Bob Marley adopted my boyfriend Jeff in 1999. My boyfriend (now my ex-boyfriend) worked as a plumber and had a job at a Palm Springs, CA area golf course. He was tallying up the bill and saw a trim, young doberman and asked the manager about him. The golf course manager said that the dog had been lingering on the course for three days and that animal control was on the way and would be there in 20 minutes! So it was basically "if you want him you better take him now!" So Jeff loaded him in the company truck and brought him home. There was a Bob Marley song on the radio hence Doberman Bob Marley came into my life.
When I came home from work my three cats were running about telling me in their kitty-cat language that "there's a dog in the house, there's a dog in the house". Luckily for all of us sweet Bob Marley who was already 1-3 yrs old was polite as pie to his new feline step-siblings. Eventually when Jeff and I broke up there were some custody issues as Bob Marley was actually HIS dog and not mine. Since Marley picked me Jeff decided to do the right thing and let Bob Marley live with me. We moved to Evansville, IN in March 2005 as my family is in the area and I wanted to be closer to them.
This was a big change for my desert dog. He adapted to his new environment and embraced the four seasons finding a platonic country girlfriend in Kentucky that he could visit and swim with in rivers in ponds. Life was good. There were so many things to occupy that huge doberman brain in the midwest. He discovered bumble bees, moles, birds that flew (versus the roadrunner that ran in the desert). Everything was hunky dorey.
That is until he started sporatically limping late summer/early fall of 2006. I would take him to the country (over 100 acres) to run and play w/his canine gal pal and he would run and jump and chase like crazy. Then he would come home to my small in-town duplex and start to limp. So I thought he had either sprained it, had arthritus, or perhaps was just faking it since he would prefer to run amouk in the boondocks than walk nicely on a leash in town. Just as soon as I would think about taking him to a vet for it he would stop limping and it would seem like the problem had solved itself. Then in October 2006 he started CONSTANTLY limping. I took him in for an xray. The xray confirmed bone cancer. I did the obligatory 2nd xray at a different vet and the same thing. Both vets were obviously sad for us and didn't really offer much hope. They couldn't treat Bob Marley.
That is when I got a temporary bout of tourette's syndrome. For a complete week I screamed, cried, yelled, cursed...AND lots of internet research. I found a clinical trial at the University of Illinois and called them.
The clinical trial was for dogs withOUT the amp or fracture. It included free radiation and chemo and then either a placebo or IV pamidronate. He would also have to take an NSAID. He was put on deramax. Bob Marley was admitted to the trial and finished the complete set of radiation without any problems. (4 treatments) He recieved one chemo treatment (adriamycin) with the only side effect being a couple loose stools (so minor that I wouldn't even classify it as diarhea but merely loose stool). When he went for his 2nd chemo treatment there was a slight irregularity with his heart rhythm. Since he is a doberman we opted to drop him from the clinical trial and switch to a different chemo drug that doesn't affect the heart. We switched to carboplatin at my expense.
The week before Christmas I took Bob Marley on a Florida beach vacation. We went to St George Island and it was great therapy for both of us.
02/09/07-Bob Marley fractures his radial distus and ulna. Amputation is scheduled for February 12th.
We got the amp at Nashville Animal Clinic in Nashville, IL for the cost of $400. The University of Illinois quoted me a price of $2,500.
I dropped Bob Marley off on Monday Feb 12th for the amp. He was ready to pick up on Wednesday evening, Feb 14th. I drove from Evansville, IN to pick him up (about a 2-1/2 hr drive). I was trying to beat a storm but as I got closer and closer wet stuff evolved from rain, to sleet, to ice, then to snow. The last 10 miles I had to LITERALLY drive 5 miles per hour. I counted over 30 vehicles in the ditch on I-64 between Mt. Vernon and Nashville, IL...then I quit counting. Luckily I made it to the clinic and by then it started snowing and we had about a foot of snow with a layer of ice underneath it. I got Marley out of the clinic and with the help of the vets at Nashville Clinic we got him into the back of the car. I went a couple miles down the road to the truck stop and tried to get a room at the little motel there but it was booked and the parking lot was full of stranded travelers. The Illinois State Police ordered us to stay off the interstate. The weather was THAT bad. Many that were stranded were the people who had their cars and trucks in the ditch so they had to stay at the truck stop for the night without the benefit of a vehicle...the little restaurant was a make-do flop-house.
Luckily I had my mom's car, a roomy Crown Vic that she insisted I borrow so Marley would have enough room to spread out on the ride home. Lucky too that I had to foresight to stop at the store and I had lot's of treats including cheese, hot dogs, and brawnweiger to feed my boy. I also had tramadol and we spent the night eating small snacks, taking meds and drinking water. I think there must be a country song there; eating hot dogs at the truck stop with my 3-legged dog. As horrible as that evening might sound to some it was the best Valentine's Day I think I ever had.
The morning came and the roads were cleared and I high-tailed it back to Evansville to get to work. I had just enough time to stop by the house, take a 5 minute shower, and drop Bob Marley off. He did NOT want to leave the car so I took him to work. My co-workers took turns going outside to visit him in the car and offer him food and water.
OUCH! Marley spent 4 days on the sofa post-amp but first I had to get him out of the car!
03/12/07-Just one month post-amputation, I take Bob Marley to St. George Island again for a beach vacation. He had a wonderful time. Ergo, I had a wonderful time.
05/16/07-We just recently celebrated the 3 month AMPiversary. Bob Marley continues to amaze me with his strength and quality of life. We have been going out to a family farm 3-4 days a week where he can run off-leash with some of his canine buddies. I do have some orthapedic concerns. When you are short a leg it changes the entire gait. His back legs are getting so muscular and the remaining front leg has started to veer towards the center like a natural tripod. Marley is eating primarily homecooked food like the simple cancer diet that can be found on the www.bonecancerdogs.org site or on the Bone Cancer Dogs Yahoo group. He is also getting lots of salmon and one of his fave dishes is chicken and rice w/broccoli cooked in the crock pot. He is taking fish oil, vit B, vit C, calcium, pepcid ac, glucosomine, and deramax (a canine NSAID).
6/22/07-Bob Marley gets thorasic xrays done at the University of Illinois and they confirm that he has lung metastasis. "4 or 5 nodules in the lung". This is not good. This totally sucks! I have to admit it is not a surprise though and it is NOT the end. Every day is precious and now they are even more so. The advice of the vets at U of I was just to get another xray every month and watch the mets grow. So obviously they are done with us. Time to search for other options.
July 2007: I found an integrative medicine vet in Evansville, IN. and started Bob Marley with chinese herbs (Max Formula) and accupuncture. He is also getting B-12 shots and they work wonders! He is also doing a partial metronomic protocol by taking doxycycline along with Pepcid AC to relieve tummy issues involved with taking doxycycline long-term. We dropped the NSAIDS (deramax) as a blood test revealed some liver damage.
Some diet changes too: chicken gizzards, rabbit, turkey, rabbit, barley, winter squash, fish, leafy greens, etc. as prescribed by the integrative vet Dr. Margie Garrett.
A bit apprehensive of the needles at first.
07/30/07-Greedy and selfish me. Bob Marley went on his 3rd vacation to St George Island, Florida. Luckily we had some rain and cloudy days so he was able to enjoy the beach for longer intervals with the cooler weather. He also had fun chasing crabs and actually caught one and ate it. Evidently even dobermans like their fresh seafood.
08/06/07-We made it home from a week on the beach and the trip (700 miles each way) took it's toll on all of us. To make things worse we have a little heat wave in Evansville now. Temps around 100 and heat index up to 110. So Bob Marley is sleeping alot and staying inside. I can tell he is slowing down, but he is not in pain and is still enjoying his life.
The heat wave continues for the entire month of August. Ironically it's dry...as we are in a drought but somehow still humid. Not pleasant for anybody especially a bone cancer dog with lung metastasis.
Mid-August, Dr Mary Ives took some chest xrays and it wasn't pretty. Marley had an enlarged heart, many large lung mets, and fluid in the thorasic area. We tried theophilline (anhydrous) and the helped open his broncial tubes and made it easier for him to breathe. He also started taking some enalapril (vasotec) for his heart to help reduce some of the swelling. His front paw got pretty huge and looked like a big bear paw! The meds helped but it was just a temporary fix. We all knew that, including Marley. For the first time HE realized that he was sick.
09/09/07-After a week of alternating good and bad days, Bob Marley dies of an apparent heart attack.
That Saturday night we perform our nighttime ritual. Give meds, Bob Marley drinks a bowl of Half & Half, offer water, wash face, and full body massage. Then off to bed with a mindless movie in the VCR. Bob Marley actually had a very restful nap that night and it was a pleasure watching him sleep so peacefully as the last week had been dotted with some unproductive coughing and extreme shortness of breath. He also had some fluid retention and his three remaining paws were swollen. As a matter of fact we had just started taking enalapril for his heart and after only a few doses the swelling was obviously going down.
Then around 2:30am Marley starting panting. I was able to get him outside and it was obvious that this was probably going to be the end. He lay outside on the grass and I got a blanket and we lay next to each other as I tried to comfort him. He would alternate between being almost completely relaxed to what can only be described as a panting/panic attack. I offered him some water and more half & half for his tummy. He drank some, rested some, panted some. Then he reached his head towards the water dish and just stopped. There was a slight jerk, then his bowels released and his head fell to my chest.
I cried so violently that I made myself throw up. I remember a neighbor calling to me asking me if I was okay (it was 3am in the morning Sat night/Sun morning). I remember saying something to her and she disappeared. So I went inside and called my mom. She knew. So she put on a pot of coffee and then met me at the family farm in Kentucky so help me bury Bob Marley.
It had been misting slightly earlier as Marley was dieing but by the time I got out to the farm it was pouring. We got about 2-3 inches of rain that morning. Digging a grave for an 85 pound dog took all we could muster with my mom, myself and my uncle all contributing to the unenvieable task.
Aside from frequent bouts of uncontrolled crying I have been in a fog. Marley required a lot of attention and now I find myself feeling like I should be doing something for him or that constant feeling of that I'm forgetting to do something for him.
I'm grateful that aside from 4 days of pain following his amp and a final week or two of feeling bad that he lived a great life before AND after bone cancer. He knew he was loved and loved back with all he had. He did fun things with humans and also with other canines. He went on vacation...many times. He made friends and spread happiness wherever he went. Everybody who had the pleasure of meeting him loved him...even those who were not "dog people" or those who were unfamiliar or uncomfortable with his breed (doberman).
Bob Marley quite simply rocked.
Rest in Peace sweet Bob Marley, I will always love you.
For more information on canine bone cancer go to www.bonecancerdogs.org
I also recommend joining the Bone Cancer Dog group on Yahoo at
