lytlesnake
Border Patrol Penguin
- Messages
- 695
- Location
- So. California
A few weeks ago I felt a small bump on the chest of my 11-year old Siberian Husky "Melani" (pronounced may-la-nee). I brought her in the next day and the doctor said it was probably just a lipoma, but he felt a much larger mass in her abdomen. They did x-rays and saw a very large mass. We did a blood test and her liver has some elevated enzyme levels, but her blood was not in terrible shape. Waited over the weekend for ultrasound, which also showed a sizable mass. A needle aspirate was taken and it was inconclusive, maybe a hepatocellular adenoma vs. a "low grade" carcinoma.
The day after I found out about the growth in her abdomen I took her off all processed dog food and started feeding her fresh vegetables and steamed salmon, along with some medicinal mushroom and other natural anti-cancer type products.
The surgeon went in and removed the irregularly shaped mass Monday night. It was growing off her liver. This was a very traumatic experience for me, because her brother "Kuna" died two years ago after having two huge tumors in his abdomen. When the surgeon had Kuna on the table, he told me there were hundreds of tumors on his liver and it looked very insidious. We opted not to revive him. He had stopped eating and making sound already. It had gotten into his gall bladder which is very bad. The difference between Kuna and Melani is that Melani is still eating like crazy, drinking, going for walks, and shows almost no outward signs of illness. So needless to say, I was on my couch in a cold sweat Monday night waiting for that call. Luckily the mass was able to be excised and she made it through the surgery just fine.
Unfortunately the surgeon said that her liver looks pretty "lumpy bumpy". So she may have metastatic neoplasia of the liver, which is crushing news. However, she is still acting normal. I'm praying that it's something else and that the large growth was a benign adenoma.
She was in increasing discomfort the 3 days prior to the surgery, probably due to the size of the mass. Then after I picked her up Tuesday night she was in incredible pain. I called the vet at 3:00 AM and went and picked up some Tramadol immediately. That helped a lot. Now just a few days later, she is doing fantastic. Still in some pain, but she's doing her little dance when I feed her, and wants to be more active than I'm allowing at the moment.
So we're just awaiting the cytology report on the biopsy of the large mass that was removed from her liver. The vet is not that optimistic that it's not some sort of cancer, but I have other people experienced with canine cancer who tell me that he could be wrong. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm ready to attack the liver cancer if that's what it is. If chemo is not an option there's something called Neoplasene which is made from the blood root plant in Montana. It's an alkaloid similar to chemo drugs but cheaper and natural. The injectable form has produced some miraculous results on mast cell and other tumors that can be palpated from the skin. We'll have to use the oral form though, if that's what it comes to. I'll have to think hard about chemo. What a tough dog though! Here's a pic of her just before surgery.
The day after I found out about the growth in her abdomen I took her off all processed dog food and started feeding her fresh vegetables and steamed salmon, along with some medicinal mushroom and other natural anti-cancer type products.
The surgeon went in and removed the irregularly shaped mass Monday night. It was growing off her liver. This was a very traumatic experience for me, because her brother "Kuna" died two years ago after having two huge tumors in his abdomen. When the surgeon had Kuna on the table, he told me there were hundreds of tumors on his liver and it looked very insidious. We opted not to revive him. He had stopped eating and making sound already. It had gotten into his gall bladder which is very bad. The difference between Kuna and Melani is that Melani is still eating like crazy, drinking, going for walks, and shows almost no outward signs of illness. So needless to say, I was on my couch in a cold sweat Monday night waiting for that call. Luckily the mass was able to be excised and she made it through the surgery just fine.
Unfortunately the surgeon said that her liver looks pretty "lumpy bumpy". So she may have metastatic neoplasia of the liver, which is crushing news. However, she is still acting normal. I'm praying that it's something else and that the large growth was a benign adenoma.
She was in increasing discomfort the 3 days prior to the surgery, probably due to the size of the mass. Then after I picked her up Tuesday night she was in incredible pain. I called the vet at 3:00 AM and went and picked up some Tramadol immediately. That helped a lot. Now just a few days later, she is doing fantastic. Still in some pain, but she's doing her little dance when I feed her, and wants to be more active than I'm allowing at the moment.
So we're just awaiting the cytology report on the biopsy of the large mass that was removed from her liver. The vet is not that optimistic that it's not some sort of cancer, but I have other people experienced with canine cancer who tell me that he could be wrong. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm ready to attack the liver cancer if that's what it is. If chemo is not an option there's something called Neoplasene which is made from the blood root plant in Montana. It's an alkaloid similar to chemo drugs but cheaper and natural. The injectable form has produced some miraculous results on mast cell and other tumors that can be palpated from the skin. We'll have to use the oral form though, if that's what it comes to. I'll have to think hard about chemo. What a tough dog though! Here's a pic of her just before surgery.
