The small lesion at the bottom of his nostril came back as squamous cell carcinoma. He will be 12 yrs old in November. Surgery would be painful and radiation can be severe. We are going to get a second opinion. However, at Jake’s age, we just want him to live out his life comfortably. He still enjoys car rides and walks, he loves going to McDonald’s I don’t want him to look at us and wonder what we are doing to him. We don’t want him to suffer due to painful treatment. There is no cure and it can come back. Timeline is unsure. If treatment got him six months but 3 of those months he is pain…doesn’t make sense. We will take it a dat at a time and hope for the best. Jake is the best and we want him to be happy and comfortable. I’ll keep posting how he is doing. JoAnn
Hi JoAnn Sorry this wasn’t the result you were hoping for. From what I know about squamous cell cancer in humans it isn’t the worst kind of skin cancer and less likely to metatasise but does continue to grow. We had the horrendous decision at 18months to have Toby’s ear removed for Mast Cell cancer followed by chemo. Given his young age it was a no brainer but I would feel differently with an older dog as it was so stressful for him. What I will say is I could not believe how resilient Toby was after surgery. Two weeks with a cone on pain meds and he had bounced right back. See what the second opinion is but only you know your dog and I’m sure you will make a decision that is best for him.All the best and keep us updated. Julie.
Hello, so sorry to read this. I think your approach is really sensible, second opinion and enjoy/spoil him rotten. No easy decisions, but quality of life at this stage for him is paramount. I hope he has many more McDonalds to enjoy yet. All the best.
I'm so sorry my heart goes out to you. I lost my Roxanne to cancer. It was eventually found via a scan, far too extensive to do anything. The kindest thing was not to wake her up. Hardest thing of being a pet owner. Spoil him rotton while you can. All the best
Thank you so much for your reply. We’re just taking things a day at a time. Again, thank you. Thank you so much for your reply We’re taking it day by day. Again thank You.
Thank you for your reply. We’ll just have to take it a day at a time. He’ll be 12 in November so that really figures in. Again thank you.
I'm sorry you're facing this. You know your dog best but do ask about the purpose of radiotherapy. In both humans and dogs radiotherapy can provide excellent local control, especially for pain relief. Post operative pain can be relieved so I would want to know what the intended functional outcome would be, i.e. how much tissue would be removed. Nasal mucosa? Or are we talking about removing teeth or bone and what effect would this have on quality of life. You should ask both surgeons how often they treat dogs with this diagnosis and what they consider to be good and bad outcomes. Maybe put age aside and perhaps ask the vets if they think your dog is healthy enough to benefit from proposed treatment. Everything has risk and benefit, even doing nothing. Your dog is lucky to have a thoughtful loving owner.
