Some of you may recall, my 6 year old male, Griffin, was diagnosed with mast cell cancer back in May. We had the one tumor that was present at the time removed, but decided against chemo and instead just chose to "see what happened" and let him have a happy summer. The vet said 18 weeks was the average survival time.
Well, here we are exactly 18 weeks later (I know because I was 5 weeks pregnant then, and am 23 weeks pregnant now). About a month ago, a second tumor started to develop in his throat (the same general location as the first one, but on the other side of his throat). It did not bother him - he remained happy, playful, etc. It has steadily increased in size, but still he was fine. Then last night, he was a bit lethargic. But he still ate, still went on a walk. He was just lazier than normal. We also started to notice that his entire throat was starting to seem inflamed or swollen.
When we woke up this morning, the swelling had gotten worse. His entire throat looks and feels like one big tumor. Amazing that that happened overnight. But still he got up, ate some of his breakfast, wagged his tail when we left for work, etc.
My husband is calling the vet today, to see if we can bring Griffin in for him to take a look at - who knows, perhaps there will be a surgical solution. If not, I can't see how he can go on much longer with this throat growing like that. He is clearly uncomfortable and he's not happy about having it there. I'm also afraid that it will start to strangle him or have some other nasty side effect. We still have to talk about it, but if the vet tells us tomorrow that there's nothing he can do, it's possible that we will put him down tomorrow instead of letting him get any worse.
Please keep Griffin in your thoughts and I will update this if and when I have news. Thanks.
Well, here we are exactly 18 weeks later (I know because I was 5 weeks pregnant then, and am 23 weeks pregnant now). About a month ago, a second tumor started to develop in his throat (the same general location as the first one, but on the other side of his throat). It did not bother him - he remained happy, playful, etc. It has steadily increased in size, but still he was fine. Then last night, he was a bit lethargic. But he still ate, still went on a walk. He was just lazier than normal. We also started to notice that his entire throat was starting to seem inflamed or swollen.
When we woke up this morning, the swelling had gotten worse. His entire throat looks and feels like one big tumor. Amazing that that happened overnight. But still he got up, ate some of his breakfast, wagged his tail when we left for work, etc.
My husband is calling the vet today, to see if we can bring Griffin in for him to take a look at - who knows, perhaps there will be a surgical solution. If not, I can't see how he can go on much longer with this throat growing like that. He is clearly uncomfortable and he's not happy about having it there. I'm also afraid that it will start to strangle him or have some other nasty side effect. We still have to talk about it, but if the vet tells us tomorrow that there's nothing he can do, it's possible that we will put him down tomorrow instead of letting him get any worse.
Please keep Griffin in your thoughts and I will update this if and when I have news. Thanks.
