What Can We Expect? Likely Hemangiosarcoma Diagnosis

[carronstar]

Chicken baby food and rotisserie chicken are always tempting foods.

 

Agree. It can seem even more tempting if you are eating (pretending to eat) it and the smell wafts over to Deacon. If he comes to you to get it, he might not feel like he is doing something he "has" to do but something naughty and fun.

[Sundrop]

Hi all - still not eating much. We've tried the beef thing (raw & cooked) - he has eaten a few cooked pieces, but doesn't have any interest in the raw (or anything that hasn't been warmed first). We haven't tried just sticking it in his mouth - the problem is now, he's getting pretty angry with us when we shove stuff in his mouth. He's on so many medications, and at first, we would put them back by his throat (we coat them in a little coconut oil, butter or olive oil to make them glide better...he hates Pill Pockets, cheese, etc.) - he would swallow right away. Now, it is SO hard to get his mouth open even a tiny bit, and he will not swallow. I had to stand there with his mouth shut, stroking his throat for about 2 minutes this morning just to get his Pepcid down...and he had 4 more pills to go.

 

We have tried 4-5 kinds of organic baby food (cold and heated) - he literally turns his head away. Though, we may start administering those with the syringe, too. We've also tried rotisserie chicken and he ate a few pieces, now nothing. We always eat, or pretend to eat it ourselves first - just to make him think it's a treat and we make kind of a production about it, but I think he just doesn't care anymore. We've also tried using the "Treat time!" and including our other grey too, hoping invoke some food competition and interest, and that doesn't work either.

 

Yesterday, I thought I was getting somewhere - he ate two (small) chicken breasts, and then last night we'd made popcorn for ourselves and we accidentally spilled some before adding salt and stuff, and he trotted in to clean it up - I was stunned! So I handed him a couple of the Three Dog Bakery cookies, and he took 5-6 of them. Then I offered him some yummy meat treats (Solid Gold brand, they are meant for training, I think) and he gobbled them up. I was so happy! But today, nothing. He is literally turning his face away from food, so we've had to "syringe" him (hah!). We tried to start his antibiotics back up today, too, because my husband thinks he feels warm, but they were disintegrating in our hands we attempted to make him swallow so many times (he kept spitting them out) - so we ended up mixing them into the syringe food and administering that way.

 

Put a call into the vet today to discuss his results and the whole him feeling warm & antibiotic situation, and they said his report had been there since Tuesday - ARG. I have tried to be patient, since I was calling every day, and the vet assured me he would call right away. The assistant said they might not have the entire report yet, but who knows. Guess I should just go back to my daily phone calls. I am literally sitting by the phone waiting for a call back!

Edited March 26, 2015 by Sundrop

[Batmom]

Little pills like Pepcid -- put a dab of pb on it and then just stick it inside his lip at the back corner of his mouth, as far back as you can reach without making him open. Hugs and hopes your puppet starts feeling better.

[tbhounds]

Sucks that they didn't call. Potentially the pathologist had to section the mass further an order to be complete-it was a big mass. How is his color? Pale gums? Icteric (jaundice color)?

[MP_the4pack]

I'm sorry you're going thru this. Unfortunately, it sounds just like the way I lost my Pearl. She had fibrosarcoma of the spleen, not hemangio, but the outcome was the same. I had it removed, the liver was already compromised. I had her 3 weeks post op. She had only one good day during that time. I should never have had the splenectomy surgery. Or I should have let her go soon afterwards.

I so hope I'm wrong.

[turbotaina]

Sending you good thoughts. I'm so sorry you're still having difficulties getting him to eat.

[Sundrop]

Hi Batmom - We will try the peanut butter, too! Today I dipped one of the larger pills in plain yogurt, and he got it down easier. Will get more PB today!

 

tbhounds - his gums are totally normal, I look at them every time I give him a pill! Eyes, tongue, ears, etc. - all totally normal. I also felt him today and he didn't seem feverish at all and his incision looks really good. He is sleeping a lot, but still alert and his eyes are not glassy like the day after surgery.

 

MP_the4pack - I am so sorry for your loss. That is our fear, too, that we would keep him here longer for our own selfish reasons and not for his own quality of life. I am doing a lot of cuddling with him and he seems to enjoy the attention. He is getting up and moving without much trouble. Only some very minor accidents so far, the worst of which was the day we brought him home. He is even insisting that he goes for walks when we take his sister, he looks so excited and we even got a tail wag yesterday! We walk him one house down and he sniffs and pees, looks around and then wants to go one house the other way, so we just follow him. Just so difficult to know if you're making the right decisions until it's all over and you have regrets.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Sundrop

[Batmom]

You love your boy and you're doing all anyone could. No question about that. Hugs and scritchies.

[Guest Muscovy]

I lost my boy to hemangiosarcoma 6 months ago.

 

His situation was a little different to your boys - his tumour was not in the spleen, it was underneath his spine, and ran from his kidneys down to his bladder - about 20cm long. It was inoperable. It took a month to get a diagnosis as the tumour didn't show up on any x-rays. So for the first month we thought it was a muscular injury, and then when it didn't resolve, we thought it might be a spinal/disc problem. The tumour was discovered during a CT or MRI scan, can't remember which, which he had to try to identify which disc was causing the problems. The vet took a biopsy at that time, and he bled a LOT during the biopsy and took about a week to recover from that.

 

I took him for one round of chemo which he tolerated very well indeed. We had hoped that the chemo would shrink the tumour. But the problem was that he would bleed from his tumour, which put pressure on his spine and internal organs and cause him a lot of pain. When he had the biopsy, a lot of the blood was drained off, which left him anaemic but took a lot of pressure off this spine and organs. As we knew the tumour was inoperable, and that even with a full course of chemo we would be lucky to have 3-6 months with him, when he started to bleed from the tumour again and we saw that he was in terrible pain despite his pain meds, we let him go. That was 3 weeks after his diagnosis. He was 6 and a half. I knew it was time because seeing him like that hurt me worse than the thought of letting him go. I don't regret any of my decisions regarding his treatment and care during that time, but i did agonise over every single one, so I can sympathise with you there

 

I hope this is not what your boy has. But if it is, it might be helpful to know that it was the bleeding from the very large tumour that was causing our guy so much pain. Since your boy's primary tumour has been removed, and he only has small masses on his liver, this shouldn't be such a terrible problem for him.

 

It might also be helpful to know that the pain meds wreaked havoc on his appetite. He had been eating well up until the biopsy, but the Fentanyl patch and other opiate medications reduced his appetite a lot. In the end he was on a high dose of Tramadol, as well as an anti-inflammatory drug which is recommended for dogs with hemangiosarcoma - it starts with a P but I forget what it is called. Apparently it can help stop the blood flow to the tumours slightly. These were better for his appetite than the other drugs. I don't know if this could be the case with your guy, since he was off his food before diagnosis, but it might be a contributing factor.

 

Anyway, best wishes. Fingers crossed for a different diagnosis.

[galgrey]

[Charlies_Dad]

We're right there with you albeit with a different breed. Continued good thoughts for you boy.

[Sundrop]

We finally got the official diagnosis - not exactly what we thought, but just as dreadful - fibrosarcoma of the spleen & liver. They found that at least parts of his spleen were necrotic and since there are already multiple lesions on his liver, his prognosis is the same...around 2-3 months. The vet also stressed that his time with us will likely be shorter if he doesn't bounce back soon...

 

He told us we could stop all the meds except the Pepcid, the Mirtazapine for his appetite and his Benazepril for his kidney disease. We are also going to mix milk thistle in his food for liver support - our girl is already on this because she's a seizure dog on Phenobarbital. We are hoping that he starts eating soon, but we will watch him closely as we continue using the syringe to feed. He did eat a few of the Solid Gold jerky treats before bed last night, but that was the only food he would take normally.

 

He is still alert, still drinking and eliminating normally, still getting up and down on his own and can still do stairs (albeit much slower). He still gets excited when he hears the leash, so we will take him out for a walk when we take our girl, even though it's only a couple houses up and down. His color is still good, he isn't crying or whining and even though he is pretty stoic, he doesn't seem to be in any visible pain. I hope we are able to see and feel when it is time to let go...he has been such an amazing companion for us and he is such a wonderful guy. We adopted him in 2009 after the sudden death of our 7-year old boy (heart attack in his sleep). We were still heartbroken over losing him, but Deacon just brightened everything so quickly, it was like our dear Keota brought him to us to ease the pain.

 

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the advice and kind words. It means so very much.

[MP_the4pack]

I'm so very sorry. Fibro is a very hot cancer. I don't think you have 2-3 months. Pearl's liver masses grew a centimeter a day. What did not show up on xrays the day of surgery were 21 centimeters 3 weeks later.

[tbhounds]

Oh no--I was hoping so hard for a different diagnosis. :-(

[carronstar]

I was so hoping for better news for you and Deacon.

[Sundrop]

Thanks, all. We're trying to remain positive, for him, mostly.

 

I was wondering what you all thought could be the issue with his stomach? Obviously, he won't eat - at least not much - and when we let him out, he goes directly to eating grass. Now, he used to eat grass now & then before all this happened, but was always easily corrected and we thought the famotidine would take care of it (he showed all signs of acid reflux). Now, he is pretty obsessive about it, and I've been having to muzzle him to prevent it. Could it be something else? We are giving him the famotidine (20 mg) twice per day and it does help with the acid reflux, but his stomach is obviously still upset.

 

He is acting very much like our girl did years ago when she was diagnosed with acute peritonitis. She would eat something once, then reject it, until she stopped eating altogether. I'm worried now that since we are feeding him with the syringe, that we are actually hurting him (physically) - but I'm not sure what to do at this point?

 

Any thoughts?

Edited March 27, 2015 by Sundrop

[Batmom]

Is he still getting other meds?

 

Syringe feeding won't hurt him, don't worry about that.

 

If he seems otherwise OK, I'd let things ride for a bit and see is his appetite will perk up. Sick dogs here, we feed a lot of weird things, from scrambled eggs and Tripett (canned green tripe) and jack mackerel to graham crackers, spaghettios, bite-sized Honey Nut Shredded Wheat, toast with peanutbutter, you name it.

 

Fibrosarcomas can be quite slow growing but of course no one can say what your pup's will do. I'm sorry the news wasn't better. I hope he has many good days with you nonetheless.

[tbhounds]

He could be nauseous from the liver involvement. I know I sound like a broken record but, please ring your vet and ask them to dispense ondasatron.

[Batmom]

Echoing tbhounds about ondansetron. It's a people med -- every pharmacy has it -- and not very expensive. AND it's a tiny little dissolvable. Shove it in his mouth somewhere and you're done, no swallowing needed.

[Annette]

Sending hugs

 

[mom2four]

Sending good thoughts. Love him to pieces and let him eat anything he will eat.

[Sundrop]

FYI - a 2-month supply of Ondansetron was over $600 at our Pharmacy (the vet's office didn't have it there). I'm sure you can do the math, but 1 week worth was $80 and since we aren't sure if it will even help him, we had to pass. Our vet was surprised we asked for a different anti-nausea med since he was on Cerenia and it didn't seem to help. I actually have a few leftover Ondansetron from a surgery I had this past December, so I gave him one today, just to see if it helps. I think I have 5 left, so if that perks him up, I'll pay the money and get him a full prescription. Just can't believe it costs so much.

 

He got his stitches removed yesterday and incision looks good. He still isn't eating on his own, at least not his meals - so we use the syringe. I bought some of the Olewo carrots and I add that to his food, just to get some fiber in him. He takes other food here and there - today he ate his normal jerky snack (I gave him 2 instead of 1) and this past weekend, we got him to eat almost an entire rotisserie chicken. It was a small one, but he ate all but about half of a breast.

 

He is still drinking a lot, and eliminating normally. He is still getting around fine, but sleeping more (and more heavily). Today I noticed his gums are a little pale. Not too bad, just not as pink. Should this signal something? Should we be looking for anything else?

 

I know we don't have much time left with him. We have canceled all our plans for the upcoming weeks to ensure that one, or both, of us is home with him all the time. It just breaks my heart to know that there is nothing we can do to cure him, only make him more comfortable and hopefully, happy. I brought out the outside beds yesterday for the deck because we have some days coming up where we are hitting the mid to upper 70s and it will be sunny. He loves to lay outside in the sun, I just hope it makes him happy.

 

Our girl had her dental cleaning yesterday and I was just a basket of nerves until she was home safe and sound. Poor thing had 2 extractions, but her teeth look nice again - we've made a vow to be better about the daily brushing, as we've slacked off way too much and it was our fault her teeth were so awful. Spoiling her rotten at the moment.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Sundrop

[turbotaina]

Not to frighten you, but pale gums can be a sign of anemia and internal bleeding. You should let your vet know, especially since you seem to be seeing some lethargy as well.

 

Sending you lots of good thoughts.

[DonnaBehr]

I was going to say the same thing about the Tramadol. Mine always lost their appetites when they were on Tramadol.

[MP_the4pack]

I so remember doing this with my Pearl. It's heartwrenching. It sucks.