Any Suggestions dog with Possable Lymphosarcoma - Page 1

my Czech male i took to the vet after finding 2 of his lymph nodes swollen and one of them feels like it has a growth the vet checked and all of his nodes are swollen he is on a 2 week round of antibiotics and goes back in at the end of this two weeks. im hopeing this is just a infection but i have never known a infection to cause soo many lymph nodes to be enlarged and also the vets face was not very comforting. if he does have this any ideas on what i can do to help him? i refuze to do chemo it is too hard on them and he dosent need to suffer through that only to live 5 more months. i will def put him to sleep if he gets bad off but i figured i would console my fellow german shepherd people.

Need a few details:
--How old is the dog?
--Where are the suspicious lymph nodes located?
--Aside from you noticing that the LNs were enlarged, was anything else going on, healthwise, with the dog (vomiting, diarrhea, etc.)?

he is 3 years old the lymph nodes are right below his jaw on both sides his left chest and both ones behind his knees nothing so far indicateing him being sick becides vomiting after the first antibiotics but they had absorbed as it was only bile we feed all of our dogs seperately so we can be sure that each dog is eating their own portion and he is drinking water like he normaly does and he drinks tons of water but his urine is very yellow and is pungent we thought he was possably dehydraded so we mixed in some pedialite into his water since we noticed but it hasent changed. he is still very active running and wanting to play. have not noticed any diarrhea.

Siantha, he's on the young side, but unfortunately lymphosarcoma isn't unheard of in dogs of his age, so that certainly has to be one of the differentials your vet has to consider. And sadly it seems that when it is diagnosed in younger dogs, it does tend to be one of the more aggressive versions of this type of cancer which don't respond well to treatment.

But it's also possible that something else is going on, hence the 2 week course of antibiotics; if there's an infection that's caused the LNs to enlarge, you should gradually start to be able to feel the LNs reduce in size over the course of the treatment.  You want to be sure to monitor the LNs, and if it appears that there is any *increase* in the enlargement, notify your vet immediately so he/she can modify the treatment if necessary.

If the worst fear does come to pass, and the diagnosis is lymphoma of one form or another, that's not necessarily the end for a dog.  Although chemotherapy is extremely hard on humans, it is not as harsh for dogs, and the lymphoma chemo protocols are generally well-tolerated by dogs--so you might want to revisit whether you'd want to do some form of chemo or not, if your only objection was how much of a burden it would put on your dog.  Depending on the type of lymphoma, the remission rates can be considerably high, and if the variety of lymphoma is highly responsive to the therapy it is possible for the dog to enjoy additional *years*, not just months, of good, quality living.  The key here is the type of lymphoma involved; a biopsy of an affected lymph node is needed to identify the specific form of lymphoma and determine how responsive to treatment it is likely to be. 

Keep in mind, also, that the term 'chemotherapy' doesn't just refer to the use of drugs that are extremely toxic to cells in general; a conservative form of chemotherapy which is used for many canine cancer patients is prednisolone or prednisone, which can slow the progression of the disease a bit and help keep the dog comfortable for a bit longer.  There is nothing at all wrong about an owner opting for more of a 'hospice care' route for a pet with any kind of terminal illness, IMO, and using a steroid such as pred is part of that approach, along with medications to control any pain or nausea that may develop as the disease progresses.

Sorry for the length--I'll close by saying I'll be hoping that the antibiotics begin to reduce the LNs and it turns out that your young fellow simply had an infection of a salivary gland or something similar.

    Siantha...

       How are things going with your male?....

so far i am monitoring all of his lymph nodes and the one on his chest feels bigger. the rest are about the same size but last night he threw up then ate about 10 of the kibbles in his bowl and has refuzed the rest. so hopefuly that he just had a upset tummy from the antibiotics. other than that he is still playing and hitting me in the face with his tug wanting to play XD that is his trick if im not paying attention. yes if he does have it we would probably do the steroid approch we are just watching him carefuly.

When my mother was a breeder she did Showline dogs and her champion dog in 5 days died from cancer it was the most horrifiing thing she fed him first day he ate it up my sister fed him next 3 days. my mother walks outside and gets mad at my sister thinking she didnt feed him the next day he was even lower in weight so she rushed him to the vet. needless to say a 70 lb gsd went to a 40 lb one in 5 days the dog had cancer through out his hole body and the mutual agreement was made to put him to sleep so he didnt suffer.

atleast lymphoma isnt that agressive of a cancer from what i have read. but i still refuze to have him suffer for my benefit im going to do all i can to keep him healthy but if it starts going downhill we will see.