Tumour in Spleen/Possible Cancer

[YoBeaches]

Hi All,
Had our dog (half la/ half collie) in the vet today as she was in last week with swollen tummy and excessive panting, the vet (locum) last week said to take her off her metacam (for arthritis) and see if she improves. She hasn't. Vet today (normal vet) has done bloods and a scan and found a growth on her spleen which is apparently not uncommon in older dogs and her breed. Its possible the tumour has ruptured, her heart might be damaged (?) and could be cancerous. She's 9.5 years old.

They are going to operate tomorrow and the plan sounds like to a) identify if the heart has been damaged and whether the tumour has ruptured causing internal bleeding. If so then they likely won't remove the spleen and we are looking at end of life choices. Or b) heart seems find then remove the spleen and send for biopsy to identify if cancerous.

if cancerous then outcome looks like 4-6 months post removal.

We're really shocked. Apparantly Cancer of the Spleen often grows silently with no symptoms. DH took her today as I was working but I got the impression the vet was preparing us for the worst.

Anyone have any experience of this, good or bad? She's goes back at 8:30 am tomorrow. DH is already devastated and I'm struggling to process it I think. I think we have to decide tonight if they find the worst tomorrow then don't wake her up.

She's a rescue, we've had her since she was 12 weeks old :(

I’ve no experience with splenic tumours but we had an elderly family dog that went in for investigations and they found multiple tumours in her lungs and we let her go under anaesthetic as it seemed cruel to bring her round when it was inevitable that she would be suffering if we took her home . Our vet called me down just before they did the anaesthetic as we knew it was a possible outcome and I popped in to say goodbye ( not that she knew that but it made us feel better ) . Best wishes OP an denjoy your lovely dog tonight just in case 💐🐾

Well we've decided if the heart damage is there and there's no further treatment option then we won't wake her up tomorrow. I don't think we can go in due to Covid so we're saying our goodbyes tonight just in case.

she's flat out on the living room floor still from anaesthetic today, DH is going to sleep with her there and I'll see to baby.

So sad 😭

If no idea what happens with dogs - with our cats we took them home and popped them in the garden. I guess they'll deal with it if that's where we end up.

If you want the vet can arrange a cremation , with or without return of ashes or you can find a pet crematorium yourself and have her collected from the vet ( or take her yourself ) . IME it’s cheaper to organise your own cremation if you want the ashes back and you get to choose the container etc just like you would for a person . Hope it goes well tomorrow and it turns out that she’s ok 💐

How did today go @YoBeaches.

How very sad.

Thanks @BlackSwan

@Floralnomad the detailed blood results didn't come back in time for them to progress yesterday, so I picked her up and brought her home last night. She's deteriorating quickly. She didn't move all night except for when we encouraged her out to the toilet. I've just dropped her back at the vet an hour ago.

The delay meant we were able to have a good chat with the vet to understand a little more. Basically we have to assume the growths on the spleen are cancerous, and the first check today is to see whether its spread to her heart. If it has, then survival is only a week or 2, so we will put to sleep today.

If it hasn't then they will start the surgery with the intention of removing the spleen, but again will visually assess her other organs. If there are tumours on the liver, kidney, lungs etc, then again we will likely put to sleep today as prognosis would be a few weeks. Given how she has been the last few days, she has no quality of life.

If it seems confined to the spleen, then they will remove and send for biopsy. She'll come home tonight. If the biopsy confirms cancer she has around 3-6 months. If its benign then we carry on as normal.

I think the detail of the discussions was necessary because 2/3rd of tumours on the spleen are aggressive Hermangiosarcoma, and its prudent to have a plan for decisions for each step of the way given the possible outcomes. I feel relief actually that we have objectively discussed the right things to do, as hard as that is.

I'm grateful for our vets honesty also. I can't say I feel very hopeful but, you never know. Lets see what today brings.

So sorry . Hoping for the best.

@YoBeaches it all sounds like a very sensible plan , let us know how today goes 💐

Well we have made it all the way through surgery and recovery. She will hopefully be home this evening.

The mass was 1.6kg which is huge. The vet is predicting that that the biopsy will confirm cancer, but she should have a good few weeks or months of quality life. We get the biopsy results next week

Thank god for pet insurance. thanks for the good wishes.

I’m so very sorry. I am keeping everything crossed for your girl.

For reasons you can probably guess, I am thankful that you at least discovered it and can hopefully have more happy times with your girl.

Thinking of you x

So I assume her heart is fine then and it was just the size of the mass squeezing everything , at least you should hopefully get some more time with her x

@Floralnormad yes they couldn't find anything on the heart or the other organs, and some slow internal bleeding from the tumour itself, so she should be back to normal in a week or so.

@stillsomewhatsheldonesque thank you. its hard because we still know the end is inevitable, but quality of life is key.

yobeaches

My heart breaks for you as I know. I really know.

But you will hopefully have time to enjoy her for that little bit longer and give her a happy hurrah for as long as she is happy.

I wish with all my being I’d have had that chance.

She is one lucky girl. x

yobeaches

I feel for you. We were recently in a similar position, knowing we were going to lose our boy and trying to make the best of the time we had left with him.

Splenectomy was considered for my boy, but ultimately wasn’t an option, as he had a bleeding disorder. We did discuss it with both our vet and the specialist vet in detail though and they both said dogs tend to bounce back really quickly and quality of life they have afterwards makes it worthwhile.

I hope she’s feeling better soon and you go on to make some wonderful memories together. x

I'm so sorry to read this and just wanted to send some internet sympathy. We unexpectedly lost a beloved older dog to spleen cancer: we were also told there was a 50/50 chance of the lump being benign but sadly it wasn't. It hadn't spread, so he was given a 3-6 month prognosis. We had another 3 months with him, during which time he was heartbreakingly back to 'normal' and was spoiled rotten. When the end came, it came quickly and we let him go under the anaesthetic for the diagnostic x-ray showing it had returned aggressively.

As the vet kept reminding us, DDog really didn't know he was ill - in his last weeks he probably wondered why we were so sad, and also why his meals had been significantly upgraded. I hope your lovely girl's feeling better with the mass removed, and that you have as much time as possible together. You sound like a caring owner, and her greatest friend.

Hopefully you’ll get a good bit more time with her.
I had a similar experience to MidnightFlit. My little one had begun by being sick. I was concerned it was the return of the pancreatitis he had been hospitalised for two years previously but the vet found a mass on his spleen the scan. He was scheduled for removal two days later.
By sheer bad luck one of my other dogs went down with severe pyometra the night before his due operation so she was rushed into the vets at the same time. So two dogs in for serious operations. The vet warned me that my girl was so severely ill that she may not survive the operation.
An hour later, I got a phone all from the vet. Fearing the worst that she had died during the operation. But no, it was my other littler one. On opening up she found the cancer had spread to his liver. She gave me the option of either letting him go while under the anaesthetic there & then or stitching him up to come home & spend his last “weeks” with me.
Call me a coward, but I just couldn’t let him go like that. He’d been carried into the back of the vets never taking his eyes off me, he was my shadow. So he came home.
He recovered back to his old happy self & lived two years, four months longer as the vet said ( who saw him every month afterwards) that “ he doesn’t know he’s ill” She was amazed at him.
So, I’m really hoping you can have a lot more happy time with her seeing as it hasn’t even spread unlike my little one.

@stillsomewhatsheldonesque thank you and I'm so sorry you didn't get any time. It's heartbreaking when it's so quick and aggressive. It's hard to think.

@moosemama even already you wouldn't think the dog I carried in there yesterday was the same dog that walked out tail wagging this evening.

She's actually been transferred to overnight vet for fluids, pain relief and monitoring so we went and collected her to take her down there. She was surprisingly more spritely than I expected.

@Darklane @MidnightFlit thank you for sharing your stories and sorry for your losses. Quality of life is key isn't it, accepting that she won't have long but we'll make the most of it for her.

We have a 15 month old 2 legged girl. She searches out the dog when we get home from nursery, they we're just becoming shadows of each other, constantly together around the house and started snuggling together on a blanket on the floor. A bit more of that for both of them would be nice.

Anyway, we should hopefully collect her early tomo am to come home.

Thank you OP.

Your update warmed my heart.

Wishing you happy times when you get her home x

@YoBeaches how is your dog doing now ? Did she get home ok

@Floralnomad yes she came home the following morning so Thursday. She's rested and slept the last 2 days but she came to get me out of bed this morning with a waggy tail :)

Vets were happy yesterday with progress although her iron levels are lower than before the op, they'll check again next Wednesday.

I guess I'm wondering how much time we really do have and whether she can actually get back to a good quality of life. But it's early days. Still need biopsy results next week.

Sending best wishes.

The waggy tail though 💕

That’s great news , I hope you get lots more time with her x

Thank you @Floralnomad and @stillsomewhatsheldonesque appreciate your kindness, I'll post back when we get the results next week x

Thank you - I’ll keep all crossed that her wag will be there for some time yet.

We lost our lovely girl 7 years ago to a spleenic tumour. She was given 3 months after her operation and it was almost 3 months to the day. She was very spritely until her last 2 days (obviously felt better after her spleen was removed) when she was very quiet and just suddenly went downhill and died peacefully at home.
Sending you