<p>We have an older large dog who got deathly ill a couple of years ago and has continuing impaired liver function. Not anything that is currently medicated, we mainly changed his diet.</p>
<p>But he has a nasty growth that has quadrupled in size. Initially we ignored it (after a biopsy) as the thought of putting him under anesthetic, which is tough on the liver, was not appealing. Now that it is so much larger I am researching options and ideas.</p>
<p>We would like to remove it, but are concerned about putting him under. We found a vet with a laser, but they still require him to be under for treatment.</p>
<p>Somemom, I don’t have any experience with anything like this but I’m sorry that you’re having to deal with this. My thoughts are with you and your furry friend.</p>
<p>My dog had a very large tumor, and they were nervous about putting her under because of her age, but she made it and they removed it. Eventually it grew back 3x as fast and there wasn’t enough skin left to remove it and sew her back up. She went on antibiotics, but it got infected because it burst. She was unable to do anything at that point. Not eat, drink, get up, hardly could wag her tail. We decided to end the pain for her. It still hurts me to this day. It will be almost a year soon.</p>
<p>In your situation, if the tumor was affecting his quality of life and he was having trouble moving, going to the bathroom, etc, I might take the risk to remove it. Of course I would spend the day with him before in case he was unable to make it out of surgery. I think quality of life is so much more important then quantity.</p>
<p>Nope, it has not interfered with quality of life, not in a bad location, but it grew really quickly the past two years and I am concerned about future growth.</p>
<p>We had a dog of the same breed who got a growth and was old so we left it alone, but she defied her breed life expectancy and lived another 7 years, the older she got, the bigger and nastier it got and the less we wanted to put her under anesthetic.</p>
<p>I don’t quite get why twilight sleep or something less rough on the liver could not work.</p>
<p>Our 9 year old golden/lab mix (113 lbs) had a large growth (cyst) removed last January.
While he was under anesthesia for removal for the cyst, he also had his teeth cleaned.
We dropped him off to the vet in the morning and picked him up later in the day.
That first night after the surgery was heartbreaking for us. He cried and whined and my husband and I took turns sitting near his bed and comforting him. The next morning, he was much better. We gave him pain medication for 2 days. The cut healed up nicely and other than the first night of him crying (we couldn’t figure out if this was from pain or a reaction from the anesthesia), he didn’t have any complications.</p>
<p>We’re glad we had the cyst removed. It was located on his side near the hip joint of the back leg. He’s fine other than the occasional limp from arthritis.</p>
<p>somemom, oh I’m so sorry. I don’t think any vet will operate on a dog who is not completely out in a non-emergency situation. Dogs, even the most mellow ones, like mine, become unpredictable when they feel that their life is being threatened. When I walked into the recovery room after my dog’s surgery and saw a big, orange sign “Extereme Danger!” above his crate, I almost broke down in tears. My sweet angel is “exterme danger”? He was clearly not thinking straight because of the pain and some meds he was on. He became his old self in a couple of days, and the hospital techs fell in love with him.</p>
<p>my dog had her spleen removed last winter ( she was then 14 & 1/2), because of bleeding and elevated liver enzymes. However it looks like the whole thing was because she had been on Deramaxx athough she had taken it for a while.
( she is a lab- & very lumpy- all the lumps except one, that have been biopsed have been lipomas, she does have one that seems to be cancerous, but it is in her chest wall and seems to be very slow growing- so we are leaving it alone- it is also small)</p>
<p>We didnt’ really know what was actually the issue because of course they have to be opened up first.</p>
<p>I suspect she probably wouldn’t have even needed her spleen removed, but that was taking the brunt of the problem.</p>
<p>somemom: I think dogs have to have a trach tube down their throat and IV hooked up to their front paw when they have surgery. That’s why they have to be completely out, not twilight sleep. One of my dogs had to have several small tumors removed over the years and always coughed a little after due to the trach tube.</p>
<p>Does your vet think it is justifiable to have your dog put under for the surgery?</p>
<p>Our 14-year old miniature schnauzer had some procedures last month, and sailed through it. She had two rather large warts, one on her front paw and one on the side of her lip, which she had been known to scratch open, which led to a little bleeding. When I mentioned this to the vet at one of her checkups, she said it was probably time to remove them then. We also decided to have her teeth cleaned, too. Her approach? She sedates the dog with the gas, but not the IV. She said when they use the gas only, if the dog begins to have a bad reaction, or begins to decline in any way, they just stop the gas and the reversal is quick, whereas with the IV meds, if they go south, it takes longer for the meds in the IV to leave their system once they stop the IV. They did put in an IV to provide fluids, but no sedation was used in the IV (I think they also used it to give the antibiotics). So they lasered the two warts, which required one or two stitches each, cleaned her teeth and trimmed her nails. Our dog did great and didn’t need any teeth extractions. They said she’s one of a very few dogs at this age who still has all her teeth and they’re all healthy.</p>
<p>I do think the trach tube irritated her a bit, and she kind of coughed a little bit for a few hours after I brought her home, but you also have to remember that she’d not had anything to drink for over 12 hours, so her throat was dry. Once we’d given her small sips of water over a period of time after we brought her home, the cough was much better.</p>
<p>So ask about giving just the gas sedation as opposed to gas and IV sedation.</p>