Roxy has canine lymphoma

Sorry for the late update, but that lump in Roxy’s throat did not go away with strong antibiotics. Instead, while we were away for the 1 week in Denmark and Sweden, and while she was taking the antibiotics, several additional lumps grew in Roxy’s body – throat, chest and behind her knees (those were really big).

On 28-Oct, Roxy’s vet extracted the biggest lump in her throat (which was already impairing her ability to swallow), and sent it away for testing, although he said the chance for her having lymphoma is really high (can’t really be anything else).

On 5-Nov, her vet called to announce the results were back, and they were indeed positive – and that it is a bad case of lymphoma. I will be receiving the full report in the mail tomorrow (Monday), along with a prescription for 3 medicines to start her on (which I gathered are chemo therapy drugs). With chemo therapy and good chances, Roxy will have up to 12 months longer to live.

Tomorrow, when I get the results and prescription in the mail, I am taking that with me to an appointment I made for Roxy at the same animal clinic where she received her spine surgery. They handle cancer patients more often and are more advanced when it comes to treatment. It will also be a good chance to get another opinion, on her new cancer diagnosis and also as follow-up to her back surgery and DM.

Regarding DM – Roxy has been walking much better, actually. It is making us wonder if she even has DM. According to the vets, if the DM gene did break out, then a few months after the surgery, she wouldn’t get better, but slowly worse. Instead, she’s been walking better (hardly ever dragging her back paws), so was the lameness in her back legs caused solely on her herniated discs? And that now that has been fixed, she can walk almost like normal again? That means, that if the DM gene did not break out, and I was “treating” her for DM (special diet and vitamins), could it be that what I was giving her (which was based on Dr. Clemmons diet for DM dogs and was also approved by her vet), is what could have led to her lymphoma? How could she develop this rapidly spreading cancer so soon after her surgery? Could the anesthesia, or just the stress, be contributors? Those are some questions I will be asking at the animal clinic tomorrow.

Good news for now is that besides the lumps in her body, Roxy has not been displaying any other clinical signs of having cancer, which is a deal breaker when it comes to starting chemo therapy. Dogs have better chances when starting chemo while still feeling “normal”. She has been playing like crazy and eating like a pig Below are some links I referenced since all of this was brought into light. More updates to come.

“Most dogs with lymphoma develop medium to high-grade lymphoma that is very responsive to chemotherapy. Greater than 75% of dogs with lymphoma are expected to achieve a complete remission with chemotherapy.” :  http://caninecancer.com/Lymphoma.html

“Untreated dogs have an average survival time of sixty days.” :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymphoma_in_animals

At least chemo therapy should not affect dogs with many negative side effects – keeping fingers crossed:  http://www.vetinfo.com/canine-cancer-treatments.html

From this and others sites, I gather that Roxy is at around Stage IIIa:  http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_canine_lymphoma.html

In German:  http://www.hundohneleine.de/hunde/lymphdruesenkrebs_beim_hund.html

I have left rice out of her diet since reading this:  http://www.dogcancer.net.au/nutrition-and-cancer.php

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