<p>I have two very small dogs and used to walk them clipped together with an extension - so I had a 4 ft. lead clipped to the extension. I had gotten that because when the dogs were young they would go all over the place and with 2 leashes things would get tangled pretty quickly. But as the dogs grew older it got to a point where I had better control with 2 separate leashes. Both dogs are able to heel on command. The problem with the extension is that if the dogs got excited (let’s say, another dog being walked nearby), the 2 would end up riling each other up and with the connecting line - so once both were trained to the level where could heel on command fairly consistently, it’s better to keep them separate. </p>
<p>I’m sitting by the phone waiting for the vet to call and let me the results of my dog’s cytology. Yesterday, I noticed a lump on her neck that felt different from the rest of her lumps and bumps. I brought her in and the tech couldn’t find the lump at first. I had myself convinced that I had imagined it until the vet came in and found it. They did a needle aspiration and she said she would call me tonight. :(</p>
<p>My girl is 14 years old.</p>
<p>Well, the vet emailed me late last night that the test showed some suspicious round cells. She is sending it out to a lab to have them take a closer look. I am guessing this is Lymphoma. Has anyone else dealt with this?</p>
<p>My first golden was diagnosed with lymphoma, but the results arrived after his death. (He went downhill <em>very</em> rapidly, and has multiple things going on, which delayed diagnosis.)</p>
<p>When our second golden was diagnosed with a different cancer, we were advised that there was nothing to do about it. Internet searches said the same thing. To make a long story short, when we eventually consulted a canine oncologist, he said that, to the contrary, there was effective chemo for that cancer–and that it was comparatively easily tolerated by most dogs and not terribly expensive–but that it was mostly known only among oncologists. There has been effective chemo for lymphoma for quite a while. </p>
<p>So if your girl has lymphoma or some other cancer, I would advise consulting with an oncologist before making up your mind what to do.</p>
<p>Oh, and another thing: we opted NOT to spend $1K or more on thorough diagnosis including scans, since she had palpable masses. We agreed that if the chemo worked to shrink them, we would know it was working on any possible internal masses as well. She was about 8 1/2 at that time.</p>
<p>My lab had quite a few lumps, as she lived to be 16. The vet aspirated several over time, but some were too difficult.
She did have exploratory surgery and her spleen removed after Rimadyl cause internal bleeding. ( also had a very large fatty tumor removed at same time) This was when she was 14. I did spend more than we could afford to care for her, but she did recover and live another 1&1/2 yrs. It was also shortly after my mother had died suddenly and I was feeling very bereft.</p>
<p>There are many options for treating cancer in dogs. One friend gave her dog chemotherapy, and she responded quite well.</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn’t notice that there were replied to my post until today. </p>
<p>Here’s the latest. The cytology of the lump came back showing that it was consistent with a problem with a salivary gland. We were so relieved. They thought it was a Mucocele which can be fixed by removing the salivary gland that is damaged. The also considered that it might be an abscess from something lodged in her throat. So they put her on an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory to see if that would change the size of the lump. It didn’t.</p>
<p>They then recommended exploratory surgery, reasoning that they could remove the salivary gland if it was a Mucocele, biopsy a lymph node if that was the issue or put a drain in if it was an abscess. She had the surgery yesterday and it was none of those things. They found a tumor in her salivary gland. Ended up removing the salivary gland to be sure to get clean margins. The tumor has gone off to be biopsied. I went on line and found out that the large majority of tumors in this location are cancer and are not easy to treat.</p>
<p>EPTR: So sorry. </p>
<p>Oh no. I thought you were out of the woods. :(</p>
<p>EPTR, I am so, so sorry. My best wishes to you, pup, and family. </p>
<p>So I need advice. Doggie in my picture really loves befriending skunks. She has been sprayed well over a dozen times in her life and this morning she got sprayed again while trying to play with a baby skunk. (Fun fact, baby skunks smell more like garlic than skunks.) We try to watch her but she sees them before us and before we can grab her, she’s been sprayed. I don’t want to have her on a leash in the backyard but other than that, I’m not sure what to do. Any tips?</p>
<p>We got rid of a skunk that took up residence in our garage by soaking the area with a mixture of ammonia and mothballs, it turns out skunks don’t like certain smells either because it worked like a charm. If you know were those skunks reside in your backyard, maybe try that?</p>
<p>Supposedly, skunks are attracted to places where they can eat grubs in the lawn. Reducing the grub population could help. How exactly to do that is another question. My parents used to spread something called “milky spore” on their property, but I don’t have the impression that it worked terribly well. That was decades ago: maybe there is something else now that is also non-poisonous.</p>
<p>Fence the yard so that the skunks can’t get in. I used to have a terrible problem with a larger dog that never did get the message about skunks., and the skunks were always getting into the yard… but after she passed on, I got a couple of very small dogs, both terrier mixes. The smaller dog had figured out his way under the fence into the neighbor’s yard on day #1, so I spent a day patching up every gap in the fence and making sure that there was no way to dig a hole near the fence… and no skunk has managed to get in since. It’s been more than 4 years now. There are still skunks all over the neighborhood… but none in the yard. </p>
<p>I assume that you know how to clean the dog? A mixture of baking soda & peroxide with a tiny bit of detergent works pretty well. With the last dog, I always had a skunk “kit” on hand ready to go. </p>
<p>Well, we finally got the pathology report on the tumor removed from my dog’s salivary gland. It was an adenocarcinoma. They say they got clean margins and that the salivary gland, itself, was clear on the margins as well so I guess that’s good. The vet is sending the report to a vet oncologist to see if he recommends further treatment. I’ve been looking online a lot (although it is a rare cancer in dogs so there isn’t a lot of info) and it seems that radiation is sometimes used after surgery but I’m also seeing that the average survival rate of dogs with or without radiation only varies by a month or two. At her age, I am thinking that we will let nature takes it course until she seems uncomfortable. We’ll see what the oncologist says. </p>
<p>EPTR: Hopefully clean margins gives her some quality time for many, many months…even years. Dogs are so precious to families.</p>
<p>EPTR- sounds like a logical course, one I would choose for a human family member as well. Quality of life is as important as quantity of life. Gaining a short amount of time at great expense (monetary AND otherwise) does not seem worth it. Everyone, dogs and humans, will die at some time. Using the same amount of time remaining to pursue treatments with the added stresses and discomforts or letting your dog enjoy being a dog- I would choose letting nature rule. Same scenario applies to humans, especially as we age. Avoid potential complications with radiation, if offered, and enjoy life without making time at the vet’s part of your routine.</p>
<p>btw- H and I are physicians and already know we won’t do absolutely everything possible for ourselves, much less a beloved dog. Wish ours had had an easily treated tumor instead of an unknown cerebellar condition his last month of life…</p>
<p>Thank you both. She actually seems to feel great. I think the tumor may have been causing her some difficulty breathing. She had been snoring for a while and even awake had become a noisy breather. I mentioned it to the vet several times but her blood work and exam were always good. Since the tumor was removed though, she is quieter when she sleeps. She also seems to have more energy. Haven;t heard back from the vet about her consult with the oncologist. My H thinks that his recommendation about whether to pursue treatments will be motivated by whether he is behind on his yacht payments or not. 
</p>
<p>EPTR: Not sure if your husband is kidding but I understand what he is saying! Vet bills are extremely expensive and it’s tough to decide what to do sometimes. In our family we laugh and say our old dog who we very recently put to sleep, cost one full year of college tuition! And honestly I am not kidding about that…he was the dog with 10+ lives but he did live until 15 & 1/2 years and every minute of that life was worth the money we spent.</p>
<p>So I have a question for all of you canine savants. Pictured in my profile is our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who is 2 1/2 years old. He sleeps in a crate in the basement, for two reasons. One, we did not get him until he was ten months old, and his foster family/breeder I think failed in properly house training him. The few times we tried to let him sleep with us, he peed on our bed, so we relegated him to the crate. Even in the crate, if we place anything soft in it like a blanket, towel or bedding, he will pee, even with the crate cordoned off to be very small. Since we removed all soft material, he has not peed once in the crate. Two, he will wake up sometimes for no reason, anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30 and just bark, about every minute or so. Since H gets up at 5AM to get ready for work, if we had him on the first floor, his barking would wake us up, and H cannot go back to sleep, and therefore, is up much earlier than he needs to be, which makes for a long day. If the dog is in the basement, we are less likely to hear him, and sleep through it. We do limit his water in the evening. When H is ready to leave for work around 5:30, he will get the dog from the basement, feed him, let him out, then let him come up to bed with me (he never pees then in the few hours we are in our bed). He then goes back to sleep for several hours, until I’m ready to get up. However, when I get up and we go downstairs, he is ravenously thirsty, and drinks and drinks. In the last couple of months, he has drank so much water, so quickly, that he inevitably spits some up. I have tried to ration his water in the morning, giving him smaller amounts, more frequently, so that his stomach is not overwhelmed with liquid, but I’m still trying to find that balance that satisfies him, yet minimizes the chances he will spit up. But it’s becoming so regular that I’m starting to wonder if there’s something else going on that I should have the vet check on. If he spits up, I even more slowly reintroduce water for him, often letting him drink for 10-15 seconds, then removing the water bowl for 15-20 minutes before I offer him some more; he seems to eventually be able to hold it down. I think because we limit his water intake in the evening before bedtime, he is very thirsty when he finally gets to his water bowl after we go downstairs later in the morning. </p>
<p>I made the mistake one morning of filling a Dixie cup of water from our bathroom when I’m doing my morning routine after I get out of bed, and offering it to him. Now whenever I’m washing my face, etc. (before we go downstairs) at the bathroom sink, he starts whining for me to give him some water from the Dixie cup. So I’m trying to offer it in smaller, more frequent amounts, but it’s become quite tedious. I’m sort of wondering if he has some sort of GERD issue, so that his stomach is irritated during the night when he sleeps, leading to the spitting up once he gets any water in his stomach.</p>
<p>When was his last check-up? Dogs get very thirsty as a result of diabetes although he seems very young for that. My dog drinks more water than she did when she was younger and we had been following her blood sugar. Turns out that one of the symptoms of salivary gland cancer is thirst. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about that, though Teriwitt, with your dog, it is extremely rare and is only found in elderly dogs.</p>
<p>So do you think this is a vet-worthy concern? He’s not due for his annual for another couple of months.</p>
<p>I was very, very careful today, only allowing smaller amounts, but more often. He held it all down.</p>