Posted: 2/24/2016 7:37:56 PM EDT
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On Friday/Saturday I noticed a bulge on our dog, Slick's neck, by Sunday it was about the size of a tennis ball and a smaller bulge on his lip, he barely ate and no energy. A little background, Slick is 11 years old is a lab/mutt. Monday we brought him to our vet and she took a sample to send out for test. She also gave us a Rx for prednisone and cefelexin(sp?) The swelling went down went down real real quick where as today you can barely see the lump and barely feel it as well.
The test came back positive for cancer(lymphoma) I believe. Any way our Vet wants to put him on something called cyclophosphamide aka Cytoxan. Any one ever here of this treatment? I will be googling this here shortly but wanted to hear any real world results. Thanks 39 |
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My last Akita was diagnosed with very bad lymphoma when she was 6. She was a champion obedience competitor and I had put my heart and soul into her. As you can imagine, we spared no expense.
There is a chemo profile for canine lymphoma that involves revolving through 3 or 4 med's for about 6 months. It will, on average, keep your dog alive during that period and then for another 6 months of remission after that. But that's an average. Canine chemo is not like human chemo. It does not take them right up to death's door and hold them there in agony. Obviously that's just not something that would be fair. There are some side effects that vary from dog to dog. For example they'll go off their food for a couple of days after each treatment (once a week). My Akita got some urinary tract problems that we solved by adjusting her med's, but it made her very uncomfortable for about a month. My dog went into remission for 8 months. We would go for monthly check-ups to detect the end of the remission period. We then sent her through another round of chemo, which is a bit shorter, and most dogs will have a shorter second remission period, too. After that they won't do a third round. The second round of chemo was much easier with less side effects. Not only did we know what cocktail worked best for her, but the lymphoma was not as advanced the second time. She then went into remission for 8 months and we were fairly confident that she had beat that cancer! We were just getting ready to resume therapy dog work when she died suddenly at 8 years of age  The necropsy showed a massive stroke. Whether or not the chemo was in anyway to blame for that is hard to say, but we had her for over another two years and her quality of life was good. And, in the The Universe Is Monumentally Unfair category, the necropsy also showed she was cancer free. She was special in every way right up to the end.
With your dog being a bit older you may want to make different decisions. But I hope our story will help you in some way. |
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I'm sorry to hear that 39Lasalle. Lymphoma took our 5 year old Golden Retriever last year. He was perfectly healthy otherwise. Chemo is a big decision and one that should be made QUICKLY! Especially at your dogs age. Before we could start it, he was gone. Whatever treatment he was given took care of the swelling, but the cancer is still there. We didn't want to prolong his suffering and maybe have a possibility of remission for a few months, only to see him get worse. His quality of life was going to be crappy, whether we did chemo or not. If you're going to start chemo, do it now. |