Original story here: http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=183175
I had my baby in today for her follow up xrays.
The tumor is substantially larger than the 2cm x 2cm it was last year....almost triple the size.
The good news is that it has NOT gotten into the bone
and it's about 1.5" away from her eye, another very good thing. If you look at it, it looks like its right against the eye, but via xray it shows that it isn't. It's growing out against skin rather than in against bone.
We have not had it biopsied, no point really. 99% of these tumors are cancerous.
I had a very lengthy talk with the vet, and now I understand more of why they wouldn't recommend surgery last year when it was small....
- they like to have 2cm minimum of good tissue around the tumor before they will operate, and even when the tumor was small there was not that much room around it.
- of course the risk of anesthetic on an older dog.
So my mind/heart are at peace knowing that very few vets would have operated to try to remove it, and the ones that would are not ones I would want caring for my animals.
In general, Brandy is in good health
She is overweight again (which in a sense is good....the tumor will cause weight loss and it has not) and I know why she's overweight. The vet wants her at about 50lbs, she's 60.5lbs. Since the tumor got larger I have no been able to walk her as she does not walk on a collar, she uses a Halti which goes around the snout.....as well as to convince her to eat, I've been mixing some wet food in with the dry without altering the amount of dry. So we'll keep with a maintenence type diet, and I will just remember to lessen the dry food when I feed wet.
Her arthritis is doing well, as in not causing her pain.
She is developing cataracts.... normal for a 10yr old dog.
Aside from the tumor, she's great.
I asked alot of questions.... my one fear was that the tumor would go into her brain and possibly make her attack one of us. My vet said yes that is a possibility BUT other things would happen before that would. The tumor would hit her eye first and cause it to bulge and possibly pop out of the socket before it would enter her brain. So that put me at ease in a sense, as when the tumor does reach her eye like described, she will be put to sleep. My vet said that it would be incredibly painful when it reaches her eye.
So what my vet said to look for:
- weight loss/not eating
- sore mouth
-eyes.... different sized pupils or one sticking out further than the other
-green discharge from nose or eyes
- discolouration of the tumor (the tumor itself could start rotting)
Bottom line, she's still doing surprisingly well
I hope it stays that way.
I had my baby in today for her follow up xrays.
The tumor is substantially larger than the 2cm x 2cm it was last year....almost triple the size.
The good news is that it has NOT gotten into the bone
We have not had it biopsied, no point really. 99% of these tumors are cancerous.
I had a very lengthy talk with the vet, and now I understand more of why they wouldn't recommend surgery last year when it was small....
- they like to have 2cm minimum of good tissue around the tumor before they will operate, and even when the tumor was small there was not that much room around it.
- of course the risk of anesthetic on an older dog.
So my mind/heart are at peace knowing that very few vets would have operated to try to remove it, and the ones that would are not ones I would want caring for my animals.
In general, Brandy is in good health
Her arthritis is doing well, as in not causing her pain.
She is developing cataracts.... normal for a 10yr old dog.
Aside from the tumor, she's great.
I asked alot of questions.... my one fear was that the tumor would go into her brain and possibly make her attack one of us. My vet said yes that is a possibility BUT other things would happen before that would. The tumor would hit her eye first and cause it to bulge and possibly pop out of the socket before it would enter her brain. So that put me at ease in a sense, as when the tumor does reach her eye like described, she will be put to sleep. My vet said that it would be incredibly painful when it reaches her eye.
So what my vet said to look for:
- weight loss/not eating
- sore mouth
-eyes.... different sized pupils or one sticking out further than the other
-green discharge from nose or eyes
- discolouration of the tumor (the tumor itself could start rotting)
Bottom line, she's still doing surprisingly well
