Nasal cancer (Albuquerque, allergic, clean, vet)

[Ralphie's Mom]

My dog Ralphie, a 12 year old shepherd mix, has recently been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma in his sinuses. He is taking piroxicam and Benadryl, as well as a vitamin, quercitin with Ester C. For all his life until this devastating diagnosis he has enjoyed wonderful health. Even now his spirit is great and he continues to be a loving and responsive family member.

My questions concern if the cancer spreads to the brain--something my vet strongly alluded to in Ralphie's condition. If Ralphie has seizures, can he benefit from seizure medicine? What kind of neurological changes could he experience?

If anyone has had experience with this I would appreciate your comments.

While I have not read all 150+ pages, what I have read has been very helpful and supportive. Last November I lost my other 12 year old shepherd mix to tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma. I never thought my Ralphie would be battling his own cancer less than a year later.

[Hardee's mom - Jen]

I'm sorry about your Ralphie, and he sounds like a wonderful dog.

While I hesitate to write about neurological changes, they certainly will happen eventually if the tumor spreads to the brain. I would ask your oncologist about the specific changes that you could expect to see, besides seizures. I would also ask about whether seizure meds will help or not. I know this doesn't help you right now, but I hesitate to take the place of your vet/oncologist in giving that medical advice. I personally haven't had to experience this with my dog, yet. Maybe someone else who has had this happen with their dog can answer from their experience?

This is my opinion only, and we all decide on quality of life issues differently, but if my boy, Hardee, was having seizures because of the spread of his tumor to the brain, I would have to make the decison about whether it was his time to go to the rainbow bridge. As hard as that would be, quality of life for my boy is utmost on my list of items to help me decide when it is time to free my boy from pain and cancer. I hope I didn't offend you and that was not my intent. We all make decisions for our babies as best we can.

I wish you and Ralphie only the best, and I hope you get answers to your questions. I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you. Let us know how it goes.

[Ralphie's Mom]

Thank you, Hardee's mom, your reply has not offended me--I think that my vet was actually alluding to euthanization if seizures should occur. At present, Ralphie still is responsive, happy-go-lucky, but maybe a little slower moving.

[charlies_mom]

Charlie has been having trouble breathing at night and it is making it hard for him to sleep.

I took him to an oncologist and he told me about a radiation treatment at Colorado State University that takes a week and dogs have very few side effects. The AVERAGE survival time after surgery is 16 months! I was surprised it was so much.

However, it cost $5000-6000. Arrrrghhhhh! I wish money wasn't an issue!!!!!!!!

Furthermore, the more I talk about treating Charlie, the more everyone comes down on me. My daughters, friends, employees, either straight out say they don't think should treat (even regardless of the money) or allude to it being "my decision". But only ONE PERSON has been excited about the prospect of him getting better.

I don't understand. I work with dogs everyday. I own a grooming shop for the reason that I have devoted my life to the GOOD care of pets. I want to be able to take care of my own pets. I have helped many others. I created the Zia Fund to help animals with vet care for those who couldn't afford it. I gave out money to save a puppy that was attacked by dogs and another case where a cat needed it eye removed and many more. I have done these things for other people and pets. And no one is helping me with this.

I feel so alone. Like I am being judged that if I treat him, I am being careless, impulsive, thoughtless, selfish and wasteful of my money.

I expected this decision to be hard, but I didn't expect to have so many judgements thrown at me, and people trying to convince me otherwise.

Charlie is a happy, healthy dog. He is a nurturer and a good candidate for treatment. I am afraid I will never forgive myself if I don't try something. But I am also afraid of going broke (it will take all my savings) and being judged. I realize he might not even respond to treatment, but I am willing to take that chance.

I am taking Charlie to the mountains today so we can have a good long talk. I wish I knew what he wanted and how he really is feeling.

He is now off the prednisone and on peroxicam and antibiotics. He actually seems to be able to breathe better at night since he changed his meds. He isn't taking pain meds, they just knock him out and make him struggle to breathe, but he really seems fine without them. Happy, wagging, eating, jumping. He is getting a bit more tired but I don't know if that is from not sleeping or cancer.

Everyone I have talked to at CSU seem very optimistic. But I am quite alone in is otherwise.

[Dashdog]

The treatment at CSU you are talking about must be cyberknife. A dog on theses threads, Kisses is his name had cyberknife treatment done as CSU and he did very well. It is what I would have loved to have had for Dash as being in the medical field I know the positive results they have had with humans using cyberknife. But when Dash was diagnosed with the nasal cancer if any one was doing cyberknife it was impossible to find out who as believe me I looked so he had IMRT instead and was one of the early dogs( first for his oncologist) to get that, But I decided to only do palliative so 5 days verses 20.

Cyberknife is a very very focused radiation so yes side effects are few. The decision to do it is yours and yours alone. Yes people will beat you up about it as belive me I got quite a pounding even here on this thread from people that did not agree with my getting IMRT for Dash and I even got private messages from some of them. Despite the beatings by others I knew it was right for him and he had great quality of life afterwards for many months.I think we started IMRT in May 2008 and I had him put to sleep the end of Sept 2009.

I always say the decision do treatment depends not only on you and if you can afford it and handle it but if the dog can handle it. A year after Dash died my other dog developed a tumor in her zygomatic gland I had an MRI done to see if it was a blocked gland or a tumor and they felt it looked solid like a tumor, hadn't even gotten that news back when her eye that was being pushed out ruptured then self sealed so my vet called for the MRI results and told me it looked like a tumor so I had to decide right then and there we find a vet with with the experience to do a surgery that very day or we put her down. She was 14.5 but in very good health and still active but she HATED vets and HATED being away from me and surgery would have required both so I decided it was not fair to ask her to deal with surgery and I let her go. I have said good bye to many dogs but this was the hardest one yet but I know it was the right decision for HER as unlike Dash she was not a fighter but more the drama queen. She was my once in a life time dog and yes my heart was shattered and I still miss her as she was such a fantastic dog but life does go on.So yes go someplace quiet and ponder your decision and do what YOU feel is right for your dog. Know there are people here that will stand by you what ever decision you make. Though you may feel alone you are not alone.Hugs to you during this difficult time.

[Hardee's mom - Jen]

Charlie's mom- Let me start with saying how sorry I am that you are getting flak from people about Charlie's potential care. It is no one's decision but yours. You know your boy, and only you know what is best. I'm sorry that others aren't there to help you, especially after you have helped others.

My boy, Hardee, had cyberknife radiation. We just passed our one year mark, and he is doing good. We also did chemo for 8 months, so whether it was the radiation, the chemo, or the combination of both that helped, we'll never know. I'd like to know for other dogs that follow us, but truly I am just so happy that I still have my boy. I wish we had gone to the place you are communicating with though because we paid 3 times that amount. I sold my car to pay for radiation and I don't regret it.

Yesterday Hardee swam and practiced his water work for his breed for 4 hours at the lake. The next 3 days Hardee will be running agility. He truly is doing good, and we are so very grateful. He gets tired much more easily, his nose drains constantly and sometimes bleeds, but his joy for life is umdiminished. He is 6 now, and we don't take his life for granted.

Let us know what you decide for Charlie. I'm wishing you all the best with your decision.

Jen

[Mommys Mommy]

Hi I am concerned that my rescue dog may have nasal cancer

i have only had her 6-7 months and her nose has bled for the entire time first it started w/a nosebleed that lasted for several minutes it is only on the right side now her nose just drips constantly she does have trouble breathing and tips her head back frequently she snorts and snores and loves to sleep in the bed w/her head elevated on the pillows now it seems more like mucous mixed w/blood

she has sneezed out blood clots but it was blood not tissue the vet has tried doxycyclin and steroid injections but it did not help
i need to get her in for an x-ray as i really would like a diagnosis
her behavior appetite and general demeanor have not changed

when i rescued her actually she is the one that found me she had vaginal tumors that the vet removed

she has had no problems since and no more were found during her spay

i am wondering if there is any link to the vaginal tumors and nosebleeds

i really do not know her age

i am living in Latin America and my financial resources are very limited and the treatment where i am living is prolly not what most of you on here have had access to not that i could ever afford it

after reading some of the posts on here i am thinking of trying decongesants to help w/her congestion

has anyone else on here experienced anything like this

i just think it odd that after so many months she has no other symptoms which is good but it is a puzzle
i have googled nose bleeds in dogs and this was the only site that came close to her symptons



she looks like she is mostly a Dobie and i do not think it is a clotting disorder as i had her spayed and there was no problem w/bleeding

[Hardee's mom - Jen]

Hi Mommy's mommy- This is just my experience, but our path into nasal cancer started with blood from the nose. An x-ray showed something in his nasal passage but because Hardee is a tracking dog, the vet thought it was fungus until the test for fungi came back negative. Then we dug further and sought an Internist who did a CT scan and biopsies. All the signs and symptoms you describe could definitely be nasal cancer, but I guess could also be something benign or at least we can all hope for you.

Your girl is lucky to have found you. Wishing you all the best, with a definitive diagnosis soon. Let us know what you find out.

Jen

[Mommys Mommy]

Hi and thank you

several months ago when i wanted an x-ray his machine was broken

now i have no car and it is very difficult and expensive to take a taxi nobody wants to take a dog in their taxi however they have no problem putting her in the trunk! the thought is just horrifying she is a big dog

remember this is latin america

if the x-ray is inconclusive i would not be able to pursue much in the way of further diagostics as there would not be any near by and i cannot afford the expense

biopsys are also expensive 50USD I just lost one of my cats 2 weeks ago and the vet did a biopsy that i still owe him for and the cat died anyway

money for me is a big issue

the nose bleeds have been going on for months and she seems just
fine but i also know it is not normal she is a good eater and has put on a lot of weight which she needs to do as she was emaciated when she found me

i am afraid she may have become anemic

she has a lot of congestion and snorts a lot and mouth breathes

it is hard to keep her out of my bed and she bleeds all over

my water bill last month was double what it normally is b/c i am always doing laundry and blood is not always easy to get out of certain things

i have a large waterproof thing that i try to keep underneath her head but of course she moves around

i dont know i am really trying to line up a taxi to take us up this week

so far there has been no swelling anywhere and whatever is going on is not affecting her eyes

i hear her right now she is snoring loud she has also gotton very gassy lately wonder if there is a connection

i will keep you posted and hopefully can get an x-ray soon

[Hardee's mom - Jen]

Dear Mommy's Mommy- I'm so very for all your troubles....not just for your girl, but for your financial worries also. I hope things work our for you soon and that you and your girl can be at peace. Wishing you the best.
Jen and Hardee