Not treating cancer?

[EAO76]

Some of you may have seen my other post about Fluff’s cancer. I am wondering if anyone here has ever made the decision to not aggressively treat cancer? Meaning no chemo, no radiation, or radical surgery. Just do more of a palliative or hospice type care? If so can you share your experience?

 

[cooper22]

I can speak from experience with my first boxer, Kojack. He was diagnosed with lung cancer at 9.5 years old and even though we did check for signs that it had spread (which we couldn't find any evidence of) I decided to only use predinose and let him live out his life. The option of removing half of his one lung at 9.5 years old did not appeal to me. He lived about 5 more months after the diagnosis and most of it was very comfortable due to the prednisone. I don't regret my decision at all and it was the right thing for him. I didn't want his chest opened up and half of his lung removed at 9.5.

My last boxer, Tucker, who died earlier this year from lymphoma was treated with chemo, but only because he was 4.5 years old. He only lived 5 months from diagnosis until we put him to sleep and to be honest I don't think the chemo helped him at all. The prednisone once again was wonderful.

I think it is a very personal decision, but I can totally understand your dilemna with the location of the tumor, age of the dog, and difficulty in handling her. I also can't imagine having a dog in the house that is fecally incontinent. That would be very difficult. Good luck with your final decision.

 

[EAO76]

Thanks for the post. I have heard others use prednisone for cancer. Do you know how the pred helps exactly? Does it shrink the tumor at all? Or just give the dog strength and an appetite? Currently Fluffy is still eating good and has decent energy. She still gets excited about going for walks and gives the squirrels hell in the back yard.

 

[johann]

I have no real experience as an adult making decisions, but we did do this with my german shepherd growing up. She had some sort of cancerous tumor (sorry, I was 13 and fuzzy on details) and my parents opted to just let her live out her life and keep her comfortable.

Once she was no longer happy to play and eat, we said goodbye. Dogs don't understand the concept of time passing and only having a short amount more time with us, but Fluffy will understand that you are keeping her comfortable and happy as long as possible. I can't imagine that she would be happy as a fecally incontinent dog either- most housebroken dogs I know hate when they have accidents in the house. Never mind the stress it is bound to cause on your family that she would pick up on.

Thinking of you, and try to remember that you are making this decision in her best interests.

 

[Roge]

Thank God I have no experience of this with dogs but I do imagine that as in humans the chemo while efective in some cases is not in others and give a very poor quality of life due to the side effects of the drug . Each case is different and it may be best to go with the vets advise as to how good the prognosis is with treatment, IMO I think that if you are only gaining a few months on chemo its going to be quantity you will get instead of quality. I know its a tough decission to make and I wish you well which ever route you take.

 

[hurleygirl]

Our Hurley had lymphoma. The vet advised us that if we wanted to go the chemo route it would only give him about 4 more months. We decided to just go with the Prednisone and he was like a different dog for about 6 weeks and then went down hill really fast. But those last few weeks were such a gift. The Prednisone doesn't really shrink the tumor per se. It's an anti-inflammatory and just makes them more comfortable with breathing, energy, appetite, etc. Just be prepared for when the Prednisone isn't working anymore. Our dear vet gave us his cell number and said to call him when it was time. He opened his office on a Saturday night and laid him to rest. We buried him under a beautiful tree in our back yard. Hope this helps in some small way. I know how hard it is to go thru. You are in my prayers. It's been a year for us and we still miss him dearly.

 

[BoozerBaby]

it's a really tough decision to make but I truly believe it is selfish of us as humans to put our animals through hell for our own needs.When in the end it all comes down to the same thing.I've seen and watched other people that i know put their poor dogs and cats through tons of treatments at a high price just to have to put the animal to sleep anyway.No Guarantee tells me one thing give me your money and we'll do this procedure and hope for the best you MIGHT get a few more months.It's heart breaking and it's the worst pain ever but think of your baby.I feel really sad for you that you have to go through this but you know you have time with your baby let your baby live let her have whatever food she wants let her have something that has been forbidden up to now like a hamburger think my boy thought he was in heaven when we gave him a hamburger and my husband started leaving a little something in his lunch box for our boy to find as soon as my husband walked in the door.And best of all take lots more pics and videos and just spend every moment kissing and loving her as much as you can and when that day comes when she makes her 1st pee on the floor or on furniture remember she is sick and just hug her tell her it's ok baby.Don't know if this has helped any but I sure am really sad for you.

 

[Loladog]

We chose to do Chemo when Lola was diagnosed with Lymphoma not because we wanted to prolong her life in a way that would bring quantity over quality but because of what we learned through our research about the potential for Chemo to actually improve their quality of life and make them feel better. The way it was explained to us, in Veterinary Medicine they don't use the high doses as they would use in human medicine. In human medicine, the goal is to get rid of the Cancer and humans understand that they will feel sick from the Chemo with the goal of a cure. In veterinary medicine, the goal is remission and they don't use doses high enough to make the dog feel sick because the dog will not understand and obviously this wouldn't be fair to them. In what I read, Chemo can actually make them feel better because Cancer causes them pain, when you bring it into remission, it lessens the pain. The protocols used are generally very well tolerated by dogs. Prednisone is great for making them feel better but it will not do anything to bring the cancer into remission. It's simply to improve appetite and act as an anti-inflammatory. Prednisone is Cortisone which is the hormone that "pumps you up" so to speak. When we chose to do Chemo for Lola, she was ten years old and already dealing with Cushing's Disease. Although I don't know if it was the right decision as it didn't help in her case, I know that personally, I would have regretted not trying. However, as stated by other members, this is a very personal decision. I would just recommend reading as much as you can about it. I wish you all the best as you go through this difficult time.

 

[SherylM]

I'm very sorry to hear about Fluffy's cancer. I have a friend with a boxer that has the same type of cancer as Fluffy's. They have opted for no treatment. She was diagnosed approximately 5 months ago. They keep her very active, at least a mile walk every day and also offer toys that mentally stimulate her, to keep her busy. She has become fussy with food so they allow her to eat whatever she wants. As a result she has lost some weight. At this point she is still quite happy, though she does sleep a lot. The docs did not say how long she would live, only that it is terminal and to enjoy every day. So that is what they are doing and so far, so good.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

We did not treat our first Boxer's cancer. Partially because we didn't know it was cancer, it was between that and a Valley Fever tumor in his brain, but after about 3 months we knew that it wasn't VF since the drugs were not helping and he was getting worse. Given that it was in his brain, I doubt it was really an option anyway. To be very honest, it would not have mattered, we made the decision a long time ago that we do not believe in treating cancer in animals with aggressive treatments. We will make them as comfortable as possible for as long as possible, but then we will humanely let them go.