A really stressful evening, Floyd went from being absolutely normal to suddenly not being able to get up.  Got him down to the vets within 10 minutes, OH had to carry him to the car, the vet on call came out and examined him in the car first, he was shaking and trembling and had got a real pant on.  He didn't even react to other dogs walking by, the vet was the one that took his bloods 9 days ago, so she could see a very big difference in him.  OH lifted him out of the car on to the path and managed to get him standing and he walked him into the waiting room all be it a bit gingerly...  Did lots of reflex tests on him, they were all good, temperature was normal, heartbeat normal.  She asked us to leave him with her for a couple of hours while she did his bloods again, and so she could read up on his chemo drug that he is taking.
She rang us back about 2 hours later to come and pick him up. 
His white blood cell count has gone sub-normal a big drop from 9 days ago so he has no immune system and she would rather he be at home than in the hospital.  Apparently only 1600 dogs world wide have taken this drug so far, so not much feedback information to read through.  He has had an anti-inflammatory injection in his leg and a long lasting antibiotic injection and she will get his regular vet in to see him tomorrow at 11am.  She seems to think that it is more an orthopedic (sp) but doesn't really know, he cannot get to a standing position from sitting or lying down.  Once he is standing he is now walking a bit better, but when it happened, he was in his bed, so I think it is going to be a long night..
Jane

fingers crossed he will be ok thinking of you x

I hope that you can see some improvement in Floyd this morning.

I slept on the big settee last night, I was woken by Floyd at 6:30am whining, he was stuck on the little settee, so he had managed to get himself up there during the night...  he was wanting his breakfast.  He seems alot better in himself, been back down to the vets this morning, had another blood test for his blood gases which were low last night, but all back up to normal levels this morning, he is still having trouble getting up from either sitting or lying down and going down into a sit.  I think the vet was up most of the night reading the literature on his medication, she found that you can suspend treatment for upto a week until the white blood cell count starts building back up, which she has told us to do, she will talk to Floyd's normal vet tomorrow and she thinks he will probably reduce his dosage when he starts back up until they get it right.  She is still not sure whether his condition is linked to his treatment or whether it is an othorpedic.  She thinks Floyd is too stoic for his own good, because even when she was going over his spine, legs and feet he wasn't letting on if it hurt any...  But I don't feel panicked any more and Floyd seems more comfortable.
Thank you for asking
Jane x

> But I don't feel panicked any more and Floyd seems more comfortable.

Good news, hope he continues to improve & reduced dosage will assist with bloods. Best wishes.

How is Floyd this morning ? Hopefully continuing to improve

Way better thank you, still has trouble going into a sit position...  I think he hurt his back or twisted it somehow when I look at him now, I don't think it has anything to do with his chemotherapy tablets, he walks a bit stiff legged in the left backhand side if you know what I mean, but he is eating fine, and even though he is off his chemo tablets for a few days until his white blood cells come back a bit he comes in the kitchen in the morning looking for his tablets bless him...  I think my beautiful dog will be the death of me and OH before he is finished..
Thank you for asking
Jane

If you think that it doesn't have anything to do with chemo, have you thought about a chiropractor. Whenever our two have problems (a long back in proportion to legs!), Vav is the first person I turn to. Best wishes.

how is Floyd ?

Thank you for asking, he is well I am glad to say, the vet definitely thinks it was a back injury (because of the way he responded to the anti-inflammatory injection), where he must have tweaked something when I was playing with Floyd on the Saturday morning in a field, he was so intent on getting his ball on a rope, he ran straight into me, but there was no sign that he had hurt himself or anything, he just carried on trying to get his ball, was also fine for the rest of the day until early evening. 
However, the vet also said that he is a very lucky boy, though the injury was not nice at the time and frightening, because of his medication that he is taking, he had his bloods analysed and he his injury was a blessing in disguise, because of his chemo tablets, and the way that his white blood cell count disappeared, he had neutropenia, I think that's how you spell it...  the next stage for Floyd would have been that his bowel and stomach would have collapsed and we would have only have known that by the onset of diarrhea and vomitting and by that time it would have been too late, something to do with bacteria in a dogs stomach that would normally be fought off by white blood cells.
Since then he has had 2 blood tests and all white blood cells are now back upto normal levels, he has just re-started his chemo, but for this week, it is one tablet a day (instead of the 3 that he was on), he will have another blood test on Wednesday, if that comes back ok, then he will go to one tablet one day and two the next and so on, that will be his maximum dosage, but he will have blood tests every week and not every two weeks as previously recommended, though I feel like I watching him like a hawk all the time and probably slightly paranoid.  Here's keeping everything crossed.
Love Jane & Floyd

  

Lovely to hear he is doing so well x

Glad he is doing well xxx

oh that is such good news... he is having a real bad time of it ... amazing that another illness actually helped in the long run to correct his meds ... very difficult time when one of our much loved furry friends are not well.... you are doing your best... hold tight!

Keep us updated when you have a moment.... take care

Roni~

So sorry you have had such a bad scare with Floyd, what a roller coaster your nerves must be on! Hope your boy is feeling better and continues to make good progress, he sounds like a fighter, bless him :-)

Poor boy, how old is Floyd Jane? :(  Glad his back injury isn't anything more serious.

He was 5 at the end of March, yes he has put us through it lol, he was diagnosed with Pancreatitis at 10 months old, so we used to battle with that in the beginning, but now we can manage it and we can get him through it, but funnily enough, since he has been taking his chemo tablets, he does not get any showings of it at all, in fact he eats better than ever and always ready for his food.  When he had his tumour removed from his leg, 7 days after that he had a small stroke, so he was put on a course of steroids, but steroids aggrevate pancreatitis, so once he stopped taking them, we had to go back to basics because he was having flare ups every other day, so we put him on 4 small meals a day so he stomach wasn't being overworked, we have now comfortably settled with 3 meals a days which suits him alot better, then to cap it all he had an abnormal reaction to his chemo tablets, along with his back injury, but I wouldn't change him for the world and his worth everything to us.
Love
Jane & Floyd

Not an old dog then, poor boy.  Hope he beats it with the chemo.