Wondering if with this cancer as my Rocky has (inoperable and metastasized... please see my comment on Sam's post for more specifics on current condition), if there are any tell-tale signs of whether he is in pain still (after giving him both CBD and tramadol it doesn't appear he is to me but want to be sure)? And also, any tell-tale signs that he is in active stage of death as in days to live (rather than weeks/months)? He is paralyzed except for upper body, internal bleeding that can be seen around navel and groin area as dark red/purple skin, incontinence but regular bowel and urine and eating still.

My dog is is 8 year old pit bull terrier. On 5/11 she collapsed due to a mass that burst in her spleen and caused internal bleeding. The vets said there’s an 85% chance she has hemangiosarcoma and we’re waiting for the path report to come back. So far, her recovery has been exceptional she’s not tired and not really minding the 10 inch incision anymore. Maybe I’m trying to be too optimistic but if she indeed had this aggressive cancer do you think her recovery would have been so quick? From almost dying on Friday, to coming home on Sunday to walking around and having energy just 4 days after surgery, do you think the odds are on our side!?

Hello, We have a 12-year old male Boxer. We started one day with a bloody stool. Took him to the vet - he was diagnosed with colitis and given antibiotics. The red-blood stool turned into a black, tarry one within a week. Then, one day out of the blue, he had a small seizure that was hard to detect. Later that evening, he totally collapsed while running after a ball, and began to have a seizure on the ground. We brought him in and took him to the vet. Due to his age, the vet decided to do some xrays. While on the x-ray table, Bandit had another seizure. He said Bandit's spleen and liver were very enlarged. He showed us the pictures and said it looked like cancer. He gave us a grim prognosis. Six months to live. He gave us Phenobarbytol for the seizures which have not returned thus far - about four weeks now without one. He is unstable on his feet and seems pretty lethargic. He is eating and drinking. After about two weeks on the Phenobarbytol, he began drinking excessive amounts of water. An entire bowl at a time. He began peeing in the house. Not normal. Now, after several weeks on Phenobarbytol, he seems to be drinking much less water, hardly any, however he seems very, very hungry. He is constantly wanting food or a snack. We are feeding him his regular meals, plus more snacks throughout the day. He is so hungry, though, he is eating the trash. He looks like he has lost weight. We continue with his Phenobarbytol prescription and special dietary food from the vet. We are keeping him quiet with no excessive exercise. The seizures have stopped for now. He also has very pale gums and seems confused and disoriented often. We are trying to discern what is the right thing to do here. It doesn't look like he is ready to go, but just hard to tell what kind of quality of life he is having.

I took my 13 1/2 year old female dog, Binx in for her yearly exam in Feb. I mentioned that for about the last year her back legs seem to go out on her or buckle when we are walking. It’s like she just kneels down 4-6 times during a walk. I was told it was arthritis and started her on Rimadyl. The vet said I would know in 2 weeks if it was helping her and it to let them know. She was helped significantly and after 2 weeks went to pick up another bottle. The Vet tech told me I would need to have lab work done before it could be refilled again. I took her in for lab work several weeks ago and the next day heard back that all 3 liver enzymes were elevated. She could not tolerate the Rimadyl. WE started her on Denamarin for 30 days and then she would have her labs done again and if that brought them back down, we could then start something else for pain. Last week when she woke up from her nap, she could not step up onto one step to come out of her room. It scared me because she had never done this before. I ran to get a blanket to try and lift her with it and when I was heading back to her room, I noticed she had made it up the step on her own. I took her outside on a leash, and when we were ready to come inside she couldn’t get up the step onto the front porch. I was crying thinking she is so old and this is just the beginning of the end. She has also been sleeping most of the day for the last 10 months or so. I just assumed it was normal. This was on a Friday, and all last weekend she just laid on her bed and hardly got up. I was so worried and knew it was much more than just arthritis. She looked so sad and seemed like she wasn’t going to be around much longer. I didn’t want to leave her all weekend, but we left for an hour on Sat and Sun and when we left she was asleep. Off and on all weekend, when she needed to go out, she had trouble with the step. We decided to keep her out of her room while we were gone because we didn’t want her to fall. She also has a bed in our bedroom so we told her to lie down in there. She seemed so confused and really wanted to go into her room. It’s her favorite place to sleep and hang out. When we arrived home, she didn’t even get up to greet us. She just laced there. On Monday morning we took her to the vet. She had gained 7 pounds since Feb. Her abdomen looked thick and bloated. I hadn’t noticed this but my husband had. He didn’t tell me because he didn’t want to worry me. She didn’t have a temperature and her heart rate was good. Her gums looked pink. We decided to do an ultrasound of her abdomen. We were shocked when she told us she had a huge, ugly mass she thought was on her liver. She also said it looked like it had paper punch holes all over it. She said Bing was squirming and so it was hard to get up as high as she wanted. She basically told us she has 2 weeks to live and that we could go to a specialist if we chose to do so. She also said Bing had fluid in her abdomen maybe around the liver, I’m not exactly sure. I was in shock. Bing has always been pretty healthy. She has parvovirus as a puppy before we adopted her and almost died. All her liter mates died. She also had pancreatitis when she was around 6 years old. I don’t know what to do or if there is any hope at all. The Vet also told me that the tumor could rupture and she would bleed out. I haven’t left her al week since this devastating news. The next day I called the vet and asked her if I should avoid anything at all or if i would have any warning that B in was bleeding internally and then she told me she didn’t think that would happed. So, one day she tells me that she could bleed to death and the next day she says she probably won’t. I’m on pins and needles and terrified the tumor is going to rupture and she will bleed to death. I also asked her if she knew for sure that it was malignant and she said no, not unless we did a biopsy. She prescribed GABA pectin for pain and said to finish up what was left of the Denamarin. We also got her some CBD oil and saw an amazing change in her the next day after 2 doses. We are not giving her the Gabapentin any longer. She’s still sleeping a lot and eating and drinking. We took a long walk the other day and i feel guilty because I know she over did it. I let her take me to her favorite places and she had so much fun. My app on my phone said we walked 2 1/2 miles. She was dragging and barely made it home. She couldn’t get up the step again on our front porch, so we had to go next door to my sisters house for awhile so she could rest. Do you think I should contact a specialist? My vet said tumors on the spleen are the ones that rupture and she didn’t think her spleen eas involved. One more thing, she did say that there were like bright lights on her spleen or maybe bright spots. Thank You so much for your time.

My brother's 11 year mixed female went into shock and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and found to have a ruptured mass on her spleen. We were given the dire news that 80% of these are cancerous and they suggested surgery or euthanasia. I had the 3K to pay to have her stabilized and she recovered and we brought her home but did not have the cash for surgery. A few days later I was able to make available 6K for surgery and talked my brother into it though he fought me on it not wanting me to spend the money etc. I chose to go to the University of PA which is one of the best hospitals in the country. The day I brought her in they did additional testing and found that she might have a spot on her lungs, she had spots on her liver (which is typical of spread from cancer) and her kidneys were in bad shape either from cancer or they took a hit for the initial blood loss. Again, they said it looks like cancer, so asked us we want to go ahead with the surgery or euthanize her. Again, I talked my brother into the surgery which they did an hour later. After the surgery she had some breathing issues which suggested could be cancer in her lungs but a day later not only did her breathing return to normal (with a lot of intervention on their part) but her kidneys began to significantly improve. Again, though they said there were two masses on the smaller size which are usually cancer. Low and behold today we found out that everything was benign. No cancer. We are both shocked as we expected the worse. My suggestion is that if you love your pet and can swing the money - do the surgery. Expect the worse but hope for the best. I just went through thousands on two of my cats and did not get good news but I have never ever regretted the expense.