For anybody that may remember my post a week ago my dog Kasper was found to have a tumor in his prepuce and the test came back and it was skin cancer (Melanoma.) Apparently the cancer is not very aggressive which was the good news and has little chance for spreading, however the vet feels the tumor will return in that area.

I'm really conflicted as what to do now. The vet said that I should take him to a specialist and have them remove more in that area. The money is a concern but not the issue, i'm more worried about his quality of life if they have to remove a large portion of his prepuce.

I was wondering if anybody has had experience with this kind of problem or has any advice on the matter. I really want to do what is right for him. should i do everything i can medically and possibly reduce his quality of life? or should i do as much as i can to make him comfortable for the rest of his time with me? I know nobody can answer that definitively, but i'm sure many of you have gone through similar situations and any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated

take care & happy holidays

Rob

I'm sorry you got this news. In your place, I would want more information (surgery alone, or surgery with chemo or radiation, etc.)?

Sorry, Robert.

I don't have any help, but wanted to pass on well wishes from my family.

http://www.caninecancer.com/skincancer.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/pets/dog-health/melanomas_and_mast_cell_tumors_in_dogs-page2.htm

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=425

Robert, I'm sorry to hear this and will keep you and your dog in my thoughts as you decide how to handle this situation.

Thank you everybody for your support and well wishes, and connie thanks for the links and advice. I'm going to read through them now.

I'm going to look into chemo and other such options but i always felt like if it were me i wouldn't want that just because i have watched friends and family go through it and it was always really hard and none of them survived because of it, but if it has a high chance of success then i would definitely consider it for him. i would just feel terrible if all it did was make him feel more ill before the inevitable.

thanks again for the support,

Rob

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

I'm sorry you got this news. In your place, I would want more information (surgery alone, or surgery with chemo or radiation, etc.)?

I would want this same information.

So sorry you got these results. How old is Kasper?

You will probably want to ask the vet about whether it seems like a surgery-only thing.

I agree with you about many instances of chemo doing-it-all-just-because-it's-there. But if a CA can be removed by cutting and no metastasis is suspected/seen, and the prognosis is good ... well, the decision is far less murky.

Also, I have to add that money usually IS a factor. I can't pretend it's not; I see/read people in miserable guilt because they had to choose PTS over some unaffordable treatment. This kind of guilt is misplaced, IMO. We do our best, and we have reasonable reserves responsibly set aside. Our best is all we have. We can't snap our fingers to turn our best into something else. All JMO.

My husband is an surgical oncologist, who does melanoma, and I have some limited (but old) experience with melanoma in the dog.
Melanoma in the dog in the mouth and on the feet has a bad prognosis, IME.
On the body, often surgery is curative, meaning if clean margins are obtained, the disease rarely returns. Clean margins are important, so if your guy didn't get clean margins, your dog needs more surgery. Because of the location he may not have had a lot of tissue to work with. The thickness of the mass, the number of layers of skin affected, is more important than how wide the lump is in terms of prognosis . I don't know about the prepuce.
In humans, chemo doesn't work, not yet. There are clinical trials with interferon, but there is not much time bought by it, and it is a miserable drug.
Surgery is the cure, early surgery. Radiation is used sometimes as an adjunct to
surgery. I'm telling you about people because I guess if it was my dog I wouldn't do things that aren't known to work.
I feel bad for you having this diagnosis for your dog, and wish you the best.

Kasper was 2 years old on September 26th, so 2 years and change.

Thanks these are all good questions and things to have in mind when i go speak to the specialist.

I know money is always an issue cause it is a limited resource, and in times of guilt i feel like i give everything to see him better, but i know he wouldn't be better off if we were homeless and couldn't afford food. so realistically i do need to draw a line of what i can afford to spend on his treatments but it's hard. i have heard horror stories of families spending a fortune on their dogs treatments just to have them as sick as they ever were.