Nope.

Your dog has had a good life at 10 years, and chemo will make the last year or so absolutely miserable for the poor pup.

Went through something similar recently, so I feel you.

BTW, I do appreciate the perspectives that are telling me that it is easier on a dog. I mean that makes the decision harder but it is worth knowing.

She's a 40 lb dog so I originally was hoping she'd get 14 or 15 years (she is mostly husky and they are known to be longer lived for their size from what I have read) but I realize 12 was more like realistic average/time to expect (and at this point I think 12 is the most I could hope for regardless of what she has even with treatment. I doubt if she has cancer I'd be able to give her more than that).

Damnit, she honestly is one of the best dogs you could hope for (I'm not even a big dog person. She'll probably also be my only dog). And I don't think I'm saying that out of pure bias, she is really the ideal dog for almost anyone. She loves everyone, she gets along with everyone, she's very good at reading people and knowning when she should calm down, good with kids even when they're being rough (my friend's kid when he was 1 or 2 pulled her ears and she yelped but didn't do anything but back away from him), she's enthusiastic, pretty obedient and hell, you don't even have to scold her, she's very sensitive and even when I tried not to let her know when I was upset (potty training her years back and reading that you should not scold the dog when you find an issue after the fact) she'd know I was. She's great with my cats (Even the asshole who keeps attacking her, I had to let her know it was ok to snap at him and that's all she does even though he keeps pushing her. And with my last cat who was a super nervous cat she was very gentle around... my husband used to complain the cat was more comfortable around her than him <- my cat took 16 years to forgive him for taking her to get spayed and then she passed away ). The only things I could say she did bad was more my fault for being a bad owner (I got lazy about walking her and more recently she's gotten into eating things she shouldn't but that's my fault for letting her get that bored). I honestly think she was wasted on me, she would have been a great family dog (and she would have loved it too. I gave her an ok life but I think she'd have been so happy to be with a family with kids who were active).

If nothing else I don't want another dog because none would ever compare to her (and she put up with the fact I was a couch potato. That alone has me decided cats are better for me. But still, even if I wasn't a bad candidate for a dog due to couch potatoness... I don't think I'd ever find as good a dog anyways).

Sorry, I'm rambling. I don't take even worrying about my pets well.

No.

After seeing my mom on chemo for 18 months I couldn't put a pet through that. I recently put my cat down for cancer.

Sorry, I hope this is all as painless as possible, whatever your decision will be.

No. If it is anything close to how humans go through chemo then that thing is hell, had a front row seat to that and it wasn't pretty.

That's rough op, I'm so sorry

I went through this with my Bassett hound last year. He was 12 and diagnosed with lymphoma, and I ended up choosing to have him euthanized. Hardest decision I've ever had to make, but I realized it was mostly selfish to put him through chemo at such a late stage in his life given his odds of recovery (low) and, really, the best thing I could do for him was spare him that pain and let him go peacefully.

My heart goes out to you, don't forget that you've already done the best you can do by giving them a life full of love.

Chemotherapy is a VERY broad term. Some of the drugs used can be harsh some fairly benign on the patient. Chemotherapy literally just mean using drugs to fight cancer.

Cancer is also a very broad term that describe various disease with very different outcome.

From the the limited description of what is going on, there could be a lot of different things going on.

Chronic hepatitis can often be managed for some time before the patient quality of life is too affected. There are several cause of hepatitis, some better than other. If it's infection the prognosis is general pretty good.

Liver cancer are most often either lymphoma or hemangiosarcoma (there are other types but those 2 are the most frequent).
Lymphoma is a cancer that respond very well to fairly benign chemotherapy with long survival time and excellent quality of life,
Hemangiosarcoma is a terrible cancer that does not respond well to any treatment.

If you have the resources to go to the specialist and find out exactly what is going on (usually will mean a ultrasound guided liver biopsy under anesthesia) AND are willing to go throught the treatment for either the hepatitis or lymphoma, then I would say go for it. Expect it to be in the 4+k range for diagnostic and initial treatment range.
If they find hemangiosarcoma, I would mostly push for quality of life treatments vs chemotherapy.

I found that most veterinary oncologist are quite candid with the survival expectancy and quality of life. I think they would be quite honest with you.

If you have limited resources, I would mostly focus on quality of life stuff (pain control, nausea control, etc).

I my experience, most pet owners will not go for chemotherapy even in the case of cancer where the treatment would be fairly benign so don't feel bad if you can't/wont' do it. Try to keep you dog comfortable and, once the quality of life is not there anymore, don't hold out too long before saying goodbye.

IRL vet here, 19 years of taking care of cats and dogs.

It really depends on the type of cancer. Dogs and cats respond to chemotherapy better than humans with far less side effects. So I'd go for it IF it is one of the more treatable cancers with relatively benign side effects.

I love my dog so much, but I wouldn't put her through that. Between the cost and the suffering, it's just not worth it. Hope it turns out to not be cancer.

I just want add my experience with this. My dog received treatment in April and May of this year for lymphoma. He was treated using what's called a modified UW-Madison Lymphoma Protocol, which is basically a treatment schedule where he gets one of four drugs each week on a rotating basis for 20 weeks (including a few rest weeks). Of the 4 drugs, he handled the first two very well, and the third gave him some mild diarrhea and I think one instance of vomiting. His fourth week would have been a repeat of the second drug, but he unfortunately was not responding to the treatment, so they changed his schedule and skipped to the fourth drug. I don't want to scare you off, but this drug, adriamycin, practically killed him due to a side effect that happens to around 5% of dogs. He ended up suffering from internal bleeding and would have needed a blood transfusion, but instead I opted to have him put down because he hadn't been responsive to the chemo.

Nope.

My dog pasted away in March and they said he could get 3 months if on chemo but i could tell he was suffering. They said he has 72 hours to live so we planned to put him down the next day. Went back to the vet 2 hours later because how bad he got.

I've lost a lot of dogs to cancer. Some lived long lives, some less. But I would never put my dog through chemo. They wouldn't be able to understand why they're being made to suffer so much, and it wouldn't buy enough time to be worth that amount of pain.

I imagine it will be agony for the dog, and even if it works it probably only buys a few more years. It's not like a person where you might be able to live extra decades. I've seen older pets go through crazy surgeries and just die within months, and it feels so senseless afterwards.

While the decision to fight cancer is a personal one, especially with a pet, stop comparing human chemo experiences to pet chemo. They are not the same thing, not the same treatments on the same scale, and pet chemo is universally adapted to be humane and as comfortable as possible. Outside of maybe some extreme cases, nobody puts a dog through the kind of aggressive chemo that makes daily life hell for human cancer patients. That's not what any vet is talking about when they suggest chemo treatment for a pet.

Random update. We decided to at least talk to the internalist to see her thoughts. It was a good thing we did. After talking to her we decided to test for Cushing' disease which is exactly what she has (and it explains a lot of stuff we've been noticing for a while other than the liver stuff). She's on meds and already I'm noticing the most notable thing I've been complaining about to the vets way before the pancreatitis has vastly improved (she's drinking way less water. Maybe not as little as when she was younger but not so much it's obvious she's really going through water. Which also meant she was having accidents cause she couldn't hold it). Hopefully it helps with the skin too (I was having problems this past year with recurring skin infections, also something you see with Cushings). And apparently the intermalist said there is some evidence it can make a dog at higher risk for pancreatitis (and explains the liver enzymes).


And I think with treatment probably a lot better prognosis than what the regular vet thought it could be.

I am happy for you that it's Cushing's disease. It's probably the best case scenario for high liver enzyme. Prognosis for quality of life and life expentancy is great.

Buggy Loop said:

No

Chemo is pure hell for humans even when they understand "why" they are going through it and it's their choice. I would not impose than on an animal.

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This, my mom went through it and I would not put any animal through that.

My miniature poodle was 12 when we had to put him down earlier this year. It was discovered that he had a cancer that spread through his body incredibly fast, so it was either letting him go, or try chemo. The vet said that chemo likely wouldn't stop the cancer and only delay it briefly. There was no way in hell I was going to make him suffer through that. Hardest decision of my life

Edit: Just saw the update and realized this is a slightly older thread. That's a bit better news, OP. Good luck!

My dog was the same age when diagnosed with cancer. I was told that she’d last a few weeks without treatment and that chemo might give her another six months. I was assured that the chemo does not affect dogs as it does people, and the specialist was telling the truth. She was the same happy, active, and hungry dog on chemo as she was before. She was lethargic for about a day after the treatment, but that was it. The vet was correct - it gave her another six months and I am grateful that I got the extra time.

No. From the dog’s POV it’s just suffering, it doesn’t know that it’s trying to get better by that suffering.

I personally would not, and have once already made the devastating choice to put a dog down who was terminal and in pain.