OT: Just found out our beloved dog has lymphoma!

[ptrbryant]

I'm still a bit in shock. Our beloved family pet, Wallace [named for Braveheart] just wasn't himself the past couple of days. This morning, I noticed swelling under his jaw and thought this isn't right. Without making an appt. I took him over to our vet's (fortunately, DS10 was at a friend's house). It turns out Wallace has extreme swelling in all of his lymph nodes and blood in his urine. They extracted fluid from his nodes to send off to a lab, but when the vet was giving me the probable news, that he has cancer of the lymph nodes, she added,"But, we won't have that confirmed until the lab results are in." I asked what other things might it be...she gave me a sad kind of smile, then said,"Honestly? In my experience, there's nothing else it can be."

I completely lost it! Just couldn't stop crying and had a hard time uttering monosyllables. When we stepped out of the office, the girls who work at the front desk--and love Wallace--were all crying and they hugged me. I really won't know "details" until Friday or Monday. My heart is so heavy and sad!

DH and I told DS10 once we got home from his TaeKwonDo class and he went ballistic! I mean, he just screamed and threw himself on the floor...we finally got him calmed down, but nothing we're saying (i.e. we'll face this together as a family and try to be strong for Wallace; it's fine to feel very sad and upset, but you can't lose control, etc.) seems to be connecting.

For the record, when we adopted Wallace from the local shelter, he was 5 weeks old (!) and they told us he was a beagle/chihuahua mix. At nearly 6 years old, he's 99 lbs., white with black spots, black floppy ears and a black patch over his eye--turns out he's part dalmatian, English setter and pointer. (I'll upload a photo later). He's the sweetest dog in the world...always defers to our cats (12 and 13 years old) and always wants to please us.

This is going to be so very hard!

Karla B.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Poor puppy...

 

[escape]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear this. Our furbabies are family members and when they get sick, it tears our world apart.

Many hugs to you and your family. Pixie dust and hugs for Wallace.

 

[redshoes]

I'm sorry.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I'm so sorry. I hope the Dr. may be wrong and something can be done.

 

[Ready to go in Ok]

I am so sorry about your furbaby. I will pray for good new for you.

 

[FreshTressa]

That made me cry!!

Poor wallace and your poor family. He sounds like such a sweet guy...and so young

 

[ptrbryant]

I think I'm just going to go to bed now...I feel so emotionally drained. Your good wishes and prayers truly do matter and help...

Karla B.

 

[DawnCt1]

I am so sorry. Believe me, I know how you feel. Are there any treatment options?

 

[PamNC]

I feel for you. I know how it is, believe me. We have lots of pets and they are our family. 2 dogs, 4 cats inside, 6 cats outside, 4 horses and 2 chickens. My dog Carlisle who I've had since he was 6 weeks old is now 11 and he's doing pretty good, but things are starting to happen. Luckily all treatable at this point.

My beloved cat of 16 years died in May. It was horrific. I was, like you, in shock, even though she was old. She just started losing weight so I took her to the vet, this was last October. She had also been sneezing and breathing a little heavier, not much. They checked her and said she just had a little respiratory thing and gave her antibiotics and it cleared it right up. She seemed to gain a little weight back and really turned around. Then, around April she really started losing weight but seemed perfectly normal. When I took her to the vet, they ran bloodwork out the wazoo and found NOTHING. But, her chest x-rays weren't good. Cloudy and messy - but he couldn't pinpoint anything specific without doing invasive tests. In short, she was just simply dying of old age. Here's a horrible thing: we went to Disney in May. The vet said Camille was simply getting older and could hang around for months. She didn't. I had to cut my trip short because my pet-sitter called and told me she took a turn for the worse. We left Disney early and came home. I got to see her one more time before she died. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I blamed myself for leaving her and not being there for her during her last week of life.

Sorry - I' rambling on about my sad story. I hope and pray your sweet little dog doesn't suffer and enjoys the rest of his life. Again, I'm very sorry.

PamNC

 

[ptrbryant]

Please don't blame yourself for taking your trip...and thank you, and others here, for understanding. We've got a scheduled trip to visit my family in Philadelphia in mid-September and I'm already wondering what the situation will be like by then.

It's about 4:20 a.m. and I'm sitting here, typing, because I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. Right now, Wallace is stretched out on the foot of our bed...I can't imagine how I'm going to manage watching him get worse. I've researched a bit about chemotherapy, but it sounds like--at best--it prolongs your pet's life for one year for about $4,000. It's so hard to absorb all this.

I sincerely thank each of you for your support! Who else can I communicate with at this hour?

Karla B.

 

[munchkin bunchkin]

You and Wallace will be in my prayers! I know from personal experience how devastating it is to get this kind of news! I too , had adopted a kitten in1991 from a shelter and she was the love of our lives for 14 wonderful years and then in March of 2004 we lost her to cancer!There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her! Prayers to all of you!

 

[MsDisney23]

I am so very sorry to hear about your beloved Wallace...

 

[ILUVMYBRIT]

Im so sorry.

 

[kellyg403]

I am sorry that you and your family have to go through this. We had to put down our beloved boxer boy, Bruiser last year because of the same diagnosis. We also thought of doing the chemo but prolonging insteading of curing it seemed to stop us in our tracks. He was the bestfriend to my children and was a difficult time.

I will be keeping you and your family in my thoughts

Kelly

 

[Pooh67_68]

 

[Disney Doll]

I have a friend who ahs lost 2 dogs to cancer in the last 5 years. her first was an 8 year old Lab. She did chemo on him. He did OK with it (apparently chemo doesn;t affect dogs like it does humans) and he was good for about 6-8 months, but the cancer finally overtook the chemo and she put him down. Then about a year after he died, she got a lab/Shepherd mix who she had for 2 years. She also got cancer. My friend opted not to treat her other than symptoms, and she lasted about 6 weeks or so. Again, no discomfort or anything, just a slow decline until my frind decided it was time to put her down.

It's so hard to lose our beloved pets. But it does teach our children good lessons about death and dying, which, unfortunately, they need to learn. So sad.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I feel your pain. I remeber when a similar sitution happened to my dog Buster. They gave us 3 months and I did not even have it sink in but it was like once he was diagnosed he knew and stopped eating. We had to have the vet send him to the Rainbow Bridge the same week because he was starving himself.

If your dog is still eating and acting for the most part normally he still has time. The vet told us that dogs KNOW when it is time to go and they usually stop eating and drinking. Treasure your time with him and know you will see him again.

You can laugh at me but Buster came around after he was gone until we got a new dog. Doors would open as if they were being pushed by an unseen nose. Lots of other occurances showed me that he was still with us. Once we got our new dog Buster stopped coming around (My whole family experienced these things but we did mention it to eachother until later). He knew his family was safe.
Thinking of you and Wallace. HOpe all turns out well.

 

[Fredd's Girl]

I am so sorry for your family and your furbaby. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. Give Wallace some extra hugs from the DIS...

 

[hellokitty86]

I'm so sorry about the bad news about Wallace.

I know how you feel, in 2003 my cat who I had since 1st grade was diagnosed with lymphoma. It was very hard but she was fine for about 6 months. I gave her medicine everyday, and it gave us a chance to get used to the idea of her being sick. I lost a cat very suddenly before that, and for me it was much harder that way. We actually found out Puddy (my cat) was sick because Kitty (the one that died suddenly) died, and we wanted to get her a full check up. Puddy passed away in March 2004.

I hope you and your family feels better, I know it is a very hard situation but I know you will get through it!!!