Opinions, please

[bc friend]

Anyone with any positive outcomes with hemangiosarcoma?

 

Katie, my 7 yr old bc/springer, stopped eating on Friday, very lethargic, and began running a low grade fever over the weekend so I left her at the vet's this a.m. She's been a little "off" for a couple of weeks but nothing I could really see as needing a vet visit.

 

My vet just called, Katie has a large mass on her spleen, bloodwork shows she's anemic (values are 2/3 of normal) and a high white celll count. She's lost 7 lbs. My vet believes it is hemangiosarcoma although she can't be certain w/o surgery - and she's not optimistic about surgery. She thinks it is an aggressive cancer - Katie had an annual exam in late November and appeared to be in excellent health.

 

I've lost a couple of pets over the years to hemangiosarcoma so I know it is a nasty cancer that tends to reoccur so I'm seriously considering euthanesia. But before I make this decision for a relatively young dog, I thought I'd see if anyone on the Boards had any positive experience with treating this.

[Liz P]

 

Unfortunately, no. I've lost 2 in a row to hemangio. First one had the primary tumor in his heart, the second on his liver. They each survived about 10 days after being diagnosed. I made the decision to euthanize when I felt their quality of life was too low.

 

If there is free blood in the abdomen you can say with about 95% certainty that it is hemangiosarcoma. BUT, if there is NOT free blood in the abdomen you have about a 30% chance of this being another sort of tumor, some of which are benign. (These percentages vary based on the papers you read.)

 

ETA, there is essentially a 100% rate of metastasis for hemangiosarcoma of the spleen and liver. The only form of this cancer that is readily treated is found on the outside of the body (skin).

 

I'm so sorry you have to be making this decision. Do what feels right to you and don't let other people make you feel guilty about your choice. You know your dog better than anyone else.

[rushdoggie]

I recently lost my Ross boy (in my avatar) to a hemanginosarcoma, and my vet advised against surgery (with tears in his eyes, Ross was a favorite patient) as he said the longest he has known a dog to live was 2 months, and its a hard surgery to recover from.

 

I trusted him and we took his advise and let Ross go.

 

I wish I had better news to report. I'm sorry.

[Cody & Duchess]

We have a 6.5 year old bc/springer mix- just wanted to express my deepest sympathy for your really sad news. Remember - you have done right for Katie in the past and you will do what is best for her now. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make her all better, big hugs to her and your family. Good mojo coming your way.

[aljones]

I'm so sorry to hear you're facing this situation. I, too, wish I had a better outcome to report, but I made the choice, on my vet's advice, to euthanize my own Kate, the one dog I've had diagnosed with a probable hemangiosarcoma. Best wishes to you and Katie to have peace with whatever you decide.

[KimL]

 

If there is free blood in the abdomen you can say with about 95% certainty that it is hemangiosarcoma. BUT, if there is NOT free blood in the abdomen you have about a 30% chance of this being another sort of tumor, some of which are benign. (These percentages vary based on the papers you read.)

 

 

I lost my 13 yr old Aussie in a matter of a week. Her abdomen was bloated, my vet did a aspirate and it was nothing but blood. I said goodbye to her that very day.

[BCjetta]

I think the decision on surgery is totally up to you. Another option would be to have a good ultrasound of the abdomen and heart done, and chest x-rays to check for metastasis. If they can't find any obvious signs of it spreading, might be worth it to do surgery. We have an ultrasound in the clinic I work at and have recommended euthanizing over doing surgery in multiple cases where we could see suspicious looking spots on the liver. A lot of the dogs we've done surgery on have lived 1-3 months. One only lived about a week or so after the surgery, 1 lived just about a year before it came back, and 1 is still alive and its been just over a year. If we go into surgery and find it has spread to other organs, then we recommend euthanizing on the table so the dog never wakes up (we've had quite a few of those as well). We had 1 dog which was a springer have a mass which turned out to be a benign tumor and she lived 5-6 years before being put down for unrelated causes.

 

I've decided with my dog who's 12.5, that I'm going to ultrasound her every few months to check for tumors because I'm paranoid about it. We seem to see a lot of hemangiosarcomas. Just saw 1 today actually.

[rushdoggie]

I think the decision on surgery is totally up to you. Another option would be to have a good ultrasound of the abdomen and heart done, and chest x-rays to check for metastasis.

 

This is an excellent point. In our case you could see multiple masses in a radiograph and 2 different vets felt that based on what they saw and the symptoms he had including his blood work, that we were looking at a hemanginosarcoma. I'm sure your vet can do this kind of test and its not horribly expensive, and it might give you a definitive answer.

[mbc1963]

Alas, same sad story. My father's (and kind of my) last dog was diagnosed. We opted for the surgery, and the dog lived maybe 6 weeks afterwards, but her eventual death was incredibly painful and horrifying for my elderly father. (Not to scare you, but she was screaming in pain and seizing her last morning, and my dad had to get her in the car like that and take her to the vet. He's still not over it, and it's been 8 years.) I sincerely wish we had opted for euthanasia, and hope that I can be strong enough if I face this choice again.

 

So sorry.

 

Mary