Vet's final thoughts

I called our veterinarian yesterday to get her final thoughts on Dell.  When Matt came home Monday, he had said that our vet said Dell's eyes were really yellow and that she had something going on with her liver.  After he said that, I remember seeing Dell's skin had a yellow-tinge to it too in some places. I just wanted to talk with our vet about it.

Her final conclusion was that Dell had lymphoma. The cancer had started in her lymph nodes and then spread to her liver and probably other parts of her body.  Matt and I thought that it had something to do with the spot on her neck that we had been treating for the last couple of years, but our vet thought that her cancer had nothing to do with the spot on her neck. It was her lymph nodes in her neck that were so enlarged!  (And you could tell by just looking at her this last week how big they were!)

The vet said that when Matt brought her in that not only was her eyes yellow, but her entire skin was yellow too.  Dell also had some swelling in her leg.  I asked her if she could tell if her tumors were any bigger and she thought they were because there were probably lumph nodes underneath them.  Plus Dell was losing weight, so the tumors looked bigger because she was getting skinnier. Speaking of weight, Dell had lost 10 pounds in two weeks. 

She said this is very typical of lymphoma.  It is a very aggressive form of cancer and within about two weeks, the dogs need to be put down. Dogs quit eating and go downhill very quicly. Even though we had Dell in a month ago, she said there was no way they could've detected it beforehand, not even if we would have done her senior wellness profile that we declined.  She said there was nothing they could do, so we made the right decision by putting her down. (She said we could have done 19 weeks of chemotherapy for the cancer, but that would've maybe added a year to her life.)

After Dell had passed and Matt had left, she said that her and the other veterinarian examined Dell a little bit closer.  She felt her liver and said that it was very hard and irregular, this was another sign that she had cancer in her liver.  She thought that maybe it had spread elsewhere, but they didn't know exactly.  She said she could've taken a sample, but always likes the owners permission first.  I kind of wanted her to!

Because Dell was just in a month ago and quit eating two weeks ago, we have almost a full bottle of proin (we gave this to her for urinary incontinence).  They could not buy the medicine back, but we could donate it to some one who needs it.  We also have about half a bag of dogfood that we can donate to the Humane Society.