How Long Does My Dog Have?
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Updated: January 10th, 2019
It is very important to do what we can to avoid ongoing depression when trying to cope with cancer in our dogs. Ongoing depression is exhausting, steals our reserves, and clouds judgment.
It decreases your dog’s chances of good life quality during a life with cancer. Yes, your ongoing depression.
Please do not misunderstand me. There are many legitimate reasons for guardians of dogs with cancer to be depressed.
Here are some of these reasons:
Take a look at median survival times with conventional care (chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery):
- Hemangiosarcoma of the spleen: median survival time after spleen removal without chemo is about 2 months, and with chemo is up to 6 months.
- Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the bladder: median survival time on piroxicam alone is about 6 months.
- Melanoma of the toes: following removal of the affected toe, this cancer will take the life of half the patients within a year, assuming there is no evidence for spread at the time of surgery.
- Lymphosarcoma: patients receiving the Wisconsin chemo protocol have a median survival of roughly 6-10 months.
(For more specific data on median survival times with different cancers and protocols, see The Dog Cancer Survival Guide.)
So there is every reason to have sadness. But….continued sadness is not helpful to you or to your dog. After experiencing the grief, it is time for an expectation analysis. Time to organize yourself and move forward.
Suppose your dog was diagnosed with lymphosarcoma, and seems to be having good overall life quality 6 months later. Guess what? This is very good news! Median life expectancy with chemo being 6-10 months, about half the dogs with lympho have passed away in as little as 6 months after being diagnosed.
And that is with chemotherapy!
If you have a dog with lympho and your dog is doing well 6 months after diagnosis, you are already beating the curve, since median survival is as low as 6 months in some cases with the chemo.
Get a copy of the Dog Cancer Survival Guide for more helpful information and tools
What if your dog has lympho and is on pred only? Median survival for those dogs is roughly 2 or 3 months. So you are ahead of the game if your dog has good life quality 2 months after diagnosis.
If you were to look at some of the other statistics above, you can see that if you had a dog who underwent spleen removal 8 weeks ago, is not on chemo, and is still maintaining, you are beating the odds. This is very, very good news. This is successful treatment!
An integration of these statistics in one’s mind allows for a realistic picture of where we stand with conventional cancer care.
We really must take into account how short these survival times are in our expectations! We need to redefine success in malignant cancer management.
An understanding of these figures also tells us how we are doing with the addition of our “outside the box” treatments discussed here and in The Guide.
Once we get past the grim reality of these numbers, we can alter our expectations and begin appreciation with gratitude.
The practice of gratitude for each of these days, realizing the odds, is they key to avoiding continued sadness.
Best to all of you,
Dr D
Dr. Demian Dressler is internationally recognized as “the dog cancer vet” because of his innovations in the field of dog cancer management, and the popularity of his blog here at Dog Cancer Blog. The owner of South Shore Veterinary Care, a full-service veterinary hospital in Maui, Hawaii, Dr. Dressler studied Animal Physiology and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California at Davis before earning his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Cornell University. After practicing at Killewald Animal Hospital in Amherst, New York, he returned to his home state, Hawaii, to practice at the East Honolulu Pet Hospital before heading home to Maui to open his own hospital. Dr. Dressler consults both dog lovers and veterinary professionals, and is sought after as a speaker on topics ranging from the links between lifestyle choices and disease, nutrition and cancer, and animal ethics. His television appearances include “Ask the Vet” segments on local news programs. He is the author of The Dog Cancer Survival Guide: Full Spectrum Treatments to Optimize Your Dog’s Life Quality and Longevity. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Avian Veterinarians, the National Animal Supplement Council and CORE (Comparative Orthopedic Research Evaluation). He is also an advisory board member for Pacific Primate Sanctuary.
Judy&Gilles-
Thanks for trying to help. We appreciate your support. Sorry for your loss. We know it hurts, we lost our first boxer 2 years ago to a tumor on his heart.
Shawn M.
Hi Shawn M,
First, I want to say that I admire your courage to not give up on your dog. I am not a vet but am curious to see what Dr. Dressler advices for many reasons. Although to this day I am still unsure of what cancer our dog had, the vet did say it was either in the spleen or liver so I am very interested in learning about these type of cancers. We did lose our dog to this horrible disease, long story-see above comments, and I think there were a multiple of issues involved. Not asking the right questions to the right people was a big one. I learned from this website about the herb Yunnan Baiyao. If you have a chance, check it out. I can also forward you some other information I found on it. We did purchase some and I have an unopened box if you are interested. I would like to help others in anyway with their fight against cancer and can send you the box if you want. Our dog also suffered from anemia, more due to his lack of interest in eating and drinking. Our vet recommended a product called Lixotinic. It was in liquid form and our vet sold it but I did a search on the internet and found you could buy it that way also (I think they may have changed it’s name but you will find it even if you search for the lixotinic supplement). I believe they also use it for horses. I have not seen it mentioned on this site (although can’t say I have made it through all the posts) and there may be something better. Anyhow, just some things for you to search as you await Dr. Dressler’s advice. I know I spent as much time as possible trying to learn what I could for my dog as well as for us. The whole experience has made me extremely interested and motivated to learn as much as I can and to somehow help. I wish you and your dog all the best and if I can help in anyway, let me know, even if it is to just talk/write.
judy
Dr. Dressler-
Our boxer Camden is 10 yrs old and has been diagnosed with a splenic tumor and liver hemangiosarcoma. The tumor has ruptured and is bleeding into her abdomen which has caused her labored breathing. We don’t want to give up on her because she hasn’t given up yet. She still eats, socializes, goes to the bathroom, and is generally herself. The big problem right now is her anemia. We are giving her 15mg of prednisone daily and started 200mg twice daily of liquid milk thistle. Our vet also suggested starting her on another herbal supplement from Vietnam that will help her blood clot which I don’t have the name of. Do you have any other suggestions for us? Possible supplements to help get the anemia under control, if possible? Thanks for your time and reading about Camden. Shawn M.
Shawn, I think they are probably talking about Yunnan Baiyao, or Yunnan Paiyao.
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/chinese-herb-for-bleeding-dog-cancers/
I should let you know though that if the tumor is bleeding severely the way to deal with it is with a transfusion followed by surgery to eliminate the source of blood loss. Labored breathing caused by blood pooling against the back side of the diaphragm is severe, and pills/extracts/tinctures usually will not be strong enough to deal with the problem I am sorry to say, at least not typically. The treatment would have to more more aggressive to make a big difference I feel.
Best,
D
We had a question regarding the K9-immunity critical care. Because we lost our dog to cancer, we still have an opened bottle of both the K9-immunity critical care and K9-Transfer factor. We were wondering if it is okay to give these to our older dogs who are not showing any signs of cancer or if we could give them to someone with a dog that may need them more than our dogs, or just to keep them for a “just in case” situation (hopefully not).
We were also wondering what else we can do to help others (pet owners, vets, dogs, etc) in the fight against cancer. Besides donating money, what other ways can one help?
Thanks again for a great website and so much help, you are an inspiration (thus the question about helping others).
Judy and Gilles
Hi Judy and Giles,
I avoid the use of beta glucan containing supplements for dogs with immune mediated diseases. Broadly these are things like hypothyroidism, skin allergies, lupus, pemphigus, dry eye, lyme disease, amyloidosis/Shar Pei Fever, inflammatory bowel disease/food allergy, and others. Since we are talking about non-specific immune stimulation with beta glucans, we don’t really want to worsen problems that have an immune basis, at least theoretically. Other than that I think they are fine for healthy dogs.
Financial help of course is always a valued commodity. Helping people who comment about having financial difficulties with gifts for their dog (like a nice present of the Dog Cancer Survival Guide, hint, hint) is practical service. Giving encouragement to commenting readers helps. Helping the dog nation by volunteering at shelters with an intention to be of service increases healing overall in the world.
Thanks for your words.
Best,
D
Dr. Dressler,
Thank you so much for your response and suggestions. We took him off the Yunnan Baiyao almost at the time of our writing to you, especially after what we thought was diagnosed as a hemangiosarcoma was now diagnosed as an adenocarcinoma. Unfortunately our dog became so weak, barely able to walk and still not eating or drinking that we decided to have him put to sleep shortly after we wrote to you. I so wish that I had contacted you earlier as he was such a fighter I find it hard to see this happen and feel as if we could have done more and have helped him, at least not to become so weak. Everything seemed to happen too fast and because we live in fairly rural area, our options for vets are somewhat limited. Before we took him to the vet, he walked down to our creek and just wanted to stay in the water, as if it made his stomach feel better. He had done the same thing a few days earlier and I had to really coax him to get out, so I was wondering if this was his way to deal with pain or inflammation and even went so far as to think about putting an icebag on his stomach area while he was resting. Was this a crazy idea? In addition, when we took him in to be put to sleep, he was so dehydrated that the vet had to use a catheter in his jugular making the whole experience that much worse, as if he was not ready to give up and I still feel guilty, not quite convinced we did the right thing at the right time. I was not happy with the results while he was on prednisone and worried that we should have stayed with Previcox which we had used after his bladder surgery off and on when he seemed in pain or was not eating with great results. The vet thought prednisone was the way to go, saying it should increase his appetite and could decrease the size of the tumor(s) but they may come back more aggressively. I understand that you can not just switch from preds to the non-steroids pain medications, so I just kept him on the preds and had actually started to decrease the amount over the last few days. For some reason I can not explain, it just made since to me but was not what the vet recommended so I was not sure what to do, which has also added to my feelings of guilt.
I also am worrying as we have 6 other dogs and one of the older dogs has recently developed diarrhea too, making me wonder if there is some connection. I will look into giving her the slippery elm.
Over the past many years, I have had 12 dogs or so, 6 are still with me, 3 of the 6 that have passed had to be put to sleep for cancer, so I am very worried about the others and truly appreciate your website and writings. One very thoughtful idea from our previous vet was to clip some hair from our dog and keep it in a baggy, which the vet said he could open and “smell” his dog whenever he wanted. Although difficult, I did appreciate his advice and have done the same thing ever since with our other dogs. Just something that maybe some of your readers may want to consider…
Again thank you so much for answering our post and caring.
judy and gilles
I have only recently found your website and feel that your information may have come too late for our dog.
Our 15 year old Australian shepherd dog had never had any urinary problems and then in June, he stopped drinking and was trying to urinate every few hours, so we took him to the vet and they diagnosed a bladder stone and we did surgery on the spot. The vet reported that he found a mass near the bladder but since our dog was neutered, thought it may have been due to some inflammation since his bladder showed inflammation at the time of surgery. Since then, he had some good days but over the last few weeks, started losing his appetite and straining when trying to have a bowel movement with rather loose stools. His frequent urination was replaced with frequent attempts to have a bowel movement. Due to the loss of appetite we again talked with our vet who recommended a mineral supplement called lixotinic (2 teaspoons a day) and we tried that for a few days with no great results and then took him back in to the vet. The vet said the tumor was in the spleen or liver and had likely spread from the mass he had seen upon bladder stone surgery in June and was diagnosed by our vet September 29, 2009 with what he thinks is adenocarcinoma. He has put him on 40 mg prednisone (20 mg twice a day) and his appetite increased only the first few days and then he went off his feed (I switched to Blue Buffalo puppy kibble as recommended by a holistic vet and from what I read on the internet) and water. We have put him on K9 Immunity critical care pack, have added 1000 mg fish oil, 1000 mg milk thistle and have a decaffeinated green tea extract ordered which will hopefully arrive soon. We also have started him on the Chinese herb Yunnan Baiyao Friday, October 9, 2009 giving him 1 capsule every 12 hours. Unfortunately our dog does not want to eat anything (we have tried just about everything we could think of as well as what other people from blogs, etc have suggested) since October 6, 2009 or drink since October 9, 2009 of last week and has developed diarrhea as of this past Friday, October 9, 2009. We have been giving him electrolytes (pedialyte) via syringe as well as force-feeding a food mix to him and have started him on peptobismol for his diarrhea as of Saturday/Sunday October 10/11. The vet says it is fine to continue him on both the prednisone and peptobismol but basically acts as if there is nothing else to do and that the cancer will likely spread to his lungs. He is exceptionally weak as of this writing. Any suggestions you may have would be most appreciated. We are really at a loss and trying to learn as much about this as possible but feel as if we are too late except to give him palliative care at this point. If that is all we can do, that is fine, I just want to know all options. Thank you for reading and this great website/blog.
Judy and Gilles
Hi Judy and Giles,
sounds like some vague information from your vet. You need data. Consider a second opinion and get an expanded work up to figure out what you are dealing with in reality. The guesswork makes everyone feel especially helpless as there feels like no decision can be made. Get the dog somewhere where they can help you make decisions using objective information! And try to move quickly if you can. Best, D
One more thing
he sounds like he had colitis (large intestine inflammation) and now enterocolitis (small and large intestine inflammation). I would taper off pred slowly, stop all the supplements, get him on a diet of chicken with baby food, and talk to the vet about some stronger meds for the inflammation of the intestine (metronidazole, tylan powder put in capsules, olsalazine, slippery elm, etc). All the stuff given by mouth could be messing up his digestive tract.
best
d
Moose-Goose!
I had to take Big White Fluffy to the doggie doc for a sore on his leg, which I am hoping is just an infected skin tag and not another tumor, and I discovered, to my delight, that he has gained 2.6 pounds!!!
Whoo-hoo!!
Big White Fluffy Moose update!!
Well, my boy apparently didn’t get the memo that he’s Really Really Sick, because he is “rockin’ the free world”. He is still happy, eating well, socializing, surveying his “kingdom” from the hill in the backyard, and generally enjoying life. He has even begun, recently, to get back up on the couch.
He got tired of chicken after a while, so he is eating beef now. He is consuming about three pounds a day.
My biggest problem with him right now is trying to get him to put some weight back on.
Anyone have any ideas?
I have a 12 year old Boxer named Silas. She was diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma and a tumor close to her spleen. She was sick that that but has been doing better. She started eating and feeling better but then she just stopped eating. Now she hasn’t eated in several days. She was also diagnosed with lunch cancer.
Can i help her eat? Can anything be done?
Thank you for any advise!
We have a 11-12 year old Black Pomeranian, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer in Feburary 2009 and was treated for 3 months before for other things before we did further testing. ChiChi came from the dog pound, we have had her the last 4 years. Our vet said her tumor was to large for surgery, he gave her medication for the irration, and which no longer is working for her. We noticed she is looking more and more bloated and she now can’t control urination, a lot of blood in her urine. She eats good, still wants to play…but she does have more bad days then good as she sleeps alot more.
My question is how long do animals have with this diease? Our Vet said take it one day at a time and love her, which we have. My husband is ready to put her down, I feek guity even thinking about it. We more than likely will take her back to the Vet soon. She dribbles blood quite a bit. When is the best time for her, not me.
Thank you for any advice.
Patricia,
There is a life quality analysis section that you should really read in the Dog Cancer Survival Guide. It helps you make decisions like this. Transitional cell carcinomas, the most common type of bladder cancer, have a median (approximate) survival time on Feldene (Piroxicam) alone of about 2 months. Every dog is different though..
Thinking of you
D