Caring for a Dog With Cancer
Friday September 14, 2007
FOX99836 writes: "My husband and I learned in April that our dog, Lady, has untreatable cancer all through her body. When our vet saw the report for the ultrasound, she thought we'd only have her for maybe a week - so she's really a trooper. Still very happy and waggy and totally loving her one walk a day. It's been an emotional roller coaster for me over these 5 months. Is there anyone out there that has dealt or is dealing with the same thing? I have supportive friends and a wonderful husband, but this has been way harder to deal with than I had ever imagined. Any words of wisdom or advice would be welcome."
Comments
carinig for a beloved pet with cancer just rips your heart out. ..i had adopted a tiny little rescue chihuahua,10 years old, and saved from a kill shelter.. her name was emma…. after one very happy year at home i noticed that she was developing a very swollen lymph node gland one one side of her neck… after a final test which reveald a cancer, emma and i fought the good fight… i gave her hospoice care at home,was able to give her morphine which cancelled the p ain, took some great pictures of her, cried and knew when it was time…. i took her to the vet… he said it was time… i held her, covered her eyes so she wouldn’t be afraid and i said good bye to her… she went immediately… all you can do is love them, medicate them so they will have no pain… and they know… they really know.. you will know when the times comes and it will not be easy but it is the right thing to do…. the love of your pet carries you through the hard parts…. and then go out and rescue another dog right away… the same breed… i found another tiny little rescue chihuahua, on the chopping block to be killed… and one year later little mi is a happy little doggie… good luck… my prayers are with you…fm.
My heart goes out to you. I lost my golden retriever to cancer almost 6 years ago and it still hurts to think about it and how much we still miss him. Where I live we have a vet who makes house calls and when it was time to let him go she came to the house to put him to sleep. She took him away with her and arranged for the cremation. If you can arrange that where you live, I highly recommend it. Way less stress for your dog as well as for you. You can never replace your beloved Lady but a new golden has really helped fill the void left in our lives. My thoughts are with you.
God bless the both of you. My Keishound/Corgie has been diagnoised 12 days ago with insulinoma. I need a vet that has experience in treating this. If anyone out there knows a vet, please let me hear from you at ldoisher@cox.net.
Thank you kindly.
I feel your pain as I am going through a similar situation. I have a 12 1/2 yr old lab mix with cancer in the mouth area and it appears it has spread to the lungs. I have cried daily since his diagnosis. ( 1 1/2 weeks). He appears to be in good spirits at times. At other times he is resting from the pain medicine. As long as his quality of life remains this way, I intend to care for him as best as possible. You and your pet will be in my prayers.
I am dealing with a similar situation. My dog Codi (101/2 year old golden retriver) was diagnosed on 9/28/07 with cancer. The vet feels it is cancer of the blood vessels which is a very aggressive cancer. Since he has been diagnosed it has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I cry at the drop of a hat but I cant cry in front of him because he gets upset L I don’t feel as though many people that surround me such as co workers and even some friends understand how hard this is to deal with.
The hardest thing I do every day is leave the house for work not knowing if he will be there to greet me when I get home. Codi has been doing great since he was diagnosed. He has cancer in the spleen, liver and lungs and you would never even know he is sick by looking at him. I brought him to the vet because on 9/28 he collapsed while out for his morning walk and would not get up. I was not with him when this occurred a family member of mine was though. They rushed him to the vet and called me. I work an hour from home and that drive home was the longest of my life. I had so many regrets and just prayed that I would get a chance to say goodbye or hold him again. I was very fortunate that he was having a gallbladder attack and responded well to the antibiotics and was able to come home the next day. The vet told me that he will have good days and bad. So far he has only had 2 bad days and that was right after he came home from the vet. He appears to be happy and not in pain and I feel I am blessed to have every day with him that I have had. I am however not sleeping at all. Every time I fall asleep I have awful vivid nightmares of him dying.
I am afraid of the road that lies ahead because I want to do what is right by him as I am sure you want to do for your dog. Maybe we call all help each other thru this difficult time as we all seem to understand what each other is going thru. I just keep trying to educate on all of this. Codi goes in on Halloween for a follow up ultrasound to see how much it has spread in the past month.
I will keep you updated. My thoughts and prayer are with you at this difficult time
I share your grief. A year ago we had to put down our first golden. Luckily or not we didn’t have much time to think about it, we were told that we had to make a decision right away because he had a tumor the size of a volley ball in his stomach. He had been favoring one leg for a couple of weeks and after a very long night of comforting him because of his whining we did the right thing and put him down. A year later(April 08) we found out that our other golden had lymphoma and has about three months left. Right now she has gone past three months and we are dealing with the day to day issue of wondering if today is the day. Luckily the chemo treatments seem to be putting off the inevitable. I don’t know which is worse, knowing that you have to make the decison today or knowing that you have to make the decision one day in the future.
My husband and I just found out or 10 year old Akita has a large tumor in her cheek already has gone thur her bone. The vet stated that she will be in pain within the next 2 weeks. We do not know what to do. We do not want her to suffer with this, we are leaning towards putting her down. We do not know if this is the right decision, our hearts are breaking we tear up everytime we see her we do not want her to suffer.
I too am living through this situation. My dog Sam is a 10 year old German Shepherd and it has to be said the biggest gentle giant I know. Fearsome to look at but there isn’t a vicious bone in his body.
Diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma, a cancer fedd by blood.
Having had a few dogs in the past and knowing the pain of losing your best friend I share my sympathies with anyone going through this situation.
Care for your dog at this time. Spend all the time you can with them. Most importantly of all, do what is right for the dog. DO NOT let them suffer, you may wish to keep them around for as long as possible but do not let them suffer. It’s not humane.
My heart goes out to each one of you. I had four dogs, and two cats. I’ve had eight dogs all together over the course of my life.
Six years ago I rescued a most beautiful smart dog, which we named Whitney, he was two then, when I was looking for a puppy and one kitten. The staff said this dog was so amazing, and couldn’t believe he was left at the shelter. He was left because he loved to run, and they kept him on a chain or in a kennel all the time. When he could get away, he ran – of course. He was part Aussie Shepard and Part Golden Ret. He was two when we got him.
He quickly became my dog. In Nov he had been following me around constantly and always in my way – which was totally weird, because this dog was “stealth.” He was the smartest dog I had ever seen, and exceptionally trained. He was Lassie – I’m telling you! He would even herd the small breeds back when they ran off.
After two weeks of the constant standing or walking in front of me, which I stupidly didn’t get, I realized something was wrong. He started panting, and when I checked him (on a Tues) over – throught the long hair, I found a tumor as hard as concrete. I immediately took him in, and they did some biopsies, but said the blood was fine, and nothing showed in the tumor. More were scheduled. On Fri, I left him at the Vets. Mid-day she called and said, no to the biopsy and she was doing an xray. The news was devastating and he had tumors all through his lungs.
We went as a family and took the companion dog, a Lab, with us. The dog I found at the Vet was half the dog I had left in the am. We had to put him to sleep, so he wouldn’t suffer, but it was the hardest one I have ever done. I adored this dog like a person – we had connected so completely, I was devastated.
He had no symptoms and kept wagging his tail through it all. The last few nights, he didn’t want to lie down, just stand and pant. That said he was really suffering to me. We had no warning, other than he was following me everywhere which I didn’t get.
The Vet said there was nothing we could have done. It was like the agressive cancers people get when they are dead within a few weeks.
The only way I can look at this is that I gave him 10 acres at two locations, home and summer property to live out his dream of running as much as he wanted and in return he gave me so much love and help with the other animals, it was a perfect union. God Bless all of you who have had to go through this same trauma.
SGS in Washington
i had to have my dogue-de-bordeaux Cairo put to sleep 2 wks ago-he had lymphoma and he was 4.5 years old. I knew it was the right thing morally but emotionally im in bits. He made no fuss and thats what I cant stop thinking about- him just sitting down waiting-mind you thank God he did couldent bear for him to have struggled. I miss him so much- I cry and talk to him- I still find his hair when I hoover-its the small things that keep your heart broken This grief is real and I think people who arent animal lovers really dt understand just how broken people get.I really try to think of the lvly times and I know this initial pain will subside but loss is part of the package of love I ges and at the end of the day I loved him so much and regardless of the outcome he gave me so much and I was privilidged to have had him and that I WOULDENT CHANGE. In memory of my Cairo and what I did 2 wks ago was the last gift of love and respect I could give you x
I found on February 16 that my boy Bailey, yellow lab beagle mix had a bad mast cell tumor…this was not the first but it would be the last. He had a torn acl but my vet said no need to worry to fix. My boy was on pain meds and within 2 weeks…he got worse I couldn’t touch him he did not want to be near me. He would cry if you touched him and he would go stiff. He still loved his walks but it the pain would start all over again. I decided to let him go…I could not stand to see the pain and hurt in his eyes. It has been 5 days and I miss him sooooo much. I know I did the right thing for him and me BUT I feel so sick.
I am facing the same situation. My 12 year old golden retreiver was diagnosed with uncurable cancer a week ago. He was given 1-3 weeks to live. I now cherish every extra day past a week ago with him. I hear he will give me the signs it is time to put him down, or that he can’t walk or eat, I hope this is true. So far he seems happy sleeping most of the time and going out on regulated trips. I want hime to live happy and also want to make his end at the right time. I pray and trust he will help me with this.
It’s not easy knowing your loved 4-legged baby has cancer. I had to say goodbye to my 12 year old lab/ret mix beloved baby who was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma 3-1/2 months ago. He collapsed one day and surgery was performed to control his internal bleeding and the surgeon removed 40% of his liver, but the cancer was still present on the other parts of his liver. We opted for chemo, but on his 4th visit, the Oncologist said the cancer had spread to his lungs and only had 1-3 weeks to live. The next day he got tired, his stomach got large from bleeding internally again so we thought it was time. Then the next day he got back up and was back to his normal self. His body was able to re-absorb the blood loss. We did notice his breathing was sometimes labored and his breathing sounds were muffled. Two weeks later, he got tired again so we thought he was going through another episode and would recover…but that wasn’t the case this time. He was able to move around and eat for 3 days, but on the 4th day he wouldn’t eat and could barely stand. The next day, he didn’t even want water and was totally unresponsive with his sad, droopy eyes. We knew he was trying to tell us something…he couldn’t fight his battle with cancer anymore. It was a very hard decision for us to make but we couldn’t be selfish just to keep him around…we had to do what was best for him. Now he’s on the other side of the rainbow.
Hi, I have become very close to my partner’s 4 german shepherds. I love them so much. One of them has been recently diagnosed with bone cancer and in the last few weeks has developed a bad limp in 2 legs. He still seems happy and is eating regularly. I keep thinking he’ll get better somehow and I treat him like the alpha dog that he is. However, I have noticed that his brother is starting to exert dominance with him by nudging him out of the way, low growls… things he would never do before. I scold him when this is done because I don’t want there to be a fight given the weak state of the one. Is this normal? What should I do?
I want to smother my pup with cancer but I don’t want to make the other dogs unnecessarily jealous. Am I being ridiculous?
I have MY BEST FRIEND Pup 2 he has cancer after all most 4 grand and a broken heart, I am told he has cancer, that. is some where unknown, but has spread, and he is not not treatable, except cemo, and that made him , so very sicker, that I will not do that to him again. He is an 8 year old Boston Terrier and he lovers me unconditionally! I am having a hard time here . You said something about hospice, care? I am having a hard time geting him pain under control , any sugestions?
our almost 11 year old sheltie was diagnosed about 3 weeks ago with epitheliatrophic lymphoma,and we have been told that this is basically untreatable. so far, she has been a little more subdued recently, which we had attributed to having lost her companion sheltie this past february. right now, we are just trying to keep rosie comfortable, and happy. it is just so hard to know when to call it for her. right now i don’t think it is time, but we don’t want her to suffer if she doesn’t have to.
i can feel so much for all of you that have loved and lost a wonderful dog, it is just so hard on everyone.
I understand where your heart is at this momentand you will be in ny thoughts. My husband and I have a beautiful 5 year old Rotweiller named Flower. She is the love of our life and gives us so much joy. We moved to Nicaragua, leaving family and our 7 dogs are now family and best friends here.
Flower had her back leg amputated a few months ago and the we along with the vet were hopeful that Flower was cancer free as ultra sounds and x-rays did not show any other signs.
However a couple of months later a mass appeared on her rib cage, this was removed and before the hair grew back another one presented itself.
With other symptons presenting, out vet said we should not do anymore surgeries and let her have fun filled days and lots of love.
We have chosen this route because I do not want her to suffer or go through months of treatment as Flower’s doctor feels she has cancer throughout, especially her bones.
Keep your spirits up and try to remember all the fun times with your little one. I have cried, been angry and thought possibly this was a mistake but it is reality and we will deal with it as difficult as it is.
Sylvia