Zach Has A Tumour

[zaxmum]

Yesterday was a tough day. We'd had Zach in at the vet's for an ultrasound, cell samples and X-ray after I noticed some drops of blood coming from his private parts, and it turns out he has a prostate tumour. It could be one of two cancers: transitional cell carcinoma, or prostatic - the first , our vet says, has a better prognosis and the second is very aggressive but a lot more rare. Zach has further X-rays and scans on Monday to see if there is any spread to other organs.

It's unlucky for him, as he is a desexed boy and this is apparently more common in intact males.

There was an option to do a biopsy to find out more about which cancer it is, and remove the surrounding lymph nodes, but as Zach is 12 and we wanted to spare him the painful and invasive op, we opted to go straight into chemo treatment as soon as possible. Our vet has referred Zach to an oncologist, who will decide on the exact drugs etc.

The good in all this bad is that the tumour has not affected so far Zach's ability to wee or poo and he is in great spirits and seems unaware of anything being wrong with him. This is the most important part of it all - his quality of life. He is such a happy, exuberant little fellow.

So far, that's where we are at, and I'm trying to stay positive. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience of this type of thing, and hear how you got on. Any tips or knowledge are so welcome at a time like this, and all healing vibes are very much appreciated too!

Thanks so much.

[Loraine]

Yesterday was a tough day. We'd had Zach in at the vet's for an ultrasound, cell samples and X-ray after I noticed some drops of blood coming from his private parts, and it turns out he has a prostate tumour. It could be one of two cancers: transitional cell carcinoma, or prostatic - the first , our vet says, has a better prognosis and the second is very aggressive but a lot more rare. Zach has further X-rays and scans on Monday to see if there is any spread to other organs.

It's unlucky for him, as he is a desexed boy and this is apparently more common in intact males.

There was an option to do a biopsy to find out more about which cancer it is, and remove the surrounding lymph nodes, but as Zach is 12 and we wanted to spare him the painful and invasive op, we opted to go straight into chemo treatment as soon as possible. Our vet has referred Zach to an oncologist, who will decide on the exact drugs etc.

The good in all this bad is that the tumour has not affected so far Zach's ability to wee or poo and he is in great spirits and seems unaware of anything being wrong with him. This is the most important part of it all - his quality of life. He is such a happy, exuberant little fellow.

So far, that's where we are at, and I'm trying to stay positive. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience of this type of thing, and hear how you got on. Any tips or knowledge are so welcome at a time like this, and all healing vibes are very much appreciated too!

Thanks so much.

That is not good for Zac, I hope it is the former of the two options, and I hope that Chemo helps the lad. Not a day for you love (((HUGS)))

[nell.m]

I am going through something similar. My 11yo fox terrier has Lymphoma. Luckily it has been caught in the early stages though. It know it is heartbreaking to hear your dog has cancer, so I really feel for you. At the moment my dog hasn't started chemo yet, hopefully he will have on monday or tuesday.

I have cut out all grains in his diet, and he is eating raw and cooked meat with vegetables. He is also taking fish oil tablets. I did some research and a dog cancer website calls the diet the "cancer dog's diet," which "starves" the cancer as apparently it feeds on sugar and carbohydrates. Anyway, the whole idea of the diet is to keep his immune system up.

I'm still new to this whole thing too, thankfully there's a lot of information out there on the net.

Sending healing vibes your way.

[zaxmum]

Thanks so much for your support guys. It's great to know about that diet as I was wondering about how we could help battle this with some nutritional weapons too. It's something I was going to ask the oncologist about this week, and also try for some help from a holistic practitioner, perhaps.

Nell it sounds like your dear foxie and Zach will be having their chemo over the same time - I do so hope it turns out well for both of them. Do you know much about the outcomes with lymphoma?

I know we're supposed to expect issues like this as they get older, but my boy is in such good shape in every other way - no arthritis, great coat, teeth, endless energy levels - it is just so hard to accept there's something there which could potentially take him.

We need to stay strong and positive and I know they pick up on that.

Let us know how your foxie goes. Fingers crossed.

And thanks to you too, Loraine, for your kind thoughts.

A

[KOE]

Send Auto a PM her 13 yo lab that has cardio myopothy just had his removed and he survived.

[nell.m]

Hope you dog is doing well! My dog is doing better than I expected on the chemo- no real side effects.

As far as I know, they can't "cure" lymphoma totally, but they aim to put it into remission. The remission time depends on the dog's health, stage of cancer, etc.

Finding out Jasper had cancer totally shocked me. I still think of him as a young dog because he's still the same as he was 10 years ago (except with more grey hair and more intelligence). So I can understand how you feel.

If you look in the "Palliative Care" forum in the health forum you can see there's a few threads on dog's progress getting treatment for cancer. You could start your own or just read what we're all going through.

I've also included a link to a "Dog Cancer Diet"

http://www.dogcancer.com.au/diet.html?gcli...CFREcagodtywoEA

[lucknow]

Hills make a 'cancer' diet intended to starve the neoplasia. If you don't want to use their food the research or findings are usually pretty accessible via google and easy to put into practice in the home environment.