My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

Robyn — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 12:22:14 GMT

I'm so sorry for your news - my lady passed away from lymphoma this year and trying to decide what route to go down was absolutely impossible. Hers was already spread and she was older so we eventually settled on pred and we did get a very comfortable 4 months so it wasn't the wrong decision. If she had been in the position that your lady is then I think I would have gone for chemo - I've seen a good number of lymphoma cases do very well, but we do refer all of ours to the onco department at the glasgow vet school so maybe that has something to do with it? IMO I would go for chemo and see how the first 2-3 doses go. If it all goes horrendously then I think you can stop and switch to pred (check with onco though!), but you can't start chemo after starting pred, so my preference would have been to go that way round if it had suited us.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about it all at all though

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

Sal the 1st — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 08:47:51 GMT

I am sorry to see your news

we had a few cases all crop up at the same time. Most of our clients with older dogs opt for pred and go for quality rather than quantity of life and some of these have stayed in pretty good condition for quite a while. In saying that we do have I think ?3 cases on cyclophos/pred (the cyclophos liquid from nova is a lot easier to give the right dose) that have also done ok. I think we seem to be in a lymphoma hot spot. Agree with Apache the older dogs seem to do a lot better on just pred. We are just a GP practice not specialists but we have moved away from vincristine or doxy - we discuss with clients but it isn't something we are happy to do ourselves anymore and would refer if that was client choice.

We have an aged ckcs on preds only with pre existing heart problems which from the top of my head is about 6mths from diagnosis and is still doing reasonably well.

Hope you are ok, its really crap when its one of our own and we have that bit of inside knowledge of what is happening

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

Rachel Woodcock — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:44:39 GMT

I will do,thanks.

Umm I'm just scared for the future tbh and not knowing how long she's got left. We lost our eldest dog in July so it's all a bit too raw atm

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

apache — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:42:23 GMT

Let us know how you get on.

It's awful when it's our own pets who are unwell. Are you ok?

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

Rachel Woodcock — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:35:54 GMT

I'll speak to one of the vets tomorrow as she's great at medicine stuff. Thanks again

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

apache — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:33:11 GMT

You need to ask a medicine person. Interestingly they have been shown as a risk factor of triggering pancreatitis, BUT there is some literature supporting the use of steroids in the treatment of pancreatitis.

Realistically I'd give them a try (knowing other immunosuppressive drugs are available)

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

Rachel Woodcock — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:26:30 GMT

Thanks Apache. She gets pancreatitis - could the preds cause a flair up?

RE: My dogs got lymphoma - what should I do?

apache — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 20:23:51 GMT

Not an expert in any way - just a GP vet.

My experience is the older the dog, the less aggressive. If mine I'd treat with high dose pred (2mg/kg) and see.

Not a fan of more intensive chemo. Had some older dogs go a long time this way (middle-aged dogs, do vastly less well IMO)

Sorry to hear about the beastie