Canine Lymphoma

[2boxer]

My brothers 6year old Great Dane has just been diagnosed with lymphona. It's been graded as a stage 3a cancer and tested as a diffuse high grade large B cell lymphoma. He is considering chemo. I was just wondering if anyone has experienced this type and severity of lymphona with their dog, and what have been the outcomes. Thanks in advance!

[dancinbcs]

I don't know of any dogs with Lymphoma who have lived longer than 12 months, regardless of treatment, chemo or alternative. One who had $33,000 worth of chemo still only survived 12 months and was very ill for much of that time.

[Miss Squish]

My boy lived for another 3 years after having chemo for Lymphoma. He passed away a few months ago after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, bone cancer. He was also 6 when first diagnosed & had only the one day that he was unwell during chemo.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Miss Squish

[piper]

I only know of one who has done well post chemo for lymphoma. The dog would have been only around 2 and would be probably 5 years post treatment now.

The others I know of are like Dancinbcs said and a year or not much more. I know of 1 that did not make it as long with chemo as another did with just cortisone.

My thoughts are with your brother. It is a shitty disease. I have lost 2 dogs to the horrid thing

[Spoony]

My boy (Harvey, Traditional (Bone Mouth) Chinese Shar-pei) has Lymphoma . His also is B-Cell (B Cell responds better to treatment than T Cell). His Stage 4-5 though, with indications of Leukemia in his blood.

Generally Lymphoma is not cureable in dogs. But a life extension is possible and a happy healthy one at that too.

I’ll give you a little run down of my experience, hopefully it helps. I found myself overwhelmed with info and perhaps read too much almost haha.

He was diagnosed early November last year and has been on Chemo for treatment. The first 'round' is a 6 month protocol, initially starting weekly for the first 9 weeks, then it drops to fortnightly.

It certainly isn't cheap, and when one looks up the massive profits they make on the drugs it's sad. Little doubt most vets or specialist vets in my case are all about getting fat from the money trough.

Harvey struggled for the first month. As it was fairly advanced (annoyed the vet didn’t pick up earlier) he was still in good health but certainly lacking energy and bounce. He had a few sick reactions to the drugs and getting him to eat was a struggle. He went from 24kg down to 17kg. Once there was a week ‘off’ in the treatment I managed to get him back up and eating better and kept improving from there.

It’s certainly a learning experience and from that point I manage to keep him kicking along really well. He had the odd off day 3 days after treatment but at most he was just a bit flat. The rest of the time he was 100%+

Sadly only 6 weeks after stopping the first 6 month ‘round’ the cancer had already come back. I started him back up again and he responded really well, and the treatment didn’t phase him at all. (I told myself if he reacted bad, I wouldn’t put him through it, thankfully it’s a non issue).

A month ago now this this treatment started to become non effective so a new tablet drug has been added in and other dropped. But it’s all only ‘just’ holding the terrible thing off now, and the sad reality that time is getting short for the poor fella.

So for me, it’s all still been worth it. Sure it’s cost me a mint, I have a folder of invoices that’s thicker than my tax history haha. But his my best mate, and money’s only money, getting to spend what hopefully will push to a full extra year with ones best mate is worth it to me.

It’s a learning experience and I would say managing how you dog handles the treatment is the biggest factor. Diet diet diet. Something I never really thought of, Harv simply got crappy Supercoat and the odd tin of sardines, that was it. Since getting cancer he gets a base of Blackhawk, cooked chicken and some other meats, sardines, fish oil, antioxidant supplements and some veggies. Once chemo stepped to 2 weekly people never believed me when I told them he had cancer and was on chemo. Simply and even today he is a happier and more energetic dog than before having chemo/cancer just because his fed well.

The key also is to feed them up and keep them fed up so if they don’t want to eat, there are reserves. When they will eat feed them lots of good food so you don’t have to stress as much if there are times they do not.

All the best to you brother and his Dane.