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Just joined the club

581 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  ggoethche 
#1 ·
Hi everybody, I'm happy I discovered this site. My husband and I are living in CT. We have a nearly 11 years old German shepherd named Sammy and we will pick up another German shepherd puppy end of October from a breeder in Tennesse.
The reason that brought me to this site is that I'm hoping to get some advice. Just 4 weeks ago we had to put down our younger German shepherd named Monty. He was fine one day and the next collapsed and was diagnosed with a tumor on his spleen that had ruptured and bled in his abdomen. The vet treating him told us that 96% it would be cancer - hemangiosarcoma - and the prognosis was dire. Even if he would have made it successfully through surgery he would only have another 2-4 months to live because the cancer is so aggressive. We didn't want him to suffer so we let him go. Now I had my older one checked with an ultrasound and sure enough he also has a small tumor (6x6) on his spleen. It is not ruptured and he also doesn't show any other masses in his body. Unfortunately with this kind of tumor it is not possible to do a biopsy to determine if it is cancerous or benign. So now we have to decide if we want to put him through surgery. If it is benign (only 1 out of cases according to this vet, the stats vary) he could recover completely if everything goes well but it is a major surgery and the question is what kind of side effects the removal of the spleen has. If it is cancer there is basically nothing that can be done (chemo might bring just another few months). If we don't go ahead with the surgery the tumor will grow and eventually rupture - the same way it happened to our other dog. I want to do what's best for my dog but this is really hard to decide. I was hoping for some feedback from other dog owners who had dogs with the same diagnosis and went ahead with surgery. Your feedback will be highly appreciated!
Gina
 
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#2 ·
First, welcome to the board and congrats on you upcoming new puppy!!

Second- hemangiosarcoma sucks. I would hazard a guess that at least 1/2 of the members on this site have lost at least one dog to it. You are not alone. It is often a very sudden dramatic finding.

Personally, I lost a boy to it a few years ago. He collapsed at my feet one evening and I rushed him to the vet. We removed his spleen and he recovered well. He had an amazing 6 weeks until he collapsed again and we found he had blood in his abdomen. I put him down that night.

I do not regret a single day of those extra 6 weeks with my "heart" dog. Not a one.

I currently have a 12 yo GSD who was found to have a mass on her spleen as well via abdominal ultrasound for an unrelated issue. I spoke with specialist and he said that it may or may not be a cancer. Due to her age, I have opted a wait and see approach. She gets serial ultrasounds, every 4 months, to monitor its growth. It had not changed in size at all. So far it's more likely that it's not hemangiosarcoma so I will keep with my plan. Due to some other issues that would be extremely exacerbated by surgery, I will most likely never opt for surgical removal. I say that now, but in the moment, I don't know what my reaction is going to be.

As for your older guy, I would get an ultrasound. A trained radiologist or imed dr CAN get an ultrasound guided aspirate of it to send to a pathologist. Or you can just monitor it.

If the tumor is small and has not metastasized, prognosis is better than if you wait to remove it. Getting it out early may give you more time.

It really all depends on how your boy is doing otherwise. He is 11, which is right in the middle of expected life expectancy of a GSD. So you need to figure out if removing it and getting 6-8 months is what you want, or do you want to monitor and make a decision should it grow and rupture. With my boy, who I lost, he was 10. But he acted 6. No one could believe he was as old as he was. He ran and jumped and worked and was in tip top shape. But when the vets came to me about surgery she was very candid, she said " we are getting him ready now but you know what this means, are you sure?" I hated her for a minute for suggesting I not do surgery, but it's never a good outcome and it needed to be said. They saw metastasis on the liver when they were in there, but did not tell me until after. They knew I still would have wanted to continue.

No one can make that decision for you. And no one will fault you for any choice you make. It's a heartbreaking place to be in. I am very sorry.
 
#3 ·
First I am no expert but this is something I did learn maybe it can help.

It has been a long time since I used this mixture. You would have to read up on it to see if you think it would even help in your case. It is a certain mixture of flax-seed oil to cottage cheese. I used it for one of my dogs many years ago and the mass got smaller and smaller. Apperently I cannot post links but search (shirleys-wellness-cafe and cat tumor and cottage cheese hopefully you can find it) you might have to hunt around for the original spot her site is not well organized. what I read was used on a cat with a tumor on it's face if memory serves. (I know Walmart even sold the flaxseed oil at one time (other wise look at a natural store or maybe a vitamin shop) (better if the flaxseed oil is kept refrigerated but walmart doesn't do that) and I would buy the giant cottage cheese from Costco to save money) BY THE WAY IT HAS TO BE A CERTAIN RATIO SO BE SURE TO LOOK IT UP THE ONE WHO DISCOVERED IT SAID IT WOULD DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH OF THE RIGHT KIND OF PROTEIN FOR THE AMOUNT OF FLAXSEED OIL YOU ARE USING.

That being said I learned a long time ago to study about keeping animals healthy because you actually learn more about the human body because my guess people care about their live stock and I think it hasn't been corrupted quite as much with the big pharmaceutical companies. It takes 3 generations to breed out nutritionally caused diseases. Read that somewhere on a study I believe that was done with cats. Guess what many things are caused by nutritional deficiencies. That being said I wish there was the perfect dog food out there if there was I would desperately try to afford it. I had ran across it years before needing it due to my constant searching for stuff to help my husband heal and keep his cancer at bay, a fight we have been fighting for 16 years and coming back 4 times.

My aunt's dog has a tumor on his face I told her to switch to the dog food I was using and low and behold it started to get smaller. I believe she switched the next bag to the next cost down of the brand this next bag. I guess it will be a good test to see if it continues to get smaller or if the more expensive stuff is worth it.
 
#4 ·
I did have an ultrasound done and chest xray and consulted a 2nd vet. It is a 5x5 cm tumor and it looks like there are no other masses in his body. It's still only a 25% chance of the mass being benign and we are looking at $5,000-6,000 for the surgery and aftercare. At least the vet said that there is no imminent danger and it's about 50/50 chance that the mass will rupture. So I still don't know how to proceed. Considering that Sammy is nearly 11 years old I tend to just wait and have him checked out regularly. I'll have to think about it for a few more days. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.
 
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