LogFAQs > #876169176

Jen0125 posted...

If it is cancer has anyone ever gotten chemo for their dog here before? Looking for first hand experiences if possible. Even second hand.

My dog had a pretty large tumor develop on her leg. I was given the option of amputating the leg for about $2000, or doing chemo/radiation treatment for $10000. I went with the chemo.

The process for her was that I had to bring her to the vet hospital a couple times for evaluation (X-raying the area and so on), then they operated to remove the majority of the mass. After a little while for the surgery wound to heal, I had to bring her in for 20 days straight (Mon-Fri) without skipping any days, where they would spend about an hour or so doping her up and applying radiation to the leg. For the first few days there was no obvious change, but eventually the skin in the area started to turn irritated, and by the end it was basically an open suppurating wound. After the treatment is done they had us come in a few more times to make sure the leg was healing right and that there were no cancerous cells left to start the whole thing over again. Ultimately, it worked - the lump never came back.

She had to have a cone on her head for most of the recovery time to prevent her from biting at the wound (dogs do that), and I'm sure she was kind of miserable for most of it (and it's kind of heartbreaking that you can't really explain to the dog why this stuff is happening), but after everything is said and done, I'm still 100% glad I did it instead of going with the alternative. She only lived for a few years after that, but she started to have joint troubles towards the end (which made it harder for her to get up and down and to walk), which only would have been worse if she only had three legs.

That might be the worst case scenario, though. Her lump was pretty big and woven fairly deep into her leg tissues, and while we were going through the whole process they did mention at one point that the treatment might not have been as severe if the problem wasn't as bad.



Jen0125 posted...

I think it may just be a cyst because he's not in pain at all or acting sick and he has a cyst on his little knee already.

My dog had multiple lumps in various places - most of them just turned out to be cysts or benign growths. It's definitely possible that your dog's lump might not be a major issue, but a vet hospital will be able to do a much better job of evaluating that then your regular check-up vet. If you're concerned, you should definitely get him checked early on, because the whole process might be easier on him (and you) if you catch it early.

Better safe than sorry - you're better off taking him in only to find that it's benign than you are putting it off and having it turn out to be malignant.


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