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  1. #21
    Puppy Yogi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3ChocMom View Post
    Have you seen the pathology report? If not, get yourself a copy and ask your oncologist to go through it with you and explain what everything means. My 13-year-old dog had her left eye removed last year due to a soft tissue sarcoma in the conjunctival tissue. I had a hell of a time with pathologists trying to determine the exact type of cancer, so I am unfortunately now somewhat of an untrained expert. LOL I had 3 different pathologists evaluate her tumor and we still aren't 100% sure. Not only that, but there was some disagreement between her surgeon and the pathologists on the margins. If the margins are "dirty," the report will usually say something like "neoplastic cells extend into the examined margin(s)." In my dog's case, they actually used the word dirty. When the margins are technically clean, but narrowly, that can sometimes be called dirty. This is because there is usually a certain amount of healthy tissue surrounding the diseased tissue that should be excised when possible (sometimes 3mm or more). Depending on the location of the tumor, that isn't always possible. So even though they may not have seen any cancer cells extending into the margins, if the healthy tissue surrounding the excised tumor was less than 3mm (or whatever is the recommended margin for anal gland carcinoma), they may still consider it dirty. I hope that makes sense.

    As for chemo or radiation, I opted to do neither. Radiation requires repeated anesthesia for each treatment; my dog would not have done well with that. I was given 2 options for chemo - IV chemo or oral. The IV chemo scared the hell out of me. The dog has to be kept still during the administration because if the drug gets outside the vein, it can be fatal. The oral chemo involves a drug call Peroxicam, which is an NSAID whose number one side effect is gastric ulcers. My dog got a gastric ulcer many years ago from Metacam and since then, I have never given her another NSAID. Since she's prone to them, I knew it was a when, not an if. Her cancer has not spread, it was only in her eye, so like yours, the biggest risk was local recurrence. She wasn't sick and I didn't want to make her sick. I already fed her a home cooked diet, but I started giving her lots of supplements to boost her immune system and some Chinese herbs. It has been 11 months and she is cancer free. I still worry every day that tumor will come back, but so far, so good. Good thoughts for you and Yogi.
    Thank you for this -- I didn't see it at the time.

    I decided to not go with chemo or radiation. I've had his butt checked once a month since the surgery, and so far it's fine. I'm not going to go to the same oncologist for future treatements -- I didn't like the inconsistency in the recommendations (though I understand that not every professional will agree 100%), and they also goofed up paperwork, which was offputting -- on the docs they gave me after surgery, it had Yogi listed as a 9-year-old Shih-Tzu; he's an 8-year-old Australian shepherd / lab mix. CSU has a phenomenal program in Fort Collins, and that's where I'll go from now on. They sent his cancer there for analysis anyway.

  2. #22
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    I'm glad to hear Yogi is doing well so far. How frustrating when they don't even seem to know who or what they're talking about. Wrong identifying information is certainly not confidence inspiring. Continued best wishes to you both.

  3. #23
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Oh wow, I wouldn't trust them either! However, glad to hear that Yogi is doing well. For some reason my heart stops for a second when I see old threads about cancer patients being updated. Thankfully it was good news this time!
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  4. #24
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Good update. My OH declined chemo when he had cancer three years ago. There were no stats to show longer life with it, was such information available to you? That is disturbing. Yes, we know mix ups happen but more than one is exponentially more disturbing. Yogi, you stay healthy.
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  5. #25
    Senior Dog labsnewfy's Avatar
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    Yes thank you for the update. The mix up on the chart about dog breed and age is very dangerous and life threating for dispencion of drugs and care, very scary. continuted good thoughts and prayers for Yogi.
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  6. #26
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    Continued good thoughts for Yogi...so glad to hear he's doing well.

    Vigilance pays off! Shih Tzu, indeed...

  7. #27
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    Sorry you're going through this.... I just had to let my boy Toohey go after fighting lymphoma since Xmas... We tried two different protocals... CHOP and CCNU... Not sure if these would be similar to what would be recommended with Yogis cancer... But I can tell you that Toohey didn't get sick for extended periods of time... On the CHOP protocal he would have one day during the week about two days after treatment where he wasnt as peppy... I didn't notice any negative side affects during the CCNU protocol.... With an 8 yo... And since you have insurance, I'd definitely at least get more information on chemo... As it seems like your reservations are based on Yogis quality of life while recieving chemo treatments... Best of luck for you and Yogi

  8. #28
    Senior Dog arentspowell's Avatar
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    So sorry to hear about Yogi's cancer but glad to read his a fighter and is doing well. My inlaws lost their lab to cancer in February. Initially it was thought to be an anal tumor but it turned out to be prostate. It wasn't operable and they put their previous dog through chemo and regretted it because it worsened his quality of life and didn't necessarily extend it by any significant amount of time. Continued good thoughts for Yogi.

  9. #29
    Puppy Yogi's Avatar
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    Update and recurrence: After a few months of anal-gland checkups, a small lump returned in Yogi's butt a few weeks ago. I went up to CSU in Ft. Collins last week, and they did staging, which thankfully showed no spread to his stomach/chest. They were able to get him in for surgery this past Thu, which was straightforward. Yogi's recuperating now, and I go back in two weeks to get the stitches removed and discuss next steps. Poor little fella.

  10. #30
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    Poor guy! I'm glad there's been no spread and hope he recovers uneventfully.

 



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