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Thank you. That is a great idea, the list. I am going to do that right now. I am feeling stupid for not having thought of that myself! I have lost dogs in the past (a dobie/shep x lived to 17!), but never to something like this, and I and my husband don't ever want to accidently put our selfish feelings so far out in front that we don't see the truth of what is happening.
I am lost for words with your kind offer. I don't know what to say.
I went to Carlsbad today to see the oncologist. I am too wound up to say anything about it right now. After listening to the radiologist, anyone that is considering radiation for the nose and wants to keep their loved one around for awhile, please consider seeking treatment. The radiation could keep your pet around for awhile longer, without major side effects.
Are you looking at palliative radiation or definitive? If you are considering denifitive you might want to check out this blog. I met the owner of Finny on another forum and I must say she did a beautiful job with the blog about Finny's nasal cancer and radiation treatment. I think his was 18 days. Great pictures too but somewhat tough to look at his radiation burns. Dash did not get burns from his 5 days of IMRT nor was he shaved so all he got was more white hairs a few months later. She gives a good cancer diet too on the blog.
I hadn't seen Finny's blog, thanks for pointing it out. He looks a lot like Scout did, and her descriptions were quite on point. I also remember my oncologist saying that around 3 weeks post-radiation I'd be asking, "Why did I ever do this?" and that a month later it'd be a distant memory. I wouldn't say it's a distant memory, but it's amazing how fast dogs jump back. I followed Honey's blog while we were going through treatment and found it helpful: My assault on the world begins now
Also, if anyone is in the Boston area, there's an oncologist who is doing definitive radiation treatment in 10 days. The doses, from what I understand are stronger, but it is less expensive and the time involved obviously makes things easier. Prognosis is the same as the longer treatments.
Wonder if the Vet in Boston is doing it using IMRT? The fact IMRT is so focused on just the tumor they can give higher does then they do with regular radiation. So I would think that would allow them to cut back on the number of days it is given.
After a terrible congested restless night I took Dash to the park to play with his usual Thursday dog group. He had a ball and did alot of running as the young standard schnauzer, Smokey that he has the hots for was there. Thus he had to impress her and show her cancer or no cancer he is still the man. There was a new little older female mutt there that was a bit afraid of the others so Dash befriended her too so he had two girls to show off for! When we got home he had a sneezing fit that lasted for a couple minutes and these were big shake your head sneezes that looked like they might hurt. The first several nothing came out then the next two what I thought were huge blood clots came flying out,When I examined them I thought it looked like more tissue so washed the blood off and sure enough it is more large pieces of tissue. The neoplasene must be taking out all necrotic tissue from his radiation as I can't believe this would be all cancer. Hope it is not his brain coming out! lol! My boy will have the cleanest nose in town! I am hoping he has a much better night tonight as maybe this was what was causing the problem last night as it was probably ripping away from the inside of is nose and flapping back and forth with each breath. He now has a mild bleed and probably will for a few days but I have his neoplasene on hold so things should heal faster.
I am still not sure what I think of the neoplasene as at times when it makes him so congested I hate it and think why am I doing this? Or when he does start sneezing and bleeding and I am thinking is this the cancer or is this the neoplasene?Then we have the days like today where I think Wow that stuff works!
Chol those are fantastic sculptures! Can you do busts as well? If so I'd love to get one made of Pete.
For everyone who responded to my post, thank you so much for your kind words and advice. Since finding out we couldn't have children Pete has been our "fur baby" and the thought of losing him has been pretty rough on both my husband and I. He went in to the vet again today and had some skull x-rays done, which did show an abnormality in the nasal passage he's been bleeding from. So, it doesn't look good.
Each procedure the vet has mentioned that would help definitively diagnose what exactly is going on is over a thousand dollars. On one hand it's killing me inside to think that I'm letting money stand in the way of helping him, on the other I can't help but to think taking out a loan to perform diagnostics for a disease that is inevitably not cureable make no sense either. The fustration and guilt I feel everytime I look at him (to put it bluntly) sucks. Deep down I know he's okay with whatever decision I make, I just hope I am too.
So, where do we go from here? If we decide to just let him be and not pursue any diagnostics or treatment what should we expect? Is it going to be painful for him, and if it is what kind of pain medications should I ask for? If we decide to go for the diagnostics, which would be better? The rhino, CT, or MRI? If we go that route we can only afford to do one so I want to make sure it's the best course of action.
Sorry for the gigantic picture of Pete, couldn't figure out how to make it smaller!
So, where do we go from here? If we decide to just let him be and not pursue any diagnostics or treatment what should we expect? Is it going to be painful for him, and if it is what kind of pain medications should I ask for? If we decide to go for the diagnostics, which would be better? The rhino, CT, or MRI? If we go that route we can only afford to do one so I want to make sure it's the best course of action.
Dear Petedog,
I live with a friend whose dog has nasal cancer. The dog was diagnosed in June of 2007. (Yes, that is correct.) She had all the typical symptoms. Backward sneezing, bleeding from the nose, and so on. Our one vet pretty much diagnosed it right off the bat. She said it's most likely nasal cancer. There really isn't much you can do, but dogs seem to respond well to prednisone. She also advised against doing all the expensive tests like MRIs and biopsies, and she also advised against radiation, because of its cost and complications.
Well, my friend (bless her heart) needed to feel like she was doing everything possible, so she drove to another doctor and spent $2,000 on an MRI and a biopsy anyway.
What she got back a bunch of paperwork explaining the tests results that sits in corner in the kitchen. Every now and then guests come over, and she pulls out that piece of paper and reads it aloud. Everyone shakes their heads and no one understands what it means. She then fold the test results back up and puts them away again.
18 months later, the dog is still on predisone and her condition has not changed. She still lives, to the amazement of everyone. (And unfortunately, nobody likes the dog, because it is really annoying.) The dog doesn't even look sick, although it still does that backward sneezing business.
In retrospect, my friend wishes she never did the MRI because she thinks it was a waste of money. After all, what was it for? We already knew the dog had nasal cancer. And she wasn't going to go through with the radiation anyway.
However, having just lost a dog to what was probably intestinal cancer, according to the most recent vet I took her to, it is really, really hard to see them sick. You want to believe that you've done everything possible for them. Because it makes you crazy to watch them suffer.
My dog passed away before Christmas. More than anything, what I wish for is that I could hold her one more time and tell her again how much I loved her. I also wish to God that I would have gotten off my lazy butt more often to take her on more walks through the woods, because that is what she loved more than anything. She loved being outside and smelling everything and running with the wind in her ears.
I noticed that a lot of you have pictures with your dogs with nasal cancer. I thought I'd upload or try to anyway one of Coco and how is nose looks today. Anybody with this?
Does she have a growth on her nose? I can't tell from the photo.
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