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Thank you for sharing your experiences and choices with both of your sweet puppies. It really helped.
I got the results of the CT scan from Dr. Ayl. He really is amazing. Thank you. If it weren't for your posts I would not have found him. The results of the scan and asperit showed that the tumor is very localized and not very big. I spoke with both Dr. LaRue and Dr. Ayl and they both agreed that cyberknife would not be the best option, because the tumor is in the planum (I call it his little truffle) and would likely be too destructive. It looks like we may be a great candidate for the deffinitive because it is so far away from his eyes and other structures. I am told the side effects are likely only to be a sunburn effect to his nose, a little fur loss around his nose and maybe some mucositis. None should last more than 2 weeks to a month. Do you know of anyone who had this sort of planum nasal carcinoma that had deffiniitive radiation? It seems like more of these tumors (unless they are squamous cell carcinoma) seem to be higher up.
I agree with munrov...Jan you are an amazing woman, thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with us. It has helped so much.
Update on Dashboard, back in Oct his CT scan showed major destruction of turbinates in the L nasal cavity, 2 major nosebleeds, 2 biopsies, radiologist suspected cancer, oncologist did 2 biopsies and could only conclusively diagnosis Lymphoplasmacyctic Rhinitis. Three months later Dashboard doesn't have any notable symptoms. He has some clear drainage from the nose and occasionally I find a bit of dried yellow mucus on the window (he watches for school busses for hours a day) but no where near the quantity we were seeing, with hardly any cycles of sneezing or snorting. His activity level is very good, appetite is good. He's been off his Piroxicam + Doxycycline for 1 month.
It amazes me how far we've come in 3 months. He was so scared and sick, I had white towels draped placed all over the furniture and rugs so I could monitor quantity/color of mucus and watch for blood, I'd wake up for every small noise he would make (I still do that). Now we are mostly back to our normal routine.
I do have a question for the group regarding diet...I'm feeding 1/2 raw organic meat/bone + veggie paste (leafy greens, carrots, blueberries), 1/2 good quality kibble, supplementing with Power Mushrooms, Animal Essence's Healthy Powder, Missing Link, Salmon Oil, Udo's Oil and Aloe Vera juice. Now I'm starting to worry I'm giving too much omega 3, but afraid to let go of any of the magic potion. Does anyone have a book/website to recommend for designing best diet? I've based my protocol from a jumble of random external advice, I am afraid of getting things out of wack in my zealousness to keep him healthy.
Today was Snoopy's first day of radiation with Dr. Ayl. I am sure I was much more nervous about it than he was! We pulled up in the parking lot and the tech came to greet him. He was a bit scared and started running away. My first thought was, this is a bad sign. But shortly after he warmed up to her and went into the building. An hour later he reappeared, bounding and full of energy! I was so happy to see my little beardie bouncing back to me. We arrived home and he ate and drank. Now is is ready to go for a walk. Day 1/20. So far so good. I hope we are lucky and everything continues in this direction!! Love to all.
It has been a little over a year since my original post regarding Roswell. He is now 15 years and 2 months old. Only in the last month has the nasal tumor situation become active. He makes some ungodly noises at times and now the tumor has shown itself as it is growing down his right nostril quite rapidly and is now at the entrance. Nosebleeds have been minimal and now there is always a small collection of blood and mucous in the area. He is still playful, eats well and is not cranky at all. He does have that look in his eyes though that just tears me apart. He comes to work daily and also goes on errands with me. My faithful co pilot. We have been extremely fortunate to have had him for so long. Even that is of little comfort. We dont see any signs of suffering on his part and we look for that constantly. We look fearfully for that sign from him that it is time. Asking some of you "does your dear companion help you with this or are we as humans alone left to this decision". We sit here in work today listening to a medley of Reki on Pandora offering him some peace. But our heart is breaking.
It sounds like you are wonderful dog parents and giving your boy a great life right up to the very end. I let one dog go because it was very obvious that he was miserable with the way his life had become. Two others I let go when I couldn't even find any human food they would eat anymore. It's a hard decision, and it gets harder as time goes on, but as people have posted here, better a day too early than a day too late. When he seems unhappy more often than not, I'd say it's time. Prayers to all of you.
I think most of the time a dog will let you know it is time.Sometimes it is just a look they give you sometimes it is a change in behavior.I think your heart must be open to hearing that message and that is the hard part for some people. With my first dog Maddie and with Dash I knew as they both told me but with my cat Misha and with My sweet Jazz dog It was more my decision . The Cat had a tumor on the base of her tongue and lived about 6 months with it, I did have to hand feed her and Dash had to groom her as she could not use her tongue well but she played and acted normal then one day I saw black at the tip of her tongue which meant necrotic ( dead) tissue so the tumor was starting to cut off the blood supply to the tongue so I called the vet, made some cat nip tea and got her high and took her in and it was a beautiful death as she was purring away happy as could be ( catnip tea!) and he injected her and the purring stopped. It beats letting her tongue rot as I waited for her to tell me.
With Jazz it was sudden as the the tumor she had behind her eye caused her eye to rupture then seal back up so keeping her alive would have meant big time surgery which was not something I could put my best friend of 14.5 yrs through knowing how she hated vets even though she was in excellent health except for that tumor.When I took her on her last walk that day outside the vet's office she was painfree due to meds and when we arrived back she wanted to get in my car and go home not go back into the vets and stomped her feet and woooed in protest in that good old cattle dog fashion when I told her no.She was in no way telling me it was time but I was telling her it was as I could not bare the thought of my best friend suffering and that eye had to be hurting bad if she was not medicated. Her death was tough on me but I know in my heart I did the right thing as that was the very last act of love I could give her.
So your sweet dog may tell you or you may have to make that decision based on what you feel is best for him. Hugs to you as I know how difficult this is.
This thread is a wonderful source of information and experiences. I cried a few times reading this thread and my heart goes out to everyone who has lost their sweet pups, and to those who are approaching the loss, like me. My 10 year old Golden Retriever Buddy is starting Neoplasene for nasal cancer tomorrow. Just to add to what has been said here regarding bleeding out: if Buddy hadn't coincidentally been boarded at the vet at the time, he would have bled out extremely quickly, on the very first nosebleed.
According to the rhinoscopy done November '10, he had vascular masses occluding the right nasal passage, partially in the left nasal passage, and some formation in the pharynx. Although all causes except for cancer were essentially ruled out, the pathology report did not find evidence of cancer in the biopsies taken. We decided to pursue palliative care at the time and not do radiation or chemo due to cost and low benefit returns. In the past few weeks the bridge of his muzzle has deformed. My vet showed me literature on Neoplasene that she had received and I looked into it. We had been doing some Chinese herbs but obviously we are past that point now. He is happy and has a good appetite, but has trouble sleeping for long and is more tired than usual.
The vet we saw for the Neoplasene wants him on the oral protocol due to the placement of his tumors and probable bone involvement. I asked her about nose drops like I read about here, and she said that she'd never heard of it used like that, but agreed to make some up on the spot. We have liquid oral to be mixed in food at 300mg/cc concentration. Starting tomorrow he gets 0.88cc 2x/day for 10 days, then increase several times over a course of weeks, up to 3.4cc 2x/day. The nose drops are "Neoplasene 1.0cc + Saline 3.0cc," to be given one drop per nostril once a day. Is that anything like the nose drop protocol you used? I am not shy about modifying protocols as needed, so I am not even going to give the drops tomorrow and will not use them more often than it seems like he can handle. She prescribed them without consulting anyone on the use of nasal drops, so I'm not going to take her word over Buddy's signals. We have Reglan to use if needed, but hopefully we won't.
Also, anyone know the specifics behind why Dr. Fox is against raw food? I have a good deal of evidence about how my raw, species appropriate diet is nutritionally sound, but the reasoning Dr. Fox gives against it is weird. Omega 6 makes cell permeability go down and raw food has more Omega 6? If anything, cooked diets like his will have more Omega 6 than what I feed, plus I give Omega 3 to balance the EFAs.
Anyways, thank you for being such a great support and resource for those of us fighting cancer now and in the future. Such a great thread.
Mary and Buddy
(PS I'm attaching a picture of Buddy as he looks now, with deformed nose... still a good looking guy!)
Im so sorry you are also dealing with this. My buddy spaniel mix has lymphoma. I love him so much. Such an adorable loving loyal companion. We call him the fuzzy toddler. He is on chemo now. First week was good. Today he couldnt have the treatment because his blood count has dropped from 9000 to 2300. Normal is 2000-12000. The r was conceened and postponed. Chemo is not as difficult for dogs. 75% dont have side effects. 10% are cured. Without treatmwnt he had 6-8 weeks. With chemo 12-18 months. Thats like 10% of a dogs life. It is wxpensive. Buddy is 38 pounds and treatment will be approximately $4500 over 26 weeks of care. More for larger dogs. Its a difficult decision and every individual hs to decide what is best. More information is on buddys lymphoma story. Good luck and god bless!
Hi there, please can you contact me on hhelliwell@gmail.com - my dog has a lump on it's face like Dash's and I've just got a few questions as my vets are at a loss as to what it is but it seems that it can only be one thing?! She has had two biopsies and various other tests (along with two teeth being taken out as they initially thought it was her teeth and an abcess).
Many thanks in advance
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dashdog
I am hoping that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and that those of you still in the battle are thankful your dogs are still with you and for some of us that have lost dogs, we can be thankful for the time we did have with them. I am also thankful that Dash had such a peaceful death and seemed 100% ready to more onward in his journey.
I hope the dogs doing Chemo are doing well as I know for humans chemo can be rough at times.
Dash has already been gone 2 months..doesn't seem possible as just the other day he was at the dog park with Dazzle and I hunting gophers or so it seems. The mention of his name does not make me sad but does put a smile on my face. He would be happy about that as he was a dog that loved to make people laugh and he himself always seemed so happy. Life does go on without him and many happy memories have been made with the other two dogs.Dazzle and I just got back from a trip up north to The San Fransisco Bay area then to Oregon, then to a silken windhound show In the bay area. It was what I needed to put any sad feelings about Dash behind me. Jazz stayed with her Grandpa as at 13 and cranky towards other dogs the trip would not have been fun for her. During our long drives I often felt Dash standing in his navigator spot in the car and one night at my sisters in Oregon I had a dream that he was standing beside my bed watching me sleep. It was so real I woke up thinking he had to go out only to realise it was a dream and that I was not even in my own bed at home.Often the feeling that he is still around me is strong.
I think I promised to share a few photos of him from right before that swelling opened up..be warned they may be hard to look at as that swelling had gotten huge almost over night.I share these so you can see what could happen if the cancer takes the path of least resistance and grows outward instead of back into the brain. Yes his left eye was swollen shut but when you see the photos of him on his last trip to the dog park he seems to have a big grin on his face as if saying " life is good". These are photos of him hunting Gophers and the first one is afterwards so that stuff on his tongue was dirt as he had his nose down the gopher hole and was grabbing chunks of dirt to speed up his digging to get the gopher which he never did get. Oh well it was fun .
Merlin our Samoyed has now reached his 11th birthday, a milestone we never thought he would see a year ago. He is now a full year out from palliation radiation, and about 14 months from his initial sneezing/nosebleed symptoms. I think it is amazing that he has done this well, as he has now battled this terrible cancer for almost 10% of his life.
But, if there is one thing to realize about cancers is that they eventually return. Merlin's sneezing has increased again over the last several weeks, and that can't be a good thing. His last CT scan was 4 months ago, and we are trying to decide whether it is time to take him back in to the vet again. He otherwise seems fine, but it seems likely that the sneezing could signal the return of the cancer. For now, we are watching to see whether things improve or progress to help guide us. But, only time will tell.
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Roswell Update
