Is Hemangiosarcoma on the Rise?

[GSDLoverII]

Everywhere I look on this forum there is another GSD dying from hemangiosarcoma.
There are 3 people I know personally in my life that have lost their dogs to hemangiosarcoma as well.
They say that it is a genetic flaw in the breed, but my God it's happening younger and younger, and a lot more frequent.
We asked 2 oncologists, Dr. Alvarez from Coral Springs Animal Hospital and Dr. Bacon from the UF Gainesville if there is something in the environment like pesticides, to the Revolution we use for flea, tick and heartworm, to the food we feed them, to vaccinations, and they all said no, It's genetic.
Dr. Bacon is from the UK and he said you don't see it as frequently in the breed over there, although it is still prevalent.
Then why is it happening to so many GSD'S everywhere I look??
Has it always been like this, or am I just noticing it more since it is happening to us??
I feel like my dogs should have lived a lot longer than 10. We tried to take the Best care of them. No pesticides or even fertilizer in our yard. Holistic food plus home cooking. No over vaccinations. I did use the Revolution and cringed each time I put it on. There are mosquitos year round in S. Fla. Then what?
One of our friends called us and asked us if we live under power lines?? He was being sarcastic, and of course we don't.
2 dogs dead since Oct and one on chemo with hemangiosarcoma. WTF???? Two had and have hm.
Having just lost Casey in Oct to it and Kaiser is battling it right now......I don't think it's just a coincidence.
Just venting, but my God, it's everywhere you look!
Your thoughts?

[Daisy&Lucky's Mom]

I've been asking myself that as I read the forum.I have been very lucky w/ my two. My heart breaks as people lose their beloved furkids and companions,. They are some charities that raise money for canine cancer research. I had never really heard of GSDs being as affected by cancer as what I see. I'd like to see a drive to raise money for research and awareness as I knew very little about it until I got on this forum My thoughts and prayer are w/ all who are battling this meanace and who have lost their canine companion to it.

[1sttimeforgsd]

I have been noticing it more and more on this forum, I too have wondered if it was environmental or from drugs that we use on our pets. I too have a baby that was just diagnosed with this horrible disease but she is non-gsd. She has it on her spleen and she 11yrs old.

[arycrest]

I've had four of the Hooligans diagnosed with this death sentence and have thought and thought trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. IMHO it is increasing, however, I don't know if it's because of better diagnostic testing, that vets are checking for it more closely, or if it's really more prevelant in the breed now. Of course all our GSDs are related, going back to Horand so who knows what's really in the toss of the genetic dice.

It would be interesting to start a sticky thread with pedigrees of those dogs who have been diagnosed with hermangiosarcoma ... maybe the first 2 or 3 generations, enough information for anyone to do research should they decide to.

[LisaT]

While certain breeds are more genetically susceptible to these cancers, that doesn't address whether something is triggering that genetic susceptibility.

There was a Golden Retriever study that showed less hemangio and lymphoma in dogs that used tick spot-on preventatives.

Blood infections can trigger blood cancers. So an any increase in infections from ticks, mosquitos, fleas, etc, could *possibly* mean an increase in these cancers. These infections often show no symptoms until it's too late.

Just something I've been thinking about for awhile.

[asja]

Several years ago my German Shepherd Boris nearly died from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Long story short, it took him six months to recover, but he was never normal again. One year after his initial diagnosis of RMSF, he was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma. Two vets commented that it seemed suspicious that a blood-borne cancer was diagnosed shortly after a horrendously bad blood-borne tick infection. They all thought he would die from the RMSF, so at least we were thankful we had another year with him. My only consolation is that the vets told me that hemangiosarcoma is not painful for the dogs, they just get so tired. Boris died shortly before his 12th birthday, several days after my birthday too, so it was a sad birthday for me.

[Scarlettsmom]

I don't know if it's increasing or we just now know what takes our dogs away. My parents have had two border collies who got it and our GSD/Husky mix got it. I understood that it was more a cancer that older dogs got, but in truth, since I have been on this site, I've seen otherwise.

I dunno. I suppose we can only do the best for our dogs, as we would for ourselves and hope that they don't get it. I've seen nothing about prevention.

[RebelGSD]

I lost two to HSA. With the second one I did everything right, best food, titers instead of vaccines, etc. He was never sick in his life (beyond pano as a puppy) until he came down with HSA.

The question is how long dogs lived in the past, whether they lived long enough to get it and people probably did not bother to run to the vet like we do now. So the question is whether it was diagnosed. I suspect many of the HSA deaths were chalked up to old age.

[Josie/Zeus]

I'd be interested in the pedigree of the dogs that succumed to HSA too. I'm more than willing to share Zeus's pedigree. I don't know if it's genetics or not. Like Rebel, I did everything right with Zeus, he only got vaccinated in the first year of his life, after that he only had rabies vax every 3 years.

[jocoyn]

I lost one to Hemangiosarcoma as well but I don't have his pedigree other than knowing he was a Czech x West German Showlines but you sure hear about it a lot more it seems nowadays.

You now I was just thinking the other day though that Linus was an old Amlines dog born in 1985 who was ridiculously inbred on Lance of Franjo and he lived 15 years and was never sick other than his last year. He ate the old Nutro Max or Purine ONE most of his life.