Golden Retriever Cancer

[ooo-ribay]

We lost our 5.5 year old Golden girl in January of this year. She got mast cell cancer at age 1.5 and did surgery, chemo and lots of pills to "beat" that. Last year, we felt a lump on her neck and it was Lymphoma. Lymphoma, you can't beat but we decided to do the "Madison protocol" of chemo to keep her going. In the midst of that, she got another mast cell tumor in a different spot and we had to take her off chemo to have surgery on that. She got back on chemo until we could no longer keep the lymphoma in remission. Through the whole ordeal, she was a happy dog (until her last week). We would do it again, even though the Lymphoma and 2nd mast cell bill was $20K. Poor little girl took 66 trips to the vet in her short life.

She was our second Golden. We love the breed, but after researching how common cancer is in Goldens, we now own a goofy Aussie. PM me if you want to talk. Sorry for your bad news.

Rob

[bnorth]

It has been close to 3 yrs ago our Rottweiler Samson(13yrs old) went from being happy with no signs of anything being wrong to not being able to walk in 3 days. He had bone cancer in his right shoulder.

When we took him to the vet he said our beloved dog was full of cancer and gave him some pills that really helped for about a week. After they quit working we got what we where told was the strongest medicine we could get and that returned him back to somewhat normal for another 2 weeks.

I then made the decision to not let him suffer anymore and made the appointment to have him put to sleep the next day. That night I cooked him a big T-bone on the grill and slept on the floor with him.

It is amazing how much we love our pets. I wish you, your family, and your dog the best of luck.

[steve B]

Sorry to hear that.

Didn't have that with a golden, but different sorts with a Border Collie and a Mutt. One sorta treatable the other not. New England Veterinary Oncology Group was really good with the treatable one. Got him one more really good year before things got too bad.

Steve B

[clydepepper]

Hang in there guys!

I don't know what I would do if anything happened to my little dog.
.
.

I find that dogs are incredibly social animals and adding a companion can be wonderful therapy for all involved.


Adding a puppy can ease things for the present and any more difficult times.
.
.
.

[glynparson]

Lost my first one at 9 to cancer the second lived to 17, i know very old for a golden, the third is only two and a ball of energy still, in fact too much energy.

[Runscott]

A friend of mine lost her Golden at about 4 years to cancer. It started off in her ear and then metastasized. But she was happy right up to the end.

My Ridgeback died at 15 1/2, which is really old - we took her in several times for cancer tumor removal, and two years ago the vet said that she was too old to go through that any more. So we quite getting the surgeries and one of the mast cells finally metastasized and we had to put her down when it combined with other complications. Still, a long happy life.

[clydepepper]

I believe Boxers have the highest occurrence of cancer of any breed - not sure where Labs rank, but it hard to deal with in any case.