dog most likely has cancer :(

marystar

about the end of feb i noticed a dinge just over my dogs tale .. the next week it was a small bump .. my dad took him to the blue cross , they said it was most likely a tumor & gave him some medication in case of infection, they said bring him back in 2 weeks , we did , the 2 vets there felt around his backside and said the tumor had grown a lot .. so it was most likely cancer & there was noting we could do ..
when asked about surgery they said for his quality of life , they didnt think was good idea, (he is 13 year old male golden labrador).they gave him liquid parrfin to help him go to the toliet,as the tumor he has is right on his backside .., we took him to another private vet for second opinon & they pretty much said the same thing .. even offering to put him asleep there & then .. he is not acting sick at the min , the tumour now looks really horrible , you can see a big red lump comeing out of the hole, but he still can go to the toilet & hes not even having to take the liquid parrifin every day ..

we said he still eats , plays , doesnt seem in pain , so no reason to put him asleep yet .. they said in about 3 weeks tumor will start bleeding & then it will be time to do it .. but that was a month ago, dog is still fine , apart from been able to see it you wouldnt know it was there ..
i feel like i want to help , on the internet it says that neutering dogs would of prevented this .. & even sometime when they already have one, you should have dog neutered, no vets have ever said about this .. maybe coz hes so old ..
he never had a biospy, to offically confirm if it was cancer. vets said it would be uncomfortable for him.
i was also wondering should they have let him have sugery .. even though hes old he seems strong .. dont like the thought of dog being in pain because he can t go to the toilet if tumor gets bigger & liquid parffin doesnt work anymore or tumor bleeding & having to get him put asleep .. vet said when/if it gets to that stage he will not want to eat or play anymore .. anyone ever have a dog with this probelm ???

macshadow

I had a dog die of cancer a few years ago,he was to have a biopsy but he deteriorated rapidly over the weekend and we put him to sleep.
The lump was inside his rear leg and we didn't notice until it was very big even the vet didn't find it on first visit.
Unfortunately thats how fast these things can progress.
At 13 i'd imagine any operation would take it's toll.
Some vets say put the dog to sleep too easily,i don't know what kind your vet is but i would only take seriously a vet specialising in companion animals.

Alfasudcrazy

My first doberman died of lymph cancer at only 8 years old. I too was slow to put him to sleep - mainly because the vet did not tell me what was wrong with him. I brought him to another vet and he told me the bad news.

On reflection I was wrong not to be more decisive about the problem and this resulted in him suffering more than he should have.

Again like you I never got him nuetered as I was never told of the health risks of not doing so - no internet back then. I feel this may have contributed but I also think this dog had some cancers early in his life as some growths had to be removed - again I was never told what exactly they were.

I would not let him drag on until he begins to suffer. Get another vets opinion by all means but even though its a very hard decision to make putting him to sleep it may be the better thing to do.

golden

We had to make that decision to put our dog down as well. We were told that he could be operated on but being an old dog he was 13 years he might not pull through the anaesthetic.

We carefully watched him until this quality of life went then he was put to sleep. It was not easy but it was the best thing for our golden retriever. (He was neutured young for your information and still got cancer).

Like alfasudcrazy mentioned act quickly rather than prolong the misery when the time does come.

Lpfsox

I've a 13 year old collie and on Easter Saturday I noticed a bleeding lump on his bum (noticed because we'd been to the beach and I had to brush the sand off him. He'd normally sit down to be groomed so it would be covered by his tail).

Anyway the vet said it was a tumour but was caused by excess hormones and he operated on him to both remove the tumour and also to neuter him to prevent it coming back.

Stitches came out on Monday and he's absolutely fine; was worried about surgery at his age but no ill effects at all (except a big baldy bum but his fur will grow back)

Anyway maybe the OP's dog has a similar condition, it might be worth checking out again. Some vets will operate even if the dog is elderly and my own vet assured me that the risks are much less than they used to be because technology has moved on to allow vets better monitoring of the animals while under anaesthetic.