Masivet? - information needed please

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Any vets here prescribed this/does anyone have any experience of using it on their dog?

My labradors biopsy has come back and he has 4 grade 2 mast cell tumours :( On the phone the vet said he thought masivet was his best chance.

I'm going in tomorrow to get my dogs stitches removed and to talk to the vet as they need to order this drug in as they don't store it. He said that the surgery have a couple of other dogs using this drug but he personally has never prescribed it before and it is very new for the surgery to be using it.

Googling hasn't really helped, there isn't much info and the bit i've found seems quite technical and directed at other vets. The only bit i've really found is that its fairly new and seems to be the best thing available.

Can anyone here give me any information about masivet or a clue on what i should be asking the vet? I've got questions on dosage and side effects but i keep thinking i'm forgetting something. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

As a vet I have never prescribed this yet, it is as you say very new. If your vet can not answer your questions then it may be worth asking if they can contact an oncologist to try and find more answers for you, or if your dog is insured take him directly to one via a referral to ensure you are getting the best up to date advice. I suspect your vet is correct with the suggestion of this medication however. Good luck - my old lab had mast cell tumours though they were a much lower grade and removable surgically - first one when she was 4yrs old. She lived until nearly 15yrs old and died of an unrelated problem. I hope things go well for your lab. How old is he?

Again never prescribed this drug as it is beyond the price range of most of my clients I am afraid.

He is 9.
He had 7 lumps removed last monday and this is what the biopsy came back as. They think they got big enough margins around 3 of the lumps but the 4th was right in between his eyes.

The vet said it would be about £500 a month which is well out of my price range but fortunately his insurance will cover most of it so the price for me is about £100 a month. Still not good as i am living off a student loan but I can just about manage it and I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't give it a try. He has been my dog since I was a kid.

He is fine within himself at the moment (apart from trying to chew/scratch his stitches out!) but I'm not going to let him suffer if he reacts badly to the medication or if he is in pain. Just want to give him a chance really. Was a lot worse than I was expecting as the vet didn't even want to do the initial biopsy at first and said I was overreacting but I insisted as I was sure that one of the lumps kept changing size. Really wish that I had been proved wrong here!

I'd be really interested to hear if you did put your dog on Masivet or not in the end? I've just had the drug prescribed for my 10 year old Border Collie with a large secondary mast cell tumour. It cost £300 per month from my vet. I also just wanted to give her the best chance that I could, even though, like you I'm a student and cant really afford it. Having take the drugs home, I'm now really concerned about the possible side effects and certainly don't want the last few weeks/months (?) to be filled with pain or nausea for my poor girl. Have you found out anything more about the drug's effects?

I realise this post comes quite a long time after the previous ones, but wanted to offer some information and really hope it helps!

Our Shar Pei was diagnosed as having several mast cell tumours on his hind legs - including one particularly large one - just before christmas 2009. The vet suggested Masivet and said that, without it, Sidney may have as little as 6 months to live.

In January 2010, Sidney's treatment with Masivet began. He was started on quite a high dosage (sorry - I forget the quantities), which was reviewed and reduced shortly after. Within a week of taking Masivet, Sidney's tumours had reduced in size to virtually nothing - the results were really quite remarkable.

In terms of side effects, Sidney suffered no sickness to speak of, but did put on several kilos throughout his treatment. His weight gain was manageable though.

Sidney's treatment continued until Monday of this week (06/06/11) when sadly Sidney was taken ill (with suspected septicemia) and we had to make the difficult decision to have him put to sleep.

When Masivet was initailly prescribed, we were told that Sidney was only the third dog in the UK to be treated with it (I'm assuming this was factual). As a new drug, there were a lot of unknowns, but we wanted to take a leap of faith in order to give Sidney the best chance that we could (we were aware from the off that Masivet would only prolong Sidney's life and that he would never be cured).

Without Masivet, I'm sure we wouldn't have had Sidney with us as long as we did. I'm happy to say that he retained a good quality of life right until the very end.

Luckily (at a cost of £500 per month) our insurers, Petplan, covered the cost of the medication. Otherwise, I don't think we could have afforded the treatment.

I would highly recommend Masivet (and Petplan for that matter). We never dreamt that Sidney would survive 17 months and without Masivet I very much doubt that he would have.

I know this is an old thread but I wanted to share my experience. My much loved Frenchie, nearly 12, developed mast cell tumour and had 4 operations to remove them. Sadly they retuned, within 3 weeks of her last operation, the last operation was quite invasive and enough was enough. We looked into an alternative and found Masivet which our vet, although he had heard of it, had never used. We are a little over 2 weeks into the medication an the tumours are almost gone! She is fit and well and we are so happy to have her for longer than expected.