered already, but if not, I hope I could help out a little! I’ve been clicking on the “Random Tripawds Blog” button seeing where it takes me, so I’m meeting all sorts of new friends 🙂
<3 Laura and Jackers
Thank you. You were spot on. We are going with the chemo every three weeks and being charged $500 each session. Hero starts next Tuesday (2-9-10)