Has anyone any experience of treating their dog for kidney cancer?
I took my dog, a Rough Collie to the vet's yesterday for his normal arthritis injection and mentioned he was lethargic and drinking more than usual, after a blood test which showed massively raised red blood cells and then an ultrasound he has been diagnosed with kidney cancer! We are reeling with shock as he is now at the specialist who is trying to reduce his red cell count and rehydrate him so that he can investigate how far the cancer has spread and if he is suitable for surgery.
I love him dearly but at 11 and a half years old we don't know if it’s fair to put him through such major surgery and how successful it will be.
Dawn, via email
until you get the results it will be impossible to decide but personally I would suggest that at 11 he would prefer just to be in his own home, familiar smells, people he loves until you can no longer keep him comfortable and then allow him a peaceful death with euthanasia. I am so sorry.
ReplyDeleteThank You I was so shocked when I posted this and having the opportunity to post and recieve your answer its been a busy time and I only now have a slightly more informed picture. The CT didn't show a kidney tumour but multiple tumours especially in his lungs although they apparently only take 1% of his lung volume. However he has polycythaemia (raised red cell count) which the vets don't know the cause of but think it may be linked to a melanoma he had removed. The specialist has never seen this before linked to melanoma and the tumour biopsies are inconclusive.
ReplyDeleteThe treatment so far has been to removed 2 pints of blood and replace that with fluid bringing his packed cell volume down from 75% to 52% we are now going to try Hydroxyurea to keep his red cell count down and see where we go from here.
I think to be honest we are looking at time with him in terms of weeks perhaps a couple of months but that is a bonus on our original option.