I think I'll be providing home hospice myself. Without surgery he'll be vulnerable to sudden rupture and bleeding, so I can't drag it out just for my own sake. They're going to send me home with the Chinese supplement to help with that, and some pain meds. I just want to give him lots of treats and have his other human friends with him at the end.
Oliver has Hemangiosarcoma...
Hi all, my beloved Oliver was 100% healthy and happy three days ago, then he had a strange kind of syncope event. He went all stiff and cramped up and his eyes were flickering. It only lasted about 30 seconds, but he was very confused after and couldn't walk without falling over. I took him to the vet the next morning and they did x-rays and bloodwork and he was anemic and had low platelets (31k). They did a transfusion and his RBC's are at 40%, but his platelet count has only gone from 31k to 36k since Saturday. He has a mass on his spleen which had fluid, but has since absorbed back in his body. I have to make a decision to go with a risky surgery, which he may not survive, and the subsequent chemo and recovery, to get maybe 4-5 months more, or bring him home today and give him a loving sendoff. I'm torn apart making this decision. I can't risk losing him in surgery, but even if he made it I don't want to put him through all that. Without the surgery his tumor could rupture at any time, so I would have to say goodbye in the next few days to not risk that.
Has anyone had this situation with their dog? I'm just beyond heartbroken. He's everything to me.
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Has anyone had this situation with their dog? I'm just beyond heartbroken. He's everything to me.
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I read about that connection also. Makes me wonder if he was tested for Bartonella, and treated, would that have prevented the tumor?Hemangio is quite common, and for a long time it was thought to be somehow related to large breed dogs. Then it started to be seen more and more common in smaller breed dogs as well. Now there has been found a high percentage of Hemangio tumors have Bartonella bacteria (a tickborn disease) in them, even when there is no evidence of Bartonella in the dog’s blood.
The theory now is that the disease was seen more in large dogs first, because they are exposed to ticks more than small house dogs” are. Now that ticks are SO bad in many places, even little dogs are getting exposed to infected ticks, and more cases of Hemangio are showing up in smal dogs too.
An 8 year old Havanese belonging to a Veterinarian/breeder friend of mine died of Hemangiosarcoma last summer here in the Boston area. 😢
Bartonella Bacteria Found in Hemangiosarcoma Tumors from Dogs
Researchers find more evidence of a possible connection between persistent bacterial infection and blood vessel cancer in dogs.news.cvm.ncsu.edu
Thank you for the kind words. 🧡
Your Rex was even younger than Oliver. It's such a gut punch to go from healthy and happy, to making arrangements to euthanize my beautiful little friend in less than a week. My life is turned upside down. Every time I start typing the tears are streaming down my face. I'm sorry you're also familiar with this heartache.
I don't have the option of surgery because his platelets are so low. I have his goodbye scheduled for tomorrow, so today I had the vet run his CBC one last time to see if his platelets had risen. They actually dropped from 35k to 29k, so that's it. After diagnosis I got less than a week. He's the sweetest, most gentle little soul in the world and I'm gonna lose him tomorrow. 😢
The support has been amazing and very comforting. I used to tell Oliver I loved him about a hundred times a day. Now I'm saying it to his pictures.
I guess the deeper the love, the deeper the loss, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Treasure the time you have with your Chloe. 🧡
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