Can I have a hand hold please? Dog has growth in face

[MollyMooDog]

My beautiful 11yo SBT who Ive had since she was 8 weeks old has been pawing at her face for about 4 weeks, after the first few days of this I took her to the vet who thought it was some bad teeth so those were removed. She was wiped out by the GA but when it wore off that night she started pawing again.

3 weeks later and many AB's, painkillers, eye drops, Piriton etc we had a referral to an eye specialist as her eye has been bulging out a little so then I thought it must be an eye problem.

The eye specialist did various tests and believes that she has a growth either behind her eye or in her nose/sinuses. She has a CT scan next week to see exactly what it is, where it is and how we can deal with it, if it can be dealt with. Shes also had a blood test which Im waiting for the results.

She is my first proper dog as a grown up as Ive always been a cat person and shes stolen the last bit of my heart that was reserved for my pets.

Im heartbroken. Its taken me by surprise how upset I am, shes such a good dog, has never even so much as white-eyed me, I swear shes actually got a sense of humour and knows when Im sad and her eyes light up when a kid (or anyone!) shows her a bit of attention.

My poor girl, she was supposed to end her days in her sleep in her dog bed (or my bed!!) all tucked up and warm, now all I can vision is her being in pain and me having to make the awful decision to PTS in a cold clinical vet room that she hates so much.

[MarsBarsAreShrinking]

I am so so sorry

This is the absolute worst part of pet ownership... they are with us for such a short space of time, it's not fair.

I will keep everything crossed for you for some positive news but if the news is not good and you do have to make the heartbreaking decision to let her go many vets will come to your home to do it so at least she would be in a happy, familiar place

[scaryteacher]

One of my cats had an abscess behind his eye which made it bulge. The vets dealt with it, and the cat went on for another 4 years of pampered existence.

[MollyMooDog]

Thankyou. It's horrendous, I'm not having another dog even though I've enjoyed every minute of owning one selfishly I can't go through this again.

I'm so scared that she's going to suffer which is partly why I'm shelling out a fair bit of money for the CT scan so hopefully they can give me an idea of how much pain, if any, she is in. Hopefully its covered by her insurance but i don't care if it isn't.

There's about 30% of me that's optimistic it's benign, or even a severe infection or a grass seed that's been inhaled as she's not showing any real signs of it being anything sinister, she's still eating, drinking, fur still shiny, no mucus etc from her nose, she's a bit quiet but not worryingly so, especially as she is still playing and loves her walks.

I didn't know vets will do it at home, that's very reassuring to know if the time comes, thankyou xx

[MrsMozart]

Oh sweetie. It's awful when our pets are hurting. I'll keep everything tightly crossed for her.

If it does come to having to say goodbye you'll know you're doing right by her. We've had the vet out to put one of ours to sleep as she wouldn't have coped with going to the surgery. Another was put to sleep at the vets, with me and the vet lying on the floor with her. The vet was crying. It's not always the sterile cold place that we fear.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

OK, take a deep breath...you don''t have a diagnosis yet, and therefore don't have a prognosis. Even if it's not great news there is so much that vets can do these days, so all is not lost yet. Also, if there comes a time where you have to have her PTS you can always ask the vet to come to your home and do it there. Of the 4 dogs I've had, 3 were PTS at home (which I agree is far nicer for us as owners and possibly nicer for the animals depending on how they are at clinics) and 1 died naturally in my arms. I hope it all works out well

[MollyMooDog]

Scary - thats what Im hoping, that its something like that that they can just remove the eye to sort out or something. In fact thats what I thought it was so it was a shock when the specialist said its possible its in her sinus/nose as she couldnt see anything behind the eye but yes hopefully its something like that.

I know Im assuming the worst and I shouldnt, especially as there are no real symptoms of it being anything awful apart from her eye and pawing at her face, when I look at nasal/sinus tumour symptoms on Google it mentions mucus, loss of appetite and lots of other signs that she just doesnt have yet.

Im constantly switching from being optimistic to doom and gloom. Im more positive today, yesterday I wasn't doing so great. Counting down the days to the scan where at least I'll get some sort of answers, I better had anyway, its costing £1700 for it but will be worth every single penny, and at least with a CT scan they might not have to put her under a GA again just a heavy sedation as its quick compared to an MRI scan. She was so poorly after it last time

[MollyMooDog]

and thanks everyone for your kind words

Bloody hell, can't believe how this has knocked me for 6!

[MollyMooDog]

Well she's not eaten her food this morning, left about 3/4. I feel sick :(

[MollyMooDog]

Think I'll take her out for a lovely long walk later to her fave place with the dc. Haven't had chance to take her there for a while. Hopefully that will get her appetite back.

She has gone through phases before where shes left it and gone back to it later. Maybe she's just feeling off anyway and it's a coincidence.

I know deep down though what's happening I think. Whatever it is must be pretty aggressive as it's only been about 5 weeks from when we first noticed something wasn't right.

[MollyMooDog]

I realise I'm talking to myself here btw but she's just eaten her food and didn't appear to be in discomfort.

Was wobbling a bit about taking her out but am definitely going to now and make sure I get loads of lovely pics of her playing with the dc. This has also made me realise I don't have many, have always been too busy in the moment I guess to stop and take pics

[Purpleknickers]

Try to keep positive, enjoy your walk and fingers crossed it's nothing sinister

[QueenofLouisiana]

Hand holding and ear stroking with you. I am still astonished by how much losing my dog affected me.

[isupposeitsverynice]

Oh yes lots of pictures. Walks in nice places, yummy dinners and hoping for the best. We said goodbye to one of ours about a month ago and I'm still struggling. It was a very peaceful end for her though. I hope you have a positive result with the vets. Sending you and dog lots of love and best wishes

[MollyMooDog]

Thankyou everyone. She's just amazing, perfect, everyone who meets her comments on how lovely she is. Even though SBTs are pretty common around here she sure does attract a lot of positive attention. As soon as someone looks at her she rolls over for belly rubs showing her minge off. Takes me about 10 mins longer to get anywhere with her due to her worming along the pavement :)

My little brindled piglet

[MollyMooDog]

It was a lovely walk, kids were reluctant at first but it brightened up lovely, it had been raining on and off right up to the point we were ready to set off so I nearly cancelled then within minutes it was clear blue skies and lovely and warm.

She loved it, big staffy smiles and running about and met a lovely old boxer, fed the ducks. Lots of pics and videos. A perfect doggy focused couple of hours.

[MollyMooDog]

Thought id post an update and it's not one I wanted to post.

She has bone cancer, started in her nose and has spread to her eye/brain area and her lungs. No treatment options sadly so we just have to wait now, could have weeks could have months.

6 weeks ago i thought it was an allergy/infection. 5 weeks a bad set of teeth, 4 weeks a terrible eye infection with the worst being her eye needing to be removed, to now knowing that she is going to leave me soon. Too soon. All of my other pets have always lived way beyond the average and I assumed we'd have her around for another 3 or 4 years.

Ive never been heartbroken, never let a boy or man do that to me, but this little dog, this animal that I share my home with who i love so much but doesn't even know my name, is going to break it irreparably

[Sugarpiehoneyeye]

Oh Molly, I'm so sorry, your thread made me cry, I understand.
Please be strong for her.
If the treatment options have been exhausted, could you let her go to sleep now, so she doesn't suffer.You would be doing her the greatest kindness, because you love her. 🌺

[MollyMooDog]

Thank youc:)

To be honest at the moment, apart from her eye, you wouldn't tell she is so poorly. She has little quiet moments, but shes fine. Still loves going out, playing, rolling around in cow poo, yapping if I take too long to open the biscuits, snuggling......she's not telling me it's time just yet, I'll know when she does and I won't hesitate to help her, I'll make sure she has dignity and I'd die before I let her suffer.

I do have some painkillers from the vet as I do think she has little uncomfortable moments. When they don't appear to help or she tells me she's had enough then I won't hesitate. I respect and love her too much to have her cling on for the humans.

[spiderlight]

Oh no - so sorry. I've been there and my heart truly does go out to you. How is she in herself at the moment?

[pinkbraces]

Oh Molly I am so sorry. Spend lots of time cuddling and spoiling her. She knows how much you love her and that you will know the time,

[MollyMooDog]

Thank both

Spider she's fine, bit quiet from time to time but still my crazy pig, I'm obviously looking out for any behaviour changes and the kids know she's poorly so they are not as boisterous with her as they used to be and they are being very caring, tucking her in bed with her teddy etc

As I say, apart from the odd moment and her eye, you wouldn't know. Makes it worse in a way

[Fuzzywuzzywasawoman42]

Oh molly I must admit I've cried a little reading your thread.
I've only ever had one pet and I'm listening to him snore ridiculously loudly right now.
I fear greatly losing him but what a lovely life he's had
I'm sure your girl has had a lovely life with you- I wish you well

[MollyMooDog]

If we hadn't taken her in she would have had a pretty awful life lined up for her, she's had a life some humans would be jealous of so I comforted by that.

I feel privileged to have had her in my life. She's changed so many people's perceptions of the breed aswell :)

I'm going to tell the kids tonight. They know she's been going to the vet and that she has something wrong with her but up to now all I've said is were doing everything we can. They need to know that this is something I can't fix. Dp disagrees and thinks we should wait until we know its the end but I can't help feel that's very unfair? We've had a while to come to terms with it and they only get what, a day? An hour? I think they need time to process it and ask questions, talk about it, get sad, get angry, cuddle her, grieve in their own way with plenty of time to get their heads around it. Everyone irl I've spoken to says this is the best approach and it's annoying me that dp just wants to spring it on them last minute. Can't help but think thats a bit cruel? Obvs I'm not going to go into detail, just tell them that the dog doctor can't help so she will get more and more poorly and just leave it at that so they can ask any specifics, then catch up with them separately as I expect they will have different questions.

Does that sound ok or is dp right? (Please don't say yes!! :) )

[MollyMooDog]

I've asked if mnhq can move this to the doghouse for when I need some support, and in case it helps anyone else who's dog is showing the same signs.

[LornaMumsnet]

Hi all,

We're just going to move this to the doghouse for the OP.

For you OP, sending love and strength.