Please hurry! Anyone had a dog go through leukemia and/or chemotherapy?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just got the call from our vet, that one of our beloved Newfoundlands may have lymphacitic leukemia (if thats the name). His blood work came out of the machine practically flashing neon lights, and the vet is very worried. The aspirations from his lymph nodes also looked terrible. The pathologist will look at it tomorrow, but the prognosis is not good. The dog is about 6-7 years old & live with my mother-in-law.

Experience with this? My husband and I are agreed that we will never put a dog through something like this, after having one old Labrador get a tumor (let him go) and a Newf with multiple hip surgeries (did the surgeries, yuck). I don’t know what the MIL will do, she is calling the vet from her car right now.

Dammit, I can barely type.

2

No, but I’ll give this a bump for you and wish you luck. Me & my dogs will be thinking of you & yours. :frowning:

3

Hang tight, EJsGirl. I’ve sent the text of your OP to my sister in Alaska. She’s a vet, and her personal-favorite-mutt-in-the-world had bone cancer, and survived. She’ll have some input, at least.

4

We’ve had 2 basset hounds and a cat that have been treated for cancer with surgery, radiation and chemo. In all cases, the treatment extended their lives and they seemed happy for the most part. Schubert (kitty) had the hardest time of it since his cancer was fairly well developed and in his throat when it was discovered. The treatment probably only gave him an extra few months but he was cheery up until the last couple days. He was 16. The basset hounds (Odie and Odette) certainly gained a few years and only in the end when the treatment would have been as painful as the cancer did we have them put to sleep. They lived to be 13 and 14. Odette had so much cancerous growth removed from the area around her right eye socket that she lost the eye as well but she was happy and cheerful and well adjusted as ever. The only time she was noticeably depressed was when we lost Odie. When we got another dog as a companion, she brightened up right away.
For us, the only important thing to consider is quality of life. In our cases, our pets quality of life . If the cancer is really advanced and the prognosis isn’t good, well you have to make your own decisions.
If your concern is whether treatment is humane or not, then yes, it usually is assuming yuo have competent vets. We wouldn’t have done it any differently for ours if we could choose over again.
Good luck.

5

argh. that sentence fragment should continue with the word improved.

6

We have a dog who was diagnosed with bone cancer last year. We did the surgery and the chemotherapy. He is doing great now.

Chemotherapy is much easier on animals than it is on people. The dosages of the drugs are lower, as the aim of the treatment is to induce remission rather than attempt a total cure. Since most dogs are older when they get cancer, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. If you can take an older dog and give it one or two more years of comfortable life, that’s pretty meaningful.

The course of treatment will naturally depend on exactly what kind of cancer you are dealing with. Some can be treated totally with oral meds, and many of those meds are reasonable in cost. If there is an veterinary oncology specialist near you, get a referral and do a consult. They should be able to tell you a lot about the available treatments and help you decide what you want to do.

Also, if you are interested, there is a special diet out there that is just for dogs with cancer. It’s called Hill’s N/D and needs to be obtained from a vet. It’s expensive to feed to a large dog, because they need a lot, but it has been scientifically proven to extend the lifespans of dogs with certain types of cancer, so it’s something to think about.

Good luck. (@#*# cancer!

7

Thanks you guys, I really appreciate it.

The prognosis hasn’t gotten any better with the new day. Apparently, luekemia is about the worst thing a dog can get, and the chemo treatment might only extend his life by about 120 days, as opposed to this weekend without it. And it’s a nasty, brutal chemo type, the same chemical that they experimented with on my husband’s grandmother when she had breast cancer way back in the day (didn’t work at all on breast cancer). Even lymphoma would have a better chance of survival, or any other type of cancer!

breaknrun, I think I found Odie’s website yesterday when I did a google search for canine chemotherapy! Was it him? If so, what a great looking dog! A shame to “meet” him under this circumstance.

We are resigned to losing him by early next week, unless the pathologist come in this morning with miraculous news. Brendan’s white count is about 45,000 (should be around 4500) and he has almost no red blood cells left, which means his blood isn’t oxygynated (sorry about the spelling, but I don’t care) enough. He can’t even get out to the run to go potty without becoming exhausted and lying down for several hours.

That is no live for anyone, especially for him. This will be a short, loving goodbye.

8

Aw, I’m so sorry. That well and truly sucks.

9

:frowning:

Sorry, no response yet. Losing a beloved pet sux. :frowning:

10

*#$%@#! cancer indeed.

My mom’s Golden, Casey the Most Wonderful Dog on the Planet (except for yours, of course), was just last week diagnosed with some incredibly rare cancer that they can’t do a thing to treat. Even if they could, it’s very advanced (in her lungs) and the stress of treatment would probably be worse for her than just keeping her comfortable and as happy as possible. She’s a fabulously wonderful, fun, sweet creature. I may not live at home, but I LOVE THIS DOG.

And I’m going to be visiting them for Thanksgiving, and was until today looking forward to seeing her, but from what Mom told me a few minutes ago, her health is rapidly deteriorating, every day. Dammit, I want to say a proper good-bye, but if it’s her time before I get there, I understand.

But godDAMN it, we’re going to miss her.

{{{{{EJsGirl and Brendan and everybody}}}}}

11

EJsGirl, E-mail me. It’s in my profile.

I’ve just got a reply from my sister (the Vet), and it’s far too lengthy to post here, and I’ve gotta get some sleep, so I’ll not be editing it down.

So, send me a note and I’ll forward you her reply.

12

Shit, Tranq, I logged on too late. I will still email, if only for future reference, but we lost Brendan this morning.

Yesterday he was ravenous, which we thought was a good sign. Wrong. He wasn’t digesting any food, it was just sitting there in his stomache, so he was constantly hungry. Also, no poops of course, which is what made me nervous. I assume this would have caused his death, if nothing else.

My MIL took him in to see the oncologist-vet this morning, after a night of incredibly labored breathing and extreme lethargy. I mean, you could see his heart beating through his skin, it was working so hard, even though it wasn’t getting the job done. His liver was grossly enlarged and he was really bloated down towards his lower stomache and groin (is that where a dog’s liver is, or was it something else? No idea, although this might have been the digestive tract problem).

Either way, our wonderful doctor didn’t feel he would make it another 24 hours, and it would be a bad 24 at that. Thank God my SIL caught my MIL on her way out the door with the dog, she was going to do this alone! So they were both there when Brendan was given his injection, and it was very peaceful all things considered.

My MIL is devastated, even more so than the rest of us. She had my son sleep over last night to help her take her mind off things, and now they are at McDonalds. I decided to let them have some time together, rather than go over and interrupt.

This just sucks. I got the call while I was at a museum this morning, and there’s just nothing like bawling in front of a bunch of stangers, but I don’t care.

Thanks you so much to all of you who posted and thought about us in the last two days, it meant a lot to me.

Deb

13

Oh, bloody hell.

I’m so sorry that this happens, but I’m glad at least that your MIL had someone with her when it happened.

The detailed message should be in your home ‘in box’.

Be well.

T

14

Aw, gosh, I’m so sorry. We had to put Copper the beagle down in June after he was diagnosed with cancer. I know how horrible it is. However you should be at least a little comforted knowing that he had a great life, even though it was short.

We have Buddy the beagle now, but I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Copper Dog.

15

sjeesh EJsGirl, I’m terribly sorry. I suppose it’s very much like losing a member of the family. I don’t know what to say.
{{EJsGirl}}

16

Thanks puk. I sure wish you could have seen Brendan charging across that field with those two Euro-Newfs! He made his AKC champion status as a relatively older dog (more than 1 year old) because he was so happy to be there that he didn’t show very well! Tail up, smiling, bouncing way too much- not at all calm and majestic, which is what usually wins. All of our dogs are papered (important if you are watching breeding and bloodlines) but only Brendan made champion.

My mother-in-law is doing ok, I guess. It’s especially hard for her because that dog was all she had. I mean, she sees us all the time, and her grandson, but that dog was her housemate. We have sent Angus, our monster Newfoundland, over to her house for a couple of days to keep her company at her request.

We are looking at getting her a Newf puppy (again at her request), probably a bitch this time, sometime after our trip to NYC next month, depending on our breeder’s schedule. Yes, we are sticking with the breed. Huge breed health concerns aside, we have never found a more beautiful, smart, loving dog breed than our Newfs.