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My girl has just had a de-bulk of the tumor last week. The pressure it was placing on her whole leg was causing her to be extremely lame. The vet said it burst out when she made the incision. She could not get all of it as it had sent out tendrils around the blood vessels and tendons. However as her fbc was good and her chest clear and heart great for her age, we felt best option. She is slowly recovering at home and is still lame. They did an amazing job cutting up the side of her leg and not interfering at all with the skiing graft.
As the specialist said, this tumor will just grow so if the opportunity is there to de- bulk then do it.
I found a dry food that does not contain any cereal and she has this with chicken, mince beef plus vegetables along with green lipped mussel powder, krill oil to help with her arthritis.
The tumor will come back but luckily being slow growing the options for surgery outweigh the pain and pressure they put on the skin.
I added up the vet bills the other day and omg, but she is worth every cent I have spent!
Good luck to you, drsjxc. I wish her the best recovery without complications! I'm sure you're taking excellent care of her.
Keep in touch with updates as she heals, OK?
Bella is 2 weeks post-op and doing great! Her biopsy came back stage 1 and we're all very optimistic. She'll have her blood tested every few weeks, than months, since she is part of the clinical study for the "new" chemo gel. She loves her new "homemade" diet and eats her vitamins like a queen!
Thanks to you all and especially Southward bound! So great to chat with others who love and care for their pets. I've always said Bella is our 1st child...since my husband "gave birth" to her!
Wishing you all the best,
Fishwife
Bella is 2 weeks post-op and doing great! Her biopsy came back stage 1 and we're all very optimistic. She'll have her blood tested every few weeks, than months, since she is part of the clinical study for the "new" chemo gel. She loves her new "homemade" diet and eats her vitamins like a queen!
Thanks to you all and especially Southward bound! So great to chat with others who love and care for their pets. I've always said Bella is our 1st child...since my husband "gave birth" to her!
Wishing you all the best,
Fishwife
Oh, what a wonderful report!!! Really cool! keep up the good work with her, and keep us posted, ok? Every little bit helps someone else down the road.
Hello. Could you please give me the name of the supplement that you referred to that helps shrink or slow down the tumors? My beautiful little dog just got this same diagnosis this morning and I am sick about it. I want to do everything I can to help her. Please let me know. Thank you so much.
Quote:
Originally Posted by southward bound
Rachel, we are still doing well. Our lab is slowing down, but walking, playing, managing the back deck steps (5 steps) quite well, most of the time on his own, though sometimes we have to help him up a step or two.
We are so glad we didn't have his leg amputated! It's been a year since the diagnosis and he's now on a new supplement that has been shown in studies to shrink or slow down the growth of the tumor. We will see how that goes. The tumor is on the inside of his rear stifle, and though it has grown in the past year, it does not interfere with his walking. His appetite is great (gets NO carbs!), coat is shiny and soft, nose has almost regained all its black pigmentation (was spotted pink for 12 years of his life)
His weight is optimal at 64 lbs and we are maintaining it there.
As we go into the second year of holistic treatment, we are optimistic and hopeful that he will still hang in there for some time. We did talk to the vet about possibility of reducing the size of the tumor, but that is not advisable since it tends to make it grow faster.
Good luck, and send me dm if you want to know what holistic supplements he's on.
Hello. Could you please give me the name of the supplement that you referred to that helps shrink or slow down the tumors? My beautiful little dog just got this same diagnosis this morning and I am sick about it. I want to do everything I can to help her. Please let me know. Thank you so much.
That particular supplement is from Standard Process company and is called "Thymex". Our holistic vet put our dog on it when she returned from a conference where she learned of the studies that had been done showing promise
of this supplement to slow the growth of the tumor cells. It does not "shrink" the tumor, but is said to slow it down. Please research it and discuss with your vet.
Does your vet have an interest in holistic treatments? Or, is he/she open to alternative medicine? Have a chat and see if your vet knows someone in holistics that he/she can consult with. Send me a direct message if you want help in getting someone in your area that you and your vet could work with. If the tumor isn't too far advanced and depending on your dog's age, surgery may be a good option. We talked to a number of vets, surgeons and specialists. I advise you to talk to as many as you can. Most are very good at describing the procedures and the outcomes, and at answering your questions.
I can't judge how well Thymex works because I don't know what size the tumor on Dusty's leg would be if he wasn't taking it. His tumor is about the size of a grapefruit. Overall, he is doing very well and we are continuing all his supplements. The vet added two new ones about a month ago when he was having some weakness in the rear and appeared to be experiencing increased pain. She also had us take him off Tramadol and give him "Zeel" instead for joint/arthritis pain. It is a natural, holistic product and better for him than a prescription pain med. He appears to be doing better on the Zeel than he did on Tramadol. (In fact, I read up on it and started taking it myself for arthritis pain. Most days it works better than some of the over-the-counter pain relievers! Who knew! -- by the way it is made for humans, not specifically for dogs. I wouldn't be taking something labeled "for canines" )
Best wishes and much success to you in caring of that beautiful little dog of yours! Post a photo for us, won't you? Would love to see it!
Could you DM me? I live near you, and our 9 year-old German Shepherd was just diagnosed with a spindle cell tumor. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, and Bella's outcome has me inspired -- perhaps we can see her vet/surgeon.
Could you DM me? I live near you, and our 9 year-old German Shepherd was just diagnosed with a spindle cell tumor. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, and Bella's outcome has me inspired -- perhaps we can see her vet/surgeon.
Thanks.
Leslie
Hope you can connect with fishwife and share the journey through this with your dogs. Be encouraged. We were told that this is a slow growing type of cancer, and we see that to be true. It will soon be a 1.5 years since diagnosis and our lab is doing better than we thought he would be. He's still able to get around with little apparent discomfort, and is clearly happy (that tail never stops wagging!). I wish I had his attitude when things get tough.
Best wishes to you, and please let us all know how it goes.
Thank you, Southward Bound, for the words of encouragement. We have an appointment next Tuesday with another vet in our area -- the one who performed our dog's ACL surgery back in October. When I first saw the lump on his left rear flank, I thought it had something to do with his surgery, but was told it was something else. We'll find out what our options are next week.
I've read what you've done with Dusty, and the holistic, diet way may be what we decide to do for Hannibal. If you don't mind, I may DM you for advice as we take this journey. He's just the greatest dog -- smart, funny, protective, loyal, etc -- I just want him to be happy and pain-free for as long as possible.
I just got a first time email from city-data saying there were 2 new replies to this thread! So sorry...I would have replied earlier...just didn't know. I'll investigate what a DM is but for now......Bella goes to Dr. O'Neil at Portsmouth Veterinary Clinic on East Main Road. They don't do this type of surgery. Dr. Sweet at Ocean State Vet Service ( East Greenwich) was her surgeon. They are also affiliated with Bay State Vet Emergency Service in Swansea MA. We had our consult and follow up visits there. Much closer for us! Where are you?!?? We are in downtown Bristol!
Neither of these 2 practices were holistic in approach and didn't think changing her already "holistic" brand of dog food was necessary...but I did any way. Followed Southward Bound advice and its easier than I thought. Never knew a dog could love broccoli so much!
Let me know if I can help anyway at all! I'll keep checking back in here.
PS... If you are in the East Bay area and go to Mt Hope Animal hospital....please get a second opinion !!!
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Really cool! keep up the good work with her, and keep us posted, ok? Every little bit helps someone else down the road.
What is name of the supplement please?
