hemangiosarcoma tumor

[craymond]

New to this board, but would like info on timeframe on hemangiosarcoma from diagnosis to death and what to expect in the final days.
We have a 10 year old female brindle named Rajah. She is so loved & we want to do the humane thing with keeping her quality of life. It has been a week since her surgery and she has really perked up. She had a baseball size mass attached to her bladder and near her spleen. Had emergency surgery to remove it and histopathology confirmed the worst.
All info to date says there is no hope. Maybe 3-5 months tops. My concerns are that I won't know if she is in pain or suffering or when the 'end' is near. She could literally bleed internally to death when it returns, (the mass was leaching blood into her abdomen when they did the surgery) what are the symptoms besides lethargy & loss of appetite?
I have decided to return to the vet regularly to have x-rays to see if the mass regenerates (it is a very aggressive cancer). Chemo has been done on this type cancer but does not give much more time than not doing it. I am afraid the quality of life with the chemo would be greatly diminished. She has not tolerated medication well in her lifetime.
She was actually allergic to rabies vaccination at her first inoculation (went into shock). She has had several bouts with ulcers on her eyes, had a broken leg @ 8 months from being hit by a car, has had a growth removed from under the skin a year ago. She has been through alot but is the best natured and loving dog we have ever had. And to top it off she loves going to the vets. They dole on her and let her give sloppy kisses to them. Any info would be appreciated... Thanks for your support.
Rajah & Mom Cathy

 

[Maxwell's Ma]

Do a search and you will find info. I do not have any experience with this but have seen post about it. Sending peaceful healing vibes your way.

 

[Macon's Mom]

Cathy, I'm so sorry to hear about your news for Rajah. :( I don't know anything about this, but I do agree that there should be lots of info on BW if you do a search and I'm sure someone will reply with some advice as well. Keep us posted.
Sending lots of boxer hugs and kisses your way.

 

[mtoo]

We lost our last dog, Cassie, to hemangiosarcoma. She was eleven. It was two weeks from the time she first collapsed to the time she died. She did not die on her own we had to have her "put to sleep".

During those two weeks she would have bouts of extreme lethargy, she really couldn't eat anything and keep it down so she lost weight. Then she would bounce back but was never normal. She was in and out of our vet's several times. They would put her on IV's and she would act so much better. She would tire so easily.

We opted to take her to a specialist (not sure of the correct title anymore). Our vet could have done exploratory surgery but I didn't want to put her through that. I think even though the diagnosis wasn't official I knew she wasn't going to make it.

The day of the appt. she was doing great. It was an hour drive to the hospital. By the time we got there she was beginning to tire. They did an ultrasound of her heart and they had other tests scheduled though i don't remember what all they were. They did the ultrasound first and discovered that she had a tumor wrapped around a large part of the right side of her heart. That came as a shock because we had thought it was around her spleen or liver.

The dr basically said it was hopeless. We chose not to do the rest of the tests.

I took her home and thought I could keep her with us for another day or two. But when I sat there and really looked at her I knew I couldn't let her suffer anymore.

Our vet came to our home that evening and helped her pass.

Personally I wouldn't do chemo but I was never in the position to make that choice since her cancer was already so advanced. Like you said everything I read says it doesn't buy much time. With my girl already being so old I just think it would have made her feel worse.

Cassie's symptoms were basically lethargy and loss of appetite. She vomited and it often had blood in it. She would get really tired. Even though her heart was involved she never coughed. Her breathing was somewhat labored the last couple of days.

I know someone who never even knew her dog was sick. She just collapsed and died. That's common with hemangiosarcoma too, from the rupturing and bleeding.

I've always been told you'll know when it's time to let them go and I did.

I'm really sorry to hear about Rajah.

Kerri

 

[Austin's Mom]

I don't have any info for you but want to send lots of hugs to you and your baby. Enjoy whatever time you are blessed to have left.

 

[Elyse]

Cathy, I am so sorry to hear all you and Rajah are going through. I don't have any advice as I have never been through this but I do want to lend some support. (((hugs))) Sending lots of sloppy kisses from Nestle and Porter.

 

[B-MAN'S MOM]

I also wanted to send some <<<<healing vibes>>> and ((((hugs))) your way! I don't have any advice as I have never been through anything like this.

 

[atlasmom911]

Sending Lots Of Healing <<<vibes>>> To Your Baby.

 

[RonniRN]

hemangiosarcoma

I am going through the end stages of this dreadful disease with my white boxer, Sayge, right now. She was diagnosed in July of this year when she had periods of of weakness and was not able to hold her weight on her her back legs. Her abdomen was also "spasming". We had the ultrasound done which showed a mass on the spleen which was apparently bleeding. We had this removed by a surgeon approx 2 weeks later emergently - she couldn't wait for the appt because she had a second bleed. Postoperatively she did very well and was back to her old self. There was no evidence of metastasis of the cancer on any other organ, but the surgeon couldn not be sure at the cellular level what was going on. The pathology came back hemangiosarcoma which as we know is very aggresive. Surprisingly Sayge did very well for five month and then last Thursday night I let her out at night in they yard for a potty break and found her lying down in the snow. I knew she was getting sick again. I started crying right then. She has been slowly deteriorating since that (5 days ago) with weakness and the abdominal spasms. She must be bleeding from another organ and is getting very anemic. She is still able to eat and drink, urinate and poop. We just have to come to the decision of when to have the vet come over and take the next step and she is like our baby and it is sooo hard. I feel for you and your dog. My dog is only 7 yrs old. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. It is a long, hard road.

Rhonda and Sayge

 

[RonniRN]

re:chemo

Cathy,
I forgot to add that we did not do any chemo either. In researching this type of tumor it didn't seem to help anyway and the life span was the same. I wanted the quality of her life to be as good as possible and it was for the past five months. We spoiled her!!!
Rhonda