My dog has a cancerous tumour on his leg - wwyd?

[ThatchersCold]

My dog is 14 and the love of my life. He’s a little jack Russell sized mongrel terrier. He’s had various lumps on one of his hind legs which the vet has been aware of but wasn’t worried about. However one lump has recently become quite big, about golf ball sized, and he has been biting and chewing at it and making it sore.

I took him to my usual vet on Monday, and she said she would like to do a biopsy, and depending on the result, possibly remove the lumps that were bothering him. She said that there was just about enough skin to be able to stitch him back up, but it would need doing sooner rather than later. The quote for the biopsy was £480, and the removal of the lump was estimated at ‘upwards of £600’.

I have been feeling uncomfortable at the thought of putting him through all that surgery (the biopsy would be under a general too), and wondering if it’s fair to him at his age.

I went to see another vet for a second opinion today. She suggested that we did a fine needle test (withdrawing cells from his various lumps with a needle and sending them off for testing). This should tell us what kind of cancer he has, but there is no need to knock him out for it. It is a lot cheaper (£127). Her opinion was that it would be very difficult to remove the lump, and may involve skin grafts. She said for a younger dog you would maybe think about it but probably not for one his age. She suggested steroids to help with the itching of the tumour.

Obviously I’m getting ahead of myself here, because until we know what kind of cancer it is we can’t really decide about removing it. But now I’m completely conflicted as both vets have very different ideas of what the best thing to do is. Money is an issue, but my mum has offered to lend me it as she knows how much my dog means to me.

In my heart I think the second vet is speaking more sense, the surgery would be very stressful for him and probably take a long time to heal, and of course the lump may just grow back again.

I want him to be around as long as possible, and give him the best chance, I certainly don’t want to have to be having him put down in a few months and wishing I went for vet 1 and the surgery, but is that fair on him at his age? I really don’t know. More than anything I want to choose the option with the least suffering for him. Wwyd?

Villainousbroodmare - Thanks...the bit I’m confused about is if it seems both vets are saying it’s unlikely that there will be enough skin to completely remove the lump, what’s the end goal if surgery is done?

Well, the hope is that you discover that it is benign, or treatable with e.g. steroids. And that there are no visible mets in the chest and that the cough is due to bronchitis or heart issues which again would be treatable. If there is something serious wrong, you'd know that too and can prepare yourself and give your dog a pleasant period of time and an easy end rather than worrying horribly every time he coughs or chews his leg.

She said chemotherapy was for her family, she could not make an animal go through that for her. She herself endured more than 50 rounds of chemo. She knew what she was talking about

Just to say not all chemo is horrendous.

Dp did quite a few rounds of chemo and had hardly any side effects. It just depends which chemo you are on.

That does make sense, I think I’ll speak to vet 1 again on Tuesday (and maybe see how much vet 2 would charge for a biopsy on the offchance that they are cheaper!).