Hamangiosarcoma (cancer)

[labadore]

Hemangiosarcoma is an awful aggressive cancer that by the time it is diagnosed it is normally too late for a good outcome, even with surgery and chemo treatment as these only buy some time. I lost one of my beloved black lab boys to this awful cancer 5 months after diagnosis despite surgery to remove his spleen (splenectomy) as that was where the tumour was and then chemo and this was despite the fact that during surgery and prior scans, there was no evidence of the spread to any other part of his body/organs. Not sure I would go down the chemo route again though if I was ever unlucky enough to have another one of lab's diagnosed with this awful cancer.

The reason it is so invasive and aggressive is because it is essentially a cancer of the cells that line the blood vessels and the most common place a hemangiosarcoma tumor is found is in the spleen as one of the major functions of the spleen is to filter old and dying red blood cells. Another place a hemangiosarcoma tumour is found is in the heart. If the tumour is in the spleen or heart, then there is a risk of a bleedout, hence the recommendation for a splenectomy, to prevent a life-threatening sudden bleed. Because the hemangiosarcoma tumors most often develop in internal organs, frequently, there are few or no obvious symptoms so by the time there any symptoms, the damage has been done. Hemangiosarcoma is rarely curable and the long-term prognosis for dogs with hemangiosarcoma is grave and unfortunately this horrible cancer with such a high fatality rate is claiming more and more of our beloved dogs. At present, there is no readily available, effective test for early diagnosis of hemangiosarcoma .

By what you describe with dog coughing, not eating etc, sounds to me like the cancer has spread to his lungs and the owners need to consider PTS option which as any of us that have been through this know, is an extremely difficult, emotional and devastating decision to make, but we do it to end our dog's suffering. You might want to pass on this link to the family to help them assess their poor dog's quality of life and help them make the decision to end their dog's suffering.

http://www.hilstvet.com/quality-of-life-scale-pets/

My holistic vet who was treating my poor boy in conjunction with his Oncologist helped me tremendously in understandng what my boy was going through and provided me with the Quality of Life Scale along with compassionate advice for which I will be eternally grateful for and she put my boy to sleep at my home when the time came not long after xrays showed the cancer had spread to his lungs.

So sorry for the dog and his family and my thoughts are with them during this very difficult time.

[Erny]

Thank you, Labadore, for your post, although I'm very sorry to hear that you, along with so many others, have had to experience this insidious disease through their dogs and I'm so sorry for all the loss the disease has and continues to cause, and for the fact of its very grim prognosis. I truly hope you don't have the experience again. I guess we never know, none of us .....

But thank you also for the link you provided. I have passed this link on to my friend's friend who has passed it on to his son. I can see that it would assist anyone in making assessment with reduced emotion that could otherwise cloud a judgement that might have us sometimes act too early and sometimes a bit late. It would be a rule of thumb measure and emotion would still play a little part in it, but it does make it a bit easier to see through our own cloud of emotion.

My friend's friend wrote back and said :

"... thank you very much for the information. It is very interesting and easy to follow. We can now watch out for things we did not even know to look out for before ... thank you very very much."

[dasha]

My old 15 year old kelpie had a cutaneous heamangio removed from her hind leg about 3 years ago. Big margins. Stitches broke down so she had a hole nearly the diameter of a drinking glass on her leg for a while.

The vets said you won't know if it's the primary tumour or a secondary unless she gets real sick in a short space of time. They said I may just come home and she may be dead if she has one inside that ruptures.

That was at least 3 years ago.

She runs around like a 5 year old and still rules the pack. She is quite frail now and losing muscle but it still very active.

So don't give up hope if it one on the skin.

[Erny]

Thank you, Dasha. Going by the symptoms, I'd hazard a good guess that this one has gone beyond that point. But whilst I'm really sorry that your dog had to suffer what she did, I'm thrilled to know that her surgery and your care has meant such a great period of quality life .... and that she's still going :D .

[White Shepherd mom]

How is your friend's dog Erny?

[persephone]

Hi there, so sorry to read these posts. Cancer is such a dreadful silent killer. I myself have just gone through this with my purebred Golden Cocker Spaniel. My 11 year old cocker spaniel girl had never had a day sick. She was an extremely healthy lively dog. Last Sunday I took her to a park with my 2 Border Collies and she would run as fast with them non stop, by the Thursday she just seemed a little quieter and a little bit of gastric. Friday morning I noticed her little tummy a bit swollen, we took her to our wonderful vets and they kept her for the day and ran blood tests. At 1pm that day she declined whilst there, they did a scan and noticed she had a tumour in her liver which had bled, hence why the tummy had some swelling, they extracted the blood with a syringe, and sent her home on pain relief and prednisone to keep her comfortable. It was to be our last weekend with her, she loved our son being up from Canberra with her and all our family with her over the weekend and seemed to pick up in herself being given a new toy also. Early hours of Monday morning she was restless, her tummy swelling again. We took her back to the vet and her gums were pale, we very sadly had to send her to Rainbow Bridge. I have never felt so gut wrenched and sad in my life. My little dog was the happiest and only looked about 4 years old. I just cannot believe how fast this disease took. Prior to this there were no symptoms, signs or anything to let me know. Our vet said many a breeder this has happened to also, it is one of those nasty diseases that comes on with no warning! Please everyone if you notice any swelling on your dogs stomachs don't hesitate to have it investigated! The vet had told my husband by phone on the Saturday morning to enjoy her while we have her, he only believed she had about 2 weeks with her, my husband didn't have the heart to tell me, he wanted the family just to love her and be with her being the last weekend we shared.

What you describe is almost exactly how I lost my boy Hamlet almost 2 yrs ago .. He was racing around madly 2 days previous ...

When I look back on photos- I could see how he had lost some muscle tone .

[scarlett rose]

Hi there, so sorry to read these posts. Cancer is such a dreadful silent killer. I myself have just gone through this with my purebred Golden Cocker Spaniel. My 11 year old cocker spaniel girl had never had a day sick. She was an extremely healthy lively dog. Last Sunday I took her to a park with my 2 Border Collies and she would run as fast with them non stop, by the Thursday she just seemed a little quieter and a little bit of gastric. Friday morning I noticed her little tummy a bit swollen, we took her to our wonderful vets and they kept her for the day and ran blood tests. At 1pm that day she declined whilst there, they did a scan and noticed she had a tumour in her liver which had bled, hence why the tummy had some swelling, they extracted the blood with a syringe, and sent her home on pain relief and prednisone to keep her comfortable. It was to be our last weekend with her, she loved our son being up from Canberra with her and all our family with her over the weekend and seemed to pick up in herself being given a new toy also. Early hours of Monday morning she was restless, her tummy swelling again. We took her back to the vet and her gums were pale, we very sadly had to send her to Rainbow Bridge. I have never felt so gut wrenched and sad in my life. My little dog was the happiest and only looked about 4 years old. I just cannot believe how fast this disease took. Prior to this there were no symptoms, signs or anything to let me know. Our vet said many a breeder this has happened to also, it is one of those nasty diseases that comes on with no warning! Please everyone if you notice any swelling on your dogs stomachs don't hesitate to have it investigated! The vet had told my husband by phone on the Saturday morning to enjoy her while we have her, he only believed she had about 2 weeks with her, my husband didn't have the heart to tell me, he wanted the family just to love her and be with her being the last weekend we shared.

What you describe is almost exactly how I lost my boy Hamlet almost 2 yrs ago .. He was racing around madly 2 days previous ...

When I look back on photos- I could see how he had lost some muscle tone .

So very sorry to hear about your loss of Hamlet. It is so upsetting. I am still sick to the pit of my stomach, I am finding it hard as I miss her with every bit of my heart. With Holly she had lost no muscle tone, perfect weight, shape etc. Energy level and eating was great up until the last few days. It's so hard !! Take care

[Erny]

How is your friend's dog Erny?

Hi WS. It is a "friend of a friend's son", so I'm a bit removed. I haven't heard further (but did pass on summary version of most of the comments here - thank you, one and all - and I'm sorry for all of your own experiences you've had at the hands of this tragic disease) other than the last, which is essentially that they are watching and letting the dog tell them when life isn't sufficient "quality" any more. The link that was given to provide some objective view of "life-quality" was very helpful and very well received by them. My "friend's friend" has in the meantime had to endure some pretty major surgery and is only now recovering, so I haven't continued with asking after their dog, knowing they had investigated most available options, weighing up feasibilities (for the dog's sake) and just making the most of what time the dog has with them.

Edited September 16, 2014 by Erny