Cushing/tumour - any advice or experiences please?

[Springersrock]

God, this is so hard and my brain is mush.

First off, dog is insured so cost can be disregarded - well, he’s covered for £6.5k, so not a bottomless pot but plenty for the estimates the vet has given us.

So, doggo, just turned 10, has recently been diagnosed with cushings. The tumor is on his adrenal gland and is “fairly large”. At this point, we don’t know if it’s cancerous or whether it has spread.

He’s on Vetoryl and had his first lot of blood tests last week. All seems to be going in the right direction. Has some more in 3 weeks.

In the meantime, we have to decide what to do about the tumor.

Vet has recommended a CT scan and then go from there.

Best case scenario is the tumor isn’t cancerous and hasn’t spread, it’s fairly quick and simple to remove and we’re looking at another 3 years - he’ll have normal quality of life

DH and I are totally on board with that

However, I’m a lot more cautious how we treat him if it is cancerous. DH feels we should explore every option, whereas I’m more just because we can treat, doesn’t mean we should

If it has spread, depending on where it’s spread, the vet may not operate anyway.

I’m not on board with chemo or anything like that either and I’m more inclined to manage it palliatively

Vet is confident doggo isn’t in pain, he’s bright, alert and active. appetite/thirst is off the scale at the moment due to the cushings but it’s early days on the Vetoryl still

Any experiences please? This has been going round and round between us and we’re no nearer making any kind of decision

I guess, I’d like to know, if anyone has had a cancerous rumour removed, what was the recovery like? Quality of life afterwards? How long did they survive afterwards?

I’m worried about putting him through something horrid and painful, when he doesn’t understand what’s happening to him and affects the quality of life he does have left

I can only speak about my cat, she was old and had a cancerous growth removed from her stomach. She survived another year and didn't seem to be in pain but definitely wasn't herself. I wouldn't do the same again,

Our last dog had Cushings and the vet advised us not to operate. We got to the point that the Vetoryl was really effective and we ended up reducing the dosage down to 10mg per day after about a year and that kept it in check. She lived for just over 4 years from her Cushings diagnosis and to be honest we suspect that she had cancer as she had a myriad of other issues in the end. Had we known for sure I don’t think we would have treated her any differently though-we too would not have wanted to put her through chemo and it would have felt like we had it hanging over us the last couple of years.

Can you ask the vet about treating it conservatively and seeing how the Vetoryl goes? If the tumour is responding positively then you may not need to do anything more invasive.