My beautiful DDog has incurable cancer

[elastamum]

She is currently curled up beside me having had a lovely chicken dinner. She has been a bit off colour for a couple of weeks and not eating much, so this morning I took her to our Vet for a check up. Lovely vet, had a feel of her abdomen and then said she thought she should do an ultrasound then an xray and some bloods. It turns out DDog has a tumour in her abdomen (spleen we think) the size of a large grapefruit and possibly a couple of smaller ones on her lung. I have looked at the Xrays and the tumour is huge. She is 10 yrs old and might not survive surgery, so I have made the heartbreaking decision just to take her home and look after her, whilst she is still enjoying life and will PTS when she starts to go downhill.

Am heartbroken, she is the loveliest dog ever and just doesn't deserve this. She is my only companion during the week as the DCs are at uni and my DP works away. I have no idea how long she will be with me, but I am guessing it wont be that long

Please, please, please don't give up hope.
I'm saying this for a reason. Last October my little Yorkie was being sick. I was dreading that it was a recurrence of the pancreatitis he'd been hospitalised for a couple of years before so I rushed him into the vets. She felt his tummy to check his pancreas & said she detected a swelling, she'd take an ultrasound. The machine showed a huge lump in his abdomen, pancreas I thought, but she said no it looks like a tumour on his spleen. She would operate to remove it the very next day.
I'll never forget his little face looking back at me, panicking, over the nurse's shoulder as she carried him through to the back to prep for the op.
Vet said she'd ring at lunchtime with to say when I could collect him but an hour after I arrived home she rang to say that she had him opened up on the operating table & " there is cancer all through him" .To say I was devastated would be an understatement. She said he'd a bigger tumour on his liver than the one on his spleen so she couldn't remove them as he couldn't survive that. She then & there gave me two options to put him to sleep while still under anaesthetic or to stitch him back up & I could bring him home to spend what little time he had left with me, days or at best weeks. I was in complete shock & couldn't just not see him again so said to the latter & he could come home to spend the days being loved & spoiled. He was eleven years old.
When I took him back a week later to have the stitches out the vet put him on Rimadyl, not made for cancer but she said there had been research that it could help. So home he came with pills & an appointment for two months later, she didn't expect to see him.
But we kept the appointment, Christmas Eve, she looked at me, bit shocked & said ' it's shrunk". I asked the one on his spleen?" No "she said, "the liver one, I can't feel the spleen one at all." We were both stunned. She then gave us more of the pills, six months worth, & another appointment which we kept three weeks ago. When she felt him this time she said the tumour was still there but it had dropped & "Do you know, I think it's gone into remission"
So here we are. I still have him, he's eating well, I have to keep the weight on him as he's on a very low fat diet & he's only tiny, he enjoys his walk every day & is back to his usual happy little self. I'm not saying he's cured, who can tell, but every day is a bonus day where I never expected to have him & he's still my little shadow, glued to my ankles wherever I go. So this is why I say, please, please don't despair & give up hope.

She is beautiful.

I would be tempted, for piece of mind later, to get a second opinion from another vet. Then if you get the same prognosis, hopefully give her an amazing summer and when the time is right let her go.

Thanks for your story @pigsdofly. I am clinging on to the hope that she won't get any worse. She is very content dozing on the end of the bed with her face in the breeze from the fan.

Elastamum, has cancer definitely been confirmed? The only reason I ask is that our labrador was taken ill 2 years ago and a large lump was discovered in her stomach. Our local vet thought it was a tumour on her spleen and was very negative about her chances as 90% are cancerous and highly aggressive.

She was referred to the vetinary hospital in Bristol where they did a CT scan and as they couldn't see any evidence of disease spread, they operated to remove the lump which weighed 1.3 kilos! To cut a long story short, it turned out to be benign and she's still with us at the grand old age of 14.

Even though it was benign, she was very off colour before it was discovered, off her food, lethargic etc. which we put down to her getting old. Since she had the operation she's back to her old self.

Obviously I hope you get a similar happy outcome but whatever happens I wish you as many happy days as possible with your beautiful girl.

Just to give you an update. DDog is in the local vet hospital. On the advice from the lovely posters here I got a second opinion. She had a biopsy today and we are waiting to hear if the tumor is operable. She is on a drip overnight to stabilise her. I have absolutely everything crossed for her.

Fingies crossed!!

Crossing everything for you Elastamum 🐾

Our dog is the same he's 10 this year and has a large tumour in his tummy and we were told he wouldn't survive surgery, he was diagnosed last August and he's still here he's more tired and has a few toilet accidents but he's doing well, when the time comes and he starts to suffer we will have him put to sleep as I don't want him to suffer.

Fingers, toes and paws crossed xxxx

Fingers and paws crossed

Just to say we lost DDog a week ago she had a CT scan and her tumor had spread to her spine. We are all missing her so very much.

So sorry

Oh I’m so sorry. She was beautiful and you gave her a wonderful life

What a beautiful girl she was. So Sorry

So sorry for your loss.

May her eyes still twinkle wherever she is.

So very sorry to see your update. They leave such a hole, don't they .

Oh I’m so sorry. Don’t they break your heart. Worth it though.