Not wanting take Lori's thread off subject but I do have a few thoughts on this having gone through it twice now with otherwise healthy, active dogs.

Everyone has an opinion. Go with your gut feeling on what is best for your dog and your situation. A good vet will ask you what your preference is and help you make decisions to that end.

Chemo can buy good time with some cancers. Most dogs tolerate it well. My dog was on what is considered a "rescue protocol" of chemo since his prognosis was poor. He did really. well. Yes, he had a few off days but he went from not eating to eating with gusto, putting weight back on and actively needing to do stuff (he never stopped wanting/needing to do stuff until the end which was a big reason I pursued chemo). After starting meds, 90% of the time one never would have guessed that he was sick.

Suffering in life is, well, inevitable. If we want to totally avoid it, we'd generally euthanize a whole lot younger than we do. Getting old isn't a walk in the park but we accept that there will be some changes that we will deal with so our dogs can have good quality of life. So the question I asked myself when dealing with cancer was not "is he suffering?" but "is there a good chance at quick, significant improvement so he can enjoy life again?" I've never had an "old" dog, but just like I wouldn't euthanize for an off day or two with an old dog, then I wouldn't for a cancer dog either unless there wasn't a good chance at quick, significant improvement.

Dogs still live in the moment. It's amazing to watch a *sick* dog really living. I treasure the pictures I have of my dogs post diagnosis. So much life and happiness in their eyes. The time was a gift. I could spoil them like crazy.

Every dog has different variables. Neither of my dogs were fans of the vet's office or really "people" dogs. They were happy at home doing their thing. So when preliminary testing showed a low chance of any long term success, then any sort of specialist visits were off the table. I wasn't going to cart him all over the place to be poked and prodded and just get the diagnosis confirmed. I wasn't going to do a full course of chemo when it wasn't likely to buy him much time. The rescue course of chemo that he had was just a pill picked up at the local pharmacy that he had once every couple weeks. Anti nausea meds pretty much alleviated the day or so of chemo side effects that would come with it.

One of my current dogs LOVES being around people. I'd be apt to consider more options with her since she thinks the vet's office and seeing new people is about the best.thing.evah.

Of course age plays into this all. Both my dogs were pretty healthy and active pre-cancer. No one would have ever guessed that they were 9 and 12. In the two months or so post diagnosis, they mainly seemed to age fast. I kept them on easy to eat (really yummy) food and had meds to keep them comfortable. They were spoiled like crazy and enjoyed it.

Anyway, just my rambling two cents.

Hi Mara Jessup,

When I was doing a lot of research on spaying/neutering dogs... In some breeds, spaying/neutering can cause cancer.... Like Rottweiliers are prone to bone cancer.

Here is the article that I think is very interesting about desexing and cancer...

http://retrieverlife.com/ive-change-heart-spaying-neutering/

In my view what you did with your dogs Mara was great, you helped them feel better and it worked out well for both the dog and for you. One of your dogs, Kipp?, was really young.

I agree that you have to take it case by case for each animal. We had a golden before Kasey who stopped eating and drinking and barely wanted to move. They could see something on her liver but to know what it was would take surgery. She was a guide dogs of america dog we had raised and she failed due to horrible environmental allergies. Always had rashes and hot spots and infections. They were constantly shooting her full of Vetalog and they way way over vaccinated those dogs then (don't know their protocol now 8 years later). But her health wasn't good and to put her through surgery and treatments would have been too hard on her so we chose not to.

But in Kasey's situation we will just have to wait and see what the pathology reports say in order to know what we're dealing with.