Hey all,

Rudy has had a lump in his leg for many years. I'd say up to 8-9. I have had
all the vets check it out, and it came up, with a needle biopsy, as a lipoma
at first. Then it was diagnosed as a fibroma. We watched it, it has always
been the size of an M&M. I used to tease him when he licked it to not eat
chocolate, so no M&Ms. wry grin
In the past 4 yrs he's developed two more very close to this one. I was
talked out of surgery to remove because of his age and the fact that they
were keeping an eye on it, without change.

Anyway, about two and a half weeks ago, I noticed he'd been licking it
again, for 2 days. I took a look on the second day, (as I had the day before
with no change), and this one was now *outside* of his skin!
It was the size of a marble, discolored, (black to pink to red), looked like
mice had been eatng it, (teeny "scoops" taken out in one area), and it was
hard as a rock. I immediately took him to the vet, who when looking at it
with me, when asked if it was cancer, he couldn't tell without a biopsy. But
from the look of it, he thought the same thing I did, cancer, for sure.

So we had that one and the other two under his skin taken out, right away.
He had to go back in for re-bandaging, as the vet really wanted to keep an
eye on it, healing. The lab misplaced the sample somehow, and it took about
two weeks for us to get the results.

The vet called this am, about ten minutes ago, and from the caller ID, I
knew.

My baby boy has cancer. Mast cell sarcoma.

In only the one found outside his leg, the other two are fibromas. He's had
this, as I said, for many years, and the vet told me that if it's been 23
'weeks' (I think, maybe months), that it was a good sign that he'd had it
for so long without spreading. He just turned 14 on Valentine's Day and I
know we've been lucky so far. I'm going in to discuss treatment this
afternoon and vet wants to put him on Prednisone, at least, for now. He is
also looking into other areas where the cancer may have spread.

My very first reaction was chemo. But as I watch my own Mom's quality of
life diappear in the past few months, I will NOT do this to Rudy. If he was
much younger, maybe. But I *refuse* to take away from him any last
months/years he has left feeling as good as he does. He will go peacefully
at home, in my arms. If at all possible. Of course, God may choose to take
him in his sleep one night, and that's okay, too. I just can't see any
reason to put him on any meds that may affect his quality of life.

Rudy is still VERY frisky, and has a great appetite. He does not in any way
shape or form, look sick at all. He is such a happy guy, and if I can help
him stay that way until no longer possible, I will.

I know this has been discussed at length on these newsgroups here, but I
would certainly appreciate any views/experience/opinions/whatever, from
anyone here.

(The one thing I ask, is please do not quote anything in this thread made by
howe. It will be nasty and ugly and I really don't need to see it. I have
him filtered, and can catch his newer IDs right away and kill file them, so
as long as no one quotes what he says, I can deal. I can deal with/without
him as he's not anybody to me, but I just don't need the added snarky ****
from him. I'm sure that 99.999999999% of you will understand. Thank you)

If you'd prefer, and I would, you can e-mail me directly at
marbethsATcoxDOTnet anytime to share anything with me.

I *know* this is going to kill me when it happens and I've sworn all my life
that the only way I could LOVE anyone as much as him was if I had given
birth to my own child.

I don't have children so he's IT!! My big brave boy,
I do have Ceilidh aka Boo, and Zack, whom I love dearly, but they are my
'dogs'. As much as I love them, Rudy is my 'child'.

If you want to e-mail and post, to share with others, that's fine, too.

PHWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWW

So there it is, the ONE SINGLE post I've been dreading since I first came on
here when he was about 3 years old.

Thanks to all that have gone before me and can empathize, and to all the
rest who may help.

I keep in mind the one thing I read many years ago about Euthanasia.
"It's the one true best gift you can give to your faithful companion. When
you take away his pain and make it your own."

This will help guide me as nothing else can.

Love to all and your beloved pups!

MaryBeth & Rudy

I forgot to add. The mast cell sarcoma is at Stage 2.

MaryBeth

In article UGaYf.3688$IG.2337@dukeread01,
says...
My baby boy has cancer. Mast cell sarcoma.

In only the one found outside his leg, the other two are fibromas. He's had
this, as I said, for many years, and the vet told me that if it's been 23
'weeks' (I think, maybe months), that it was a good sign that he'd had it
for so long without spreading. He just turned 14 on Valentine's Day and I
know we've been lucky so far. I'm going in to discuss treatment this
afternoon and vet wants to put him on Prednisone, at least, for now. He is
also looking into other areas where the cancer may have spread.

My very first reaction was chemo. But as I watch my own Mom's quality of
life diappear in the past few months, I will NOT do this to Rudy. If he was
much younger, maybe. But I *refuse* to take away from him any last
months/years he has left feeling as good as he does. He will go peacefully
at home, in my arms. If at all possible. Of course, God may choose to take
him in his sleep one night, and that's okay, too. I just can't see any
reason to put him on any meds that may affect his quality of life.

First, my sympathies.

Second, have you discussed the type of chemo he'd be on with your vet?
The side effects of chemo in dogs can be much less severe than in
humans. My toy poodle Laika was diagnosed with anal sac adenocarcinoma
in November, and now, post-surgery (which successfully got all his
cancer), he's gone through 5 rounds of chemo, with absolutely no side
effects. Granted, he was on a sort of "lite" chemo, but even when we
discussed the heavier stuff, the possible side effects the vet described
were far less drastic than in humans.
--
Debbie the Dogged das at spamcop dot net
"Poodles are space aliens who think they've disguised
themselves as dogs." - Paghat the Ratgirl

Mary,

If you choose not to go with chemo and at his age I doubt I would to. You
can always treat with Benedryl and cimetadine on a daily basis along with
the prednisone. My Barney had mast cell for almost 6 years, two of them
were removed successfully and I kept him on a daily dose of Benedryl and
cimetadine till the day he passed away. He was never able to take the
prednisone due to his arthritis medication that he took. He had severe
arthritis so pred just wasn't an option for him until the end.

The Benedryl keeps the histamines in check in the system this way if they
develop another tumor chances of them going into anaphlactic shock are
minimized and the cimetadine to keeps the stomach acid in check. While the
Benedryl & cimetadine are not a cure I feel that the constant use of the two
gave Barney many more years he would not have had otherwise. Both my
regular vet and the orthopedic vet were amazed he stayed healthy as long as
he did. Eventually he developed a tumor in his mouth where it couldn't be
surgically removed and at the age of 12 I wasn't willing to put him through
chemo knowing that it would basically burn his whole face during the
treatment.

To try and treat the one in his mouth we did stop his arthritis meds and put
him in very high doses of prednisone for a while. When we dropped the dose
of the pred down the arthritis got so bad I had to make the choice either
keep him comfortable with the pain medication for the arthritis or keep on
going with the pred and at that point he couldn't walk 10 feet without
collapsing in pain. I chose to stop the pred and keep him pain free.
Unfortunately the efforts to stop the mast cell didn't work in the end and I
had to let him go.

I do hope things go well for your dog. It's an awful thing to treat. The
best advice I can give is to give him a massage nightly and the first sign
of any bump or abnormality get it biopsied the next day. Don't take a wait
and see approach the sooner these things are removed the better.

Good Luck
Celeste



"Mary Beth" wrote in message
news:UGaYf.3688$IG.2337@dukeread01...
Hey all,

Rudy has had a lump in his leg for many years. I'd say up to 8-9. I have
had all the vets check it out, and it came up, with a needle biopsy, as a
lipoma at first. Then it was diagnosed as a fibroma. We watched it, it has
always been the size of an M&M. I used to tease him when he licked it to
not eat chocolate, so no M&Ms. wry grin
In the past 4 yrs he's developed two more very close to this one. I was
talked out of surgery to remove because of his age and the fact that they
were keeping an eye on it, without change.

Anyway, about two and a half weeks ago, I noticed he'd been licking it
again, for 2 days. I took a look on the second day, (as I had the day
before with no change), and this one was now *outside* of his skin!
It was the size of a marble, discolored, (black to pink to red), looked
like mice had been eatng it, (teeny "scoops" taken out in one area), and
it was hard as a rock. I immediately took him to the vet, who when looking
at it with me, when asked if it was cancer, he couldn't tell without a
biopsy. But from the look of it, he thought the same thing I did, cancer,
for sure.

So we had that one and the other two under his skin taken out, right away.
He had to go back in for re-bandaging, as the vet really wanted to keep an
eye on it, healing. The lab misplaced the sample somehow, and it took
about two weeks for us to get the results.

The vet called this am, about ten minutes ago, and from the caller ID, I
knew.

My baby boy has cancer. Mast cell sarcoma.

In only the one found outside his leg, the other two are fibromas. He's
had this, as I said, for many years, and the vet told me that if it's been
23 'weeks' (I think, maybe months), that it was a good sign that he'd had
it for so long without spreading. He just turned 14 on Valentine's Day and
I know we've been lucky so far. I'm going in to discuss treatment this
afternoon and vet wants to put him on Prednisone, at least, for now. He is
also looking into other areas where the cancer may have spread.

My very first reaction was chemo. But as I watch my own Mom's quality of
life diappear in the past few months, I will NOT do this to Rudy. If he
was much younger, maybe. But I *refuse* to take away from him any last
months/years he has left feeling as good as he does. He will go peacefully
at home, in my arms. If at all possible. Of course, God may choose to
take him in his sleep one night, and that's okay, too. I just can't see
any reason to put him on any meds that may affect his quality of life.

Rudy is still VERY frisky, and has a great appetite. He does not in any
way shape or form, look sick at all. He is such a happy guy, and if I can
help him stay that way until no longer possible, I will.

I know this has been discussed at length on these newsgroups here, but I
would certainly appreciate any views/experience/opinions/whatever, from
anyone here.

(The one thing I ask, is please do not quote anything in this thread made
by howe. It will be nasty and ugly and I really don't need to see it. I
have him filtered, and can catch his newer IDs right away and kill file
them, so as long as no one quotes what he says, I can deal. I can deal
with/without him as he's not anybody to me, but I just don't need the
added snarky **** from him. I'm sure that 99.999999999% of you will
understand. Thank you)

If you'd prefer, and I would, you can e-mail me directly at
marbethsATcoxDOTnet anytime to share anything with me.

I *know* this is going to kill me when it happens and I've sworn all my
life that the only way I could LOVE anyone as much as him was if I had
given birth to my own child.

I don't have children so he's IT!! My big brave boy,
I do have Ceilidh aka Boo, and Zack, whom I love dearly, but they are my
'dogs'. As much as I love them, Rudy is my 'child'.

If you want to e-mail and post, to share with others, that's fine, too.

PHWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWW

So there it is, the ONE SINGLE post I've been dreading since I first came
on here when he was about 3 years old.

Thanks to all that have gone before me and can empathize, and to all the
rest who may help.

I keep in mind the one thing I read many years ago about Euthanasia.
"It's the one true best gift you can give to your faithful companion. When
you take away his pain and make it your own."

This will help guide me as nothing else can.

Love to all and your beloved pups!

MaryBeth & Rudy

I'm really sorry to hear this, Mary Beth. You have tough
decisions ahead.

Dylan had squamous cell carcinoma in her mouth, which was
discovered when she was 7. We treated it with radiation and
chemo, and that bought her nearly four years (and she most likely
died of an unrelated aneurysm). The radiation and chemo did not
have the side effects that they do in humans - our oncologist
explained that they use lighter doses in dogs, because their life
spans are shorter to begin with. Dylan sailed through both
treatments with barely noticeable side effects and stayed frisky
and active the whole time.

That said, we probably would not have opted to treat the cancer,
or else would have used "lighter" treatments, if she had been 14;
that's elderly in a GSD. The treatments are expensive, too - a
consideration that you might not want to have, but it's there,
nonetheless.

I hope all goes well for Rudy, and that whatever course of action
you opt for enables him to live out his life in comfort.

FurPaw

--
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."
Isaac Asimov, _Foundation_

To reply, unleash the dog

On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:54:41 -0500 Mary Beth whittled these words:
My baby boy has cancer. Mast cell sarcoma.

In only the one found outside his leg, the other two are fibromas. He's had
this, as I said, for many years, and the vet told me that if it's been 23
'weeks' (I think, maybe months), that it was a good sign that he'd had it
for so long without spreading. He just turned 14 on Valentine's Day and I
know we've been lucky so far. I'm going in to discuss treatment this
afternoon and vet wants to put him on Prednisone, at least, for now. He is
also looking into other areas where the cancer may have spread.

Well that is really rotten.

My very first reaction was chemo. But as I watch my own Mom's quality of
life diappear in the past few months, I will NOT do this to Rudy. If he was
much younger, maybe. But I *refuse* to take away from him any last
months/years he has left feeling as good as he does. He will go peacefully
at home, in my arms. If at all possible. Of course, God may choose to take
him in his sleep one night, and that's okay, too. I just can't see any
reason to put him on any meds that may affect his quality of life.

Everyone needs to make their decision based on their own particular
situation. One thing to look into is what the potential course of
treatments involve, and their typical effect on the dog. I've had two
dogs now on chemo, and neither seemed particularly bothered by it. But
that might be due to their particular cancers, the locations, the
individual dogs, and the particular drugs involved. There is nothing
wrong with including financial considerations, especially if the proposed
treatment does not bring with it increased quality of life. IOW at a
certain age it becomes a matter of if one thing don't get you another will
and treating just because you can may not make a practical difference.

I hope that things go as well as they might.


--
Diane Blackman
There is no moral victory in proclaiming to abhor violence
while preaching with violent words.
http://dog-play.com/ http://dogplayshops.com/

Thank you so much to all that have answered. You've all been wonderful!

An update:
We're actually doing very well here, by now.
I chose to go with Prednisone, zantac/pepcid/tagamet, and benadryl.
For now, the main thing we have to watch is his liver. No signs in x-rays
nor palpation from vet have shown up any tumors tere, but his liver enzymes
are high! So we've got him on Zentonil 400 mg, which is SAM-e. (I had once
thought of trying this for arthritis, in myself, but many said it wasn't
very efficacious.) But for liver problems it's doing wonders for some. So
that and antibiotics.

His CBC came back all normal, except for the liver enzymes.
His buffy smear came back normal.
His x-rays showed nothing.
And there is NO lymph node involvement!

So, we've finally determined he's Grade 1, Stage 1.

Very good outcome. They say if it comes back, and it most likely will, that
it will be in same place as before. (I am checking him daily for anything!)
I told the vet I'd found a cite on a a website that said trials with no
other involvement other than at the spot, showed that with surgery and
radiation that 86% of dogs live another five years. So I told him I had
decided that every time it comes back we'll do those, so we get another 5
yrs, and another 5 yrs and another....... wry grin
My vet looked at me really funny, when I said this, as he thought I was
serious! lol
I figured if every five years he gets surgery and rad. he'll live forever.
G

Anyway, thanks again to all, we're on the path, and we'll just have to wait
and see what happens. My vet has agreed with whatever I decide, if the Pred
is making him too uncomfortable with the piddling, (as it has before), we'll
drop it. But keep the benadryl and tummy meds. AND the liver meds as long as
no problems arise.

He will come to the house, if/when it is 'time' so that Rudy won't have any
anxiety, and he'll take him with him to be cremated. It's funny, there are
days when I can talk about it openly and intelligently, but then there are
those times when just an inkling of a thought goes flashing by....and I'm in
tears on the floor next to him.

But all in all, we've got the very best outlook here and he's doing great so
far, only 4 days into treatment, but what will happen will happen...... I
decided to just give it to God, and hope for the acceptance of whatever is
to come.

I will love him as best I can, as always, which really gives me a lot of
contentment, knowing that I have loved him and treated him so very well
*all* of his years with me, since he was 8 weeks old.

Thanks again,
MaryBeth & Rudy