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Hello, Can somebody please help me?? My dog has been sick and they just tested him for cushings on Friday and I am waiting results but when we were at the dr. they said they thought he may have nasalcancer because of his signs. Can anybody tell me if this sounds like cancer... Zack has been sneezing for about 2 months more than normal (maybe 2 sneezes every few hours or so) when the sneezes started he had a very clugged nose and couldn't breath but that has cleared and now it is dripping a clear water. Sometimes he paws at his nose (maybe I see this every day or every few days). Today when we just came home I found spot of blood on the floor. I rubbed Zack's nose with a towel and it seems that a very small amount of blood may have been there. How much does a dogs nose bleed if it is cancer and what other signs are there? I would appreciate any help as he is my baby. Oh I should meantion he had cancer as a mass that was removed about 4 months ago and started radation with bad side effects of an open wound so we had to stop. At this point there is no sign of this growing back. thanks for any help!!!
Hello seahorsestarfish. Many of us, like you, stumbled on this forum in a frantic search for information pertaining to our beloved companions. As for your baby, at this point it would be hard to know where to turn. I can only tell you how our battle started back in September. One weekend while watching TV, Emmitt was laying on the couch with his head hanging off when we noticed a thick string of snot dangling out of his left nostril. It was somewhat opaque in color and had a very small amount of blood in it. The following Monday we took him to his regular vet who prescribed an antibiotic to take care of any possible infection. He told us that there was a possiblility it was cancer and we agreed to carry him to a veterinary college for a nasal scope. A couple of weeks passed before they were able to schedule us for the CT scan and scope. During those two weeks the drainage continued but there was NEVER any watery discharge and he never pawed at his nose. It was always a thick mucous with a slight red "tinge" in it. The only sneezing he had was reverse sneezing in the middle of the night. It freaked us out but Emmitt acted as though nothing was wrong. He still ate well, energy level was the same, slept well, and always greeted us with a wagging tail. The veterinarian that oversaw the CT scan and scope told us that he was hopeful that it was a "hot" fungal infection or possibly something lodged in his nose. Well, it turned out to be what we dreaded the most and what keeps so many of us turning to this forum for help and/or comfort. Emmitt's diagnosis was nasal adenocarcinoma.
Having said that, while I am not a veterinarian I can only tell you that given the fact that these guys explore everything with their noses, there is a possibility that Zack inhaled something that got stuck in his nasal passage, became infected, started the sneezing, and is now inflamed thus causing the blood. The nosebleeds that Emmitt has had have been quite an "event". They didn't actually start until later in his treatment and he has only had three or four of these "events". As for his stuffiness, he started out with none and it has gotten progressively worse as time has gone by.
The best advice I can give you is to not only listen to your veterinarian but question him/her as well. You know Zack better than anyone. Ask questions, get as much information as you can, and do what YOU think is best for Zack. Although I respect our veterinarian and am thankful for everything that he has done for us, if I would have done what we were first told to do, we would have brought Emmitt home and continued to pump him full of pills and just "made him comfortable". We are now in our 9th month of our fight and we continue the battle one day at a time. Best of luck to you and Zack and please keep up posted. The same goes for Boomer's Mom & AK-Cathy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Hello seahorsestarfish. Many of us, like you, stumbled on this forum in a frantic search for information pertaining to our beloved companions. As for your baby, at this point it would be hard to know where to turn. I can only tell you how our battle started back in September. One weekend while watching TV, Emmitt was laying on the couch with his head hanging off when we noticed a thick string of snot dangling out of his left nostril. It was somewhat opaque in color and had a very small amount of blood in it. The following Monday we took him to his regular vet who prescribed an antibiotic to take care of any possible infection. He told us that there was a possiblility it was cancer and we agreed to carry him to a veterinary college for a nasal scope. A couple of weeks passed before they were able to schedule us for the CT scan and scope. During those two weeks the drainage continued but there was NEVER any watery discharge and he never pawed at his nose. It was always a thick mucous with a slight red "tinge" in it. The only sneezing he had was reverse sneezing in the middle of the night. It freaked us out but Emmitt acted as though nothing was wrong. He still ate well, energy level was the same, slept well, and always greeted us with a wagging tail. The veterinarian that oversaw the CT scan and scope told us that he was hopeful that it was a "hot" fungal infection or possibly something lodged in his nose. Well, it turned out to be what we dreaded the most and what keeps so many of us turning to this forum for help and/or comfort. Emmitt's diagnosis was nasal adenocarcinoma.
Having said that, while I am not a veterinarian I can only tell you that given the fact that these guys explore everything with their noses, there is a possibility that Zack inhaled something that got stuck in his nasal passage, became infected, started the sneezing, and is now inflamed thus causing the blood. The nosebleeds that Emmitt has had have been quite an "event". They didn't actually start until later in his treatment and he has only had three or four of these "events". As for his stuffiness, he started out with none and it has gotten progressively worse as time has gone by.
The best advice I can give you is to not only listen to your veterinarian but question him/her as well. You know Zack better than anyone. Ask questions, get as much information as you can, and do what YOU think is best for Zack. Although I respect our veterinarian and am thankful for everything that he has done for us, if I would have done what we were first told to do, we would have brought Emmitt home and continued to pump him full of pills and just "made him comfortable". We are now in our 9th month of our fight and we continue the battle one day at a time. Best of luck to you and Zack and please keep up posted. The same goes for Boomer's Mom & AK-Cathy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Bill & Emmitt (& Dexter too)
Thank you very much for your help Bill! My prayers are with you for your baby Emmitt also and everyone else batteling this. Well today the vet called (which is a replacement because his normal vet is on vacation this week) and said Zacks tests for cushings came back negative but that his normal vet wants to test him again with a more detailed test called low dex which is an 8 hour test as opposed to a 2 hour test. She said that the test Zack took can come back negative but in 25% of negative results the results should be positive for cushings. So we will probably bring him in this week for another more detailed test because his vet thinks he needs it she said. I should mention that the vet he goes to is an emergency vet in my area and this is where he had radiation for his tumor that was cancer a few months back so they have all the technology there which is good. Everything can just get very expensive but we would do anything to help him even if it means a big bill to pay for years. He has been seeing this vet for over 3 years so they know him pretty well and thinks he should be tested. The cancer specialist also examined Zack when we had him there last Thursday and said he thought he could have the nasal cancer. We are just so scared because they told us to figure out one thing at a time and are dealing with this chance of cushings now. They gave him antibiotics which have stoped fior the most part his dripping of urine which they said could be an urniary infection caused by cushings. Well for his nose As I said before I think he was at the vet about 6 weeks ago for hot spots, infected eye and a small runny nose which was a thick clogged green snot. The vet thought it was allergies and gave him antibiotics, eye drops and prednizone. It seemed that when he was coming off the prednizone the every other day point he could hardly breath at all and was taking deep breaths. We stopped the prednizone because he only had a couple pills left and we had been on every other day for a few days. After a few more days his nose got better as the days went by to the point that we really were not concerned that much with it. When we brought himin last Thursday that is when they looked at thought it could be cancer. Now his nose is just dripping a clear water like liquid mostly. I have been reading on line the signs and read about the blood and then we left Zack for about an hour and came home to a couple drops on the floor. We don't know for sure where it came from. I patted his nose with a towel and it was mostly water but it has a very small light brownish dot that looked like blood. I pated his nose probably 6 or 8 more times and got a few more small very light spots but not everytime. This morning nothing and no blood on the floor. he is sneezing some but maybe two sneezes every couple hours at the most. Also he is very hungry and acts the same as far as energy. Does anybody else think this sound like it could be cancer? Bill did you say that Emmitt's nose became different looking? Under Zack's nostrals it looks a little swolen and one opening looks a little larger and maybe more pink than it used to be. Zack has been though a lot and we just want him to be happy and we would do anything to help him Thanks again for any additional help and I pray for all of you that are dealing with this. Sasha
Last edited by seahorsestarfish; 06-22-2009 at 03:58 PM..
I just got up after having a hectic weekend at work. The weekends leave me little time to post as they really exhaust me.
I too saw Boomers pictures, I love the couch potatoe too! Sorry you are finding yourself joining us here.People at the dog park keep asking about Dash's cancer I tell them the sad fact that it is a pretty commom canine cancer. I noticed Boomer has squamous cell .In all my years working in health care I have noticed that people with squamous cell lung cancer tend to do alot more bleeding then those with adenocarcinoma so I imagine it may be the same with it as nasal cancer too. Doesn't seem fair that he has had two types of cancer but life is not fair and that does happen. Poor Boomer! Just remember that the bleeding does not seem to upset them as much as it upsets us humans,well some of us as I myself am pretty use to seeing blood. The secret it to remain calm as when you get upset so does your dog and blood pressuere and heart rate go up and that equals more blood coming out that nose. Also keep in mind that diet can really help slow cancers down in many cases. I think there is alot of excellent advce on this thread and hope you can put some of it to use.
Glad to hear Ginger is hanging in there and remember the time a vet gives you is just an average. with luck she will be one of the dogs that survives with a good quality of life way past the average. We do have some of those dogs on this thread. Yippie!!!
As for Dash and his doxycycline, well he is tolerating it well and has no discharge at the moment. The swelling is large again but last week I started him on his neoplasene again ( he has been off it for over 6 weeks) so some of that swelling may be due to that. He has been sounding real clear but today started the rattle and is itching his nose on things so I am thinking in a day or two we may have some bleeding start then another chunk of tissue sneezed out as this is how it has been with the neoplasene. Over all he is feeling great and has been very spunky. If it was not for the swelling I would forget her has the cancer right now. I think my regular vet was 100% correct to start him on low dose thyroid medicine as man it has perked the old guy up. I will be addding a thread about being the butt of my dogs jokes that will show how well the old guy seems to be feeling. In the back of my mind is the fact he could crash very fast but boy it is nice seeing him feel so well.
Dash has been going to the dog park ever day with Dazzle and I and it is too funny as all the dogs have to come take a look to see how his swelling is looking. He barks at them like " hey what are you looking at?" He had a beagle following him making the racket they make and she would not stop,we were thinking maybe she is smelling it and thinks she is alerting him? He would stop and turn and just glare at her" hey whats YOUR problem?"He feels well enough right now that when another dog was picking on Dazzle, Dash the baby sitter chased the bad dog away and was his younger ( can't say little as Dazzle towers over Dash) brothers Hero!
seahorsestarfish, yes it could be cancer and keep in mind there are several types of nasal cancers . With Dash the thing that alerted me was his reverse sneezing, Before he was diagnosed he only sneezed a scant amout of blood twice on a weekend that I really did not even consider that much as I figured he broke a blood vessel with all the reverse sneezing. There are other things it could also be such as a fungus. Where do you live? Certain areas the fungus are pretty common. It would take more testing to know for sure. How old is Zack and what breed?
I have 3 dogs looking at me begging for a walk and I want start the butt of my dogs joke thread so that is about all. Hope everyone else is still doing well. I think that Dash wants to be the poster dog for nasal cancer !
Thanks for your help also Dashdog and I am thinking that yes it sounds like Dash should be a poster child!!! I live in south Florida so I don't know about Fungus. Do you think there is alot down here? Zack is 11 and a Siberian Husky. I have read that certain dogs are more likley to get this type of cancer but I know that dosn't alway matter. I didn't notice any blood from him yesterday at all. I dabbed his nose some and saw nothing. Also it looks like his nose may be a little more black. Zack has had a dry flacky nose for at least 2 years I would say. This morning he is still in bed but I hear just a little whistle in his nose like something is bothering him. It is not a snore but kinda a whistle that is very slight if you listen carefully. Did anybody else have these symptoms in the begining? I wish you all a good day, Sasha
seahorse- sorry for what you are going thru. everyone on this thread has been thru this, yet the disease, if it is nasal cancer, can be very different.
my dog Oscar, a bichon, age 13 passed away from nasal cancer 2 years ago. he had similar symptoms ( sneezing, with a bloody tinge once in a while) the vet suspected an infection at first but it didn't clear up with antibiotics and he required further testing. by that time he was having more bloody noses and sounding stuffed up and snored a lot.
and yes, in the beginning, I do recall a whistling sound from his nose. sadly for Oscar the disease had progressed too much for anything that could help him, I would have done anything to buy him time but only if it was good time. we had to say goodbye to him when we saw the struggle was getting too much for him. still miss my buddy so much.
that being said, each case is different and many people on this forum have fought this various ways- diet, herbs, medications, radiation, etc. I found a lot of information here. don't give up the fight, remember it could still be something other than cancer.
Thank you Oscarmom and I am truely sorry for your loss of Oscar. I know losing a pet is very difficult as they are part of our family. I had a cat pass away 3 years ago and I still to this day miss him also. With Zack we are taking one thing at a time for now and he is scheduled to go in for a second test for cushings on Friday. I am hoping this is negative also. His urine test came back today with no infection so we do not know why he has been dripping urine. he finished his 5th day of antibiotics today and it is hardly dripping at all now it seems and his nose looks at least some better. After this test I guess we will move to his nose as this scares me the most but we have to know how healthy he would be to handle any treatments if they do find cancer there. He seems very happy and himself except they told me they think these things. Zacks nose is just dripping a small amount of a clear water and not clogged and he is sneezing some. Did Oscar ever have a clear water drip?
once in a while Oscar would have a clear discharge from his nose, but mostly it had a little blood. so its possible ( but I am no vet) that it is something other than cancer. there are lots of other nasal ailments ( as I am sure your vet will tell you) that are much more treatable than cancer. I hope that turns out to be the case- but if not, we are all here for you.
here is a picture of my handsome guy, a few months before he left us
Yes you are right to say that Oscar is handsome becasue this is certainly true!! Thanks for your support. Tonight when I got home from work Zacks nose had more of a green snot in it and running out some and on top of his nose it looks pinkish. Well I will stop questioning until I get results back from testing I guess because I am making myself sick from worring about him. That is all I can do now so I need to start thinking positive and be happy for everyday no matter what. Thanks again and have a good night!!!
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