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.
I just found out today that my dog has cancer and they said that she’s had it for a pretty long time and I’m very sad and I wish I could do something but I don’t have any extra money… And she had babies but only one lived does that mean that the babie could have cancer too??? Pleas Help
I have an 8year black lab who was diagnosed with SCC on a toe after 4months of inefficient treatments, she had a surgery on 31st jan in where only the 2nd phalanx of the fifth digit in rear leg was amputated and on monday she’s schedule to amputate the rest of the digit, the vet suggested to take chest x rays and they came up clean. The lymphnode looks enlarged and it will be aspirated as well but my fear is that we find malignant cells there, if we do what can we do, and what’s the survival rate with and without amputation of limb in case it has methastasized to the regional lymphnode. What are the possible treatments for SCC and what’s the best thing we can do in order she doesn’t suffer?
Thanks
My 12-13 year old intact old Chow was diagnosed with possible prostrate cancer and or TCC back in June of 2011. He has been on piroxicam since June and I noticed today 02-03-12 hat he has difficulty getting up and walking, mostly his hind legs are not supporting him. I did not take him to the vet today because I felt that it was a passing thing. Can someone tell me if you have had any any similar experiences ? Should I put him down? I am truly heart broken
Thank you
i have a chihuahua aprox 10yrsold , last wek i noticed he was haveing trouble urinating and bowl movements loss of apititate . o i took him to a local vet near my home . he wanted to put hinm to sleep one thing im total aganist, anyways without doing any blood tests or any othr tests i explain all things i noticed and doctor says he thinks dog has tesicular tumor or maybe spread to spine, beacause one testicle was bigger then othr at time when i brought hm in, size of a large marble , doctor put him on prednisone 5mg and also cefpodoxime tabs 100 mg , my question is aftr 2 days he became active again what i mean walking eating good apitate drinking . now aftr 5 days i notice he has one big testicle size of a jawbreaker and othr is size a small pea . is thir something i can do to relive the pain or decrease the testicle for him so he can be in comfort please advise me now its only 6days later and i have decresd the predesone tab 5mg to once a a day, and we noticed our dog testicle to be very enlarged size of a large ball or jaw breaker , as well penis enlarged , doctor told us to go back to 2 predesone a day 5mg eachx2 = 10mg my dog is only 4 pounds aprox , we as well useing cold compress at least every othr hour to sooth him in that area apetite is good going to urinate is ok , but still not lifting legs only squating like female does and he is a male . is this a safe treatment how long of a life we have with him. to make him comtable , is thir a way to maybe remove is only testicle at this point or are we only fighting fathr time , dr never took blood work when 1st seen and he is a rescue dog that we got wover a year ago aftr we seen people trow him on to a freway along with his brothr we mended him thenm and so far has gave us best love in the yr we have him. can people advise what to do as far as i know never neuterd never teeth taken care of all rotted out except 4 and thir decay as well , we been feeding him pedigree wet food and bountiful dry soft . most recent when he has not apitate we had pieces of boiled chicken , thanks god bless to all we dnt have much funds to furthr the enever but just asking quilty time with him and any sugestions , thanks mr m.h.
Dear Marion
I would get this testicle removed and biopsied. This will answer many of the questions you post. Please discuss this with your vet.
Best
Dr D
Hi Dr D,
I left a comment a few months back but didn’t get a response so thought i’d try again. I adopted a 14yr old dog with testicular cancer and a heart murmer so he cannot be castrated. We have been told to keep him happy as long as he has, I am just wondering roughly how long a dog would live with testicular cancer if untreated…he has no sypmtoms so far asdie from a very enlarged hard testicle.
Dear Rebecca
hard to answer as there are different cancers that occur in this location and they have different behaviors, I am sorry, need biopsy or fine needle aspirate results
D
Hi Dr D
I have a 12 yr old golden one of the loves of my life that was just diagnosed with a tumor in her bladder. I have done a lot of research in reguards to it and am wondering if it is safe to give her both milk thistle and graviola extract together and if so what are the dosage recomendations?? Thanks
Dear K
Sorry to hear this about your Golden. 🙁
Luckily for you tens of thousands of hours of supplement research has been done for you right here…
First:
https://www.dogcancerblog.com/blog/graviola-not-recommended-for-dog-cancer/
Second, milk thistle is fine but will do very little. If you would like to use supplements, you should be reaching for things like apoptogens, neoplasene, beta glucans, etc. This area is covered in detail in the Guide and should be read, along with an extensive section on supplements that were excluded or ranked lower in priority. Please be sure to have your vet involved in your treatment decisions too.
All my best
D
hi dr.,
i am afraid that my 7year old shitzu might have cancer in his testicles. how can you tell?
Dear Valerie
cancer is diagnosed by your vet by submitting a specimen of the growth to a pathology lab- please see your vet and get this checked…
thanks!
D
my dog was diagnosed with sguamos cell carcinoma prostate cancer in feb 2011 it is now november he is taking neoplasene and thuja along with more antioxidents , he started with 15 mg of prednisone now he is down to .25 mg is this good he is healthier than he ever was, we also changed his way of eating now he eats a no grain diet, lots of fish and chicken and vegtables. But will his kidneys shut down next if his caalcium goes up that means the cancer isnt gone yet am I right?
Hi,
I just adopted a rescue dog who is 14 had testicular cancer but also a heart murmer so cannot have his testicles removed. The vet has advised to keep him happy for as long as he is comfortable. So far he is showing no symptoms other than enlarged testicles. How long on average would a dog survive with untreated testicular cancer?
I just want some rough idea of how long he may have
Rebecca
Sorry, I should mention he’s an 8 yr old Golden Retriever. He’s been very weak this last week and doesnt’ want to eat much at all. The blood test tomorow will most likley reveal the anemia and I’m guessing the suggestion for the transfusion. I just don’t know what success rate we are looking at if we go forward with the vet’s advice. .