We have a much loved family dog. She is a rescue and mixed breed. We have her for at least 12 years and she was fully grown when we got her so must be at the youngest over 13 years. She has always been very healthy and has never been to the vet other than routine visits. She definitely has some labrador in her and is overweight, not helped by her very short legs! She has had a soft swelling on her abdominal wall for at least 2 years. She was booked in to the vet to have a biospy 2 years ago but one of the kids got sick and was in hospital so we had to cancel this. As it seemed completely stable and she was in great form we kind of forgot about it. Another one of our dogs died recently of a haemangiosarcoma at 11 years. The whole family were obviously very upset and so the attention turned to this sweling as we are all now afraid another dog will die! She has had a biospy and has been diagmosed with a mast cell tumour. She has had an ultrasound and chest Xray and there is no evidence of any spread. She does have some lung disease but apparently what you would expect to see in a dog of her age. The swelling is about 3 inches at the base so would need quite a wide excision area. Apparently she would need physio to aid her mobility to recover well and obviously the anaesthetic is a risk with an overweight elderly dog with underlying lung disease. SO the big qiestion is to operate or not. The vet has left it up to us to decide. She is perfectly well and happy as a clam at the moment and may well remains so indefinitely and die of something else in the next year or 2. IF we operate the operation itself my kill her and the recovery may be quite prolonged and painful. The flip side is while this tumour seems very stable at the moment obviosuly this could change and we amy miss the window of opportunity to intervene.
So.. what would you do if this was your dog? All advice welcome. We need to make a decision.