**I apologize in advance that this is so long (I tend to always write way to much!!)**
First I would like to say how very sorry I am that you and your little girl are going through this and you are faced with difficult decisions. My girl Maddie had a mandibulectomy in Sept. 2005. I noticed a small bump under her chin that literally appeared out of no where, there was no bump in the morning but by afternoon it was there, at first I thought she got bit by a bug. When the swelling did not go down by the next morning, I took her to work with me and we did some x-rays. I was horrified when I saw the x-ray, part of her jaw bone was being eaten away, it was gone. That afternoon she was in surgery having half of the bottom lower right side of her jaw removed. Fortunately for us, we were lucky enough that it came back as some type of funky, uncommon benign bone cyst. Before the biopsy results, the doctors were pretty sure it was cancer, the x-rays looked pretty bad so we were shocked with the results (extremely happy but shocked!!)
Our overall experience with her mandibulectomy was not that bad. She was eating the very next day, it was a slurry (watered down canned food) she was able to lap it up. She had to eat that for a week or two. The day we got clearance from the surgeon, Maddie was chewing on hard things that same day like bones, toys, etc. She never skipped a beat, it never phased her, and it never slowed her down. She has always been a hard chewer, loves to chew and still is a hard chewer today. I am amazed at how she chews on hard things, like nothing was ever wrong. Her tongue now hangs out all the time on the right side, which I adore/love, it gives her character and I love her that much more for it. It is very obvious to me when I look at her that she is missing part of her jaw but for people who do not know she had a mandibulectomy they never would guess it. Usually people comment on her tongue and that is when I tell them what happened, they are very surprised when I tell them part of her jaw is gone. She is a little messier when drinking water now but we just put towels down around the water bowl. She has no problems eating, it is her favorite thing to do.
I understand it being a difficult decision to put her through surgery if she is a candidate, so many different things to think about. I recently was faced with a difficult decision regarding Maddie. She was diagnosed with an insulinoma about 3 weeks ago. The prognosis is/was not good even if surgery is performed to remove the tumor on the pancreas. Without surgery survival is usually 2-12 months at best, with surgery it can be 12-18 months if you remove the tumor and if your lucky. After being VERY torn about doing the surgery, I decided to go ahead and try to have the tumor removed, I wanted to give her a better quality of life and try to give her more time with us. Unfortunately, the piece that was removed from her pancreas ended up not being the tumor after all like the surgeon thought it was, the tumor is still inside of her. I feel horrible that I put her through all of that for nothing , not even buying her any extra time with us. However, after the shock whore off that the surgery failed, looking back I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't at least try. I would have spent the rest of my life saying, "what if?" I'm now faced with several other difficult decisions one being possibly putting her through another surgery again so, I can feel your pain and understand how hard it is for you right now.
One thing you mentioned was the tumor is towards the front of her mouth which is in better/easier location to remove than if it was towards the back. If she is in pretty good shape and does not have a lot of other health issues besides this tumor, odds are in her favor for a better recovery if you decide to do it. Once healed, she should be able to enjoy life just as much as she did before. If you do decide to go ahead with the surgery, I highly suggest you have a board certified surgeon perform the surgery (it sounds like you are already probably meeting with one on thursday.) This is an invasive surgery and someone with a lot of experience should be doing it. Also, they should do x-rays and +/- an ultrasound on Tasha to rule out if the cancer has already spread before any surgery would be done. One thing to ask the surgeon about is a vaccine that is newer in the treatment of canine oral melanomas. I know it can be given after surgery is performed to remove the tumor (not sure if it can be used if surgery is not an option.) I found this site which might be of help to you regarding the vaccine
http://www.petcancervaccine.com/us_home.shtml
For what its worth, I have worked/dealt with a number of dogs who have had to have a mandibulectomy and they all adjusted and did pretty good post surgery. As you already know, an oral melanoma eventually will metastasize but the quality of time until then is usually good.
I am sorry you are faced with these decisions. Just remember that you know your little girl the best and whatever decision you make will be right one for her. Good luck tomorrow with the surgeon and please keep us updated. I will be keeping you and Tasha in my thoughts and prayers. (((((HUGS))))
I know I will probably feel some guilt at times as she recovers from the mandibulectomy; however, I can't imagine the guilt I'd feel knowing there was something I could have done to give her more quality time and didn't. If anyone has any "tips" for the post surgery period I'd be so appreciative to hear them. ;-) Oh, one more thing, this is to Carrie, Tasha will be getting the vaccination. 