Dog has cancer. Any vets on here?

[Averyslover]

My 6 year old lab has being diagnosed with cancer in his paw. The vet called tonight to talk options. She said if the cancer has spread we are looking at a couple of months. She is 99% sure it has. If it hasn’t spread they can remove part of the foot but he will probably only have 12 months after that. Why is that does anyone know? If the cancer is removed couldn’t he just live a full life?

Vet has said we can go for an morning to check if it’s spread. We are covered by insurance so that’s not a problem. Dh is concerned about putting him through any procedure (dog gets stressed at things like that) if he doesn’t have long left anyway. At the moment he is his normal happy self. He’s a docile dog anyway and is just doing his usual thing. We have no loss of appetite, weight loss, upset tummy or change in behaviour.

We have made the decision that the minute he seems ill or can’t do what he wants to will will do the kindest thing.

Any advice would be great.

[Averyslover]

Not a morning it’s an MRI 🤦‍♀️

[NannyPear]

Vet here. It's difficult to advise without more information. Do you know the name of the cancer?

I'd recommend a consultation with a veterinary oncologist to go over your options in more detail. Your vet will be more than happy to answer your questions though if you give them a ring tomorrow :)

[SuperheroBirds]

I suspect it will depend on the type of cancer.
I’m not a vet, but our dog had cancer.
His tumour was on his jaw, they amputated more than half his bottom jaw. They had done a lot of scans to make sure they got clean margins, and we were very fortunate that they got it all. In our case, the cancer was very locally invasive (there was very little bone remaining in the front half of his bottom jaw), but not the kind to metastasise and spread to other locations. He had it removed 4 years ago, never had any other treatment, and is still completely fine.

[Averyslover]

Thank you. It’s a melanoma and they think it has metastised. He goes for surgery next week.

[LittleCabbage]

Another vet here. Melanomas can be nasty so I second advice above to ask for referral to veterinary oncologist. That way you can find out the likely prognosis, options to treat (or not), likely side effects, etc. Sorry you are having to deal with this.

[LittleCabbage]

Personally, I would consider the MRI. If you discuss your concerns about his stress with your vet beforehand, she can consider giving him his premed soon after arrival for surgery, which can contain something to help him feel calm.

Then he will have a GA for the MRI.