Thank you, Proofpawsitive and lovemydogs7, for the well wishes. Pez had his first chemo last night. I will see how he does. We have to have a compounding pharmacy make up his dose of prioxicam, but that should be ready to pick-up tonight. He is on the same chemo therapy plan as Dylan. I am very hopeful.

I completely forgot about the anti-vomiting and anti-diaherria medicine. The doctor stated he should not have any of that. If he does, I will get some over the counter meds.

I thought of the idea of taking photos, but have not so far. That is a great idea to watch the progress. I will start tonight. I want to keep an eye on it anyway to make sure this care is working.

Luckily, Pez's nose is not really malformed at this point. His right side of his nose is enlarged due to what appears to be soft tissue swelling. I can see the tumor at the inside side of his right nostril. It does appear to be slightly larger than when first diagnosed 2 1/2 weeks ago. He is sensitive in that area and protective when other dogs come to close.

I will continue to update you all. This forum has been great for me, both in allowing me a place to get information and the support to others. Thanks again for the well wishes.

Krissy

I received a note back from the oncologist in Philadelphia about the gel chemo therapy. There appears to be a study that was conducted in 1995 with the main vet from the University of Michigan. I sent an e-mail to that doctor to see if this treatment is still be used and if can be shipped to where I live.

Pez is doing okay. It appears the tumor is growing, but at a slower rate. 2 more weeks until the next treatment.

Hi Krissy,

I sadly had to let my boy go a couple of days ago. If there is ever any advice you need or if you have any questions I will be happy to help you through your journey. You can email me privately and I would be very happy to help you. I will warn you, the journey is not going to be easy but try to enjoy the moments you have with Pez. I took advantage of all the moments, I spoiled my baby to death the entire journey, but I had trouble truly enjoying it myself because I found myself so worried over the fact that I would lose him soon, and I worried about not knowing when, and I worried about what treatments to do, the list goes on and on. I worried non-stop. If you can find a way... just don't worry. Just make each decision knowing that you have his best interest in mind and that everything you do will be for the right reasons. Also another thing that might help you not worry is to take a look closely at Pez's behavior. Is he acting like his normal self? Does he still have all the little details that make him Pez? If he does than he is doing just fine and still has his quality of life. Those are the moments to not worry. I found myself not enjoying precious moments because I was so worried of what was to come. Some examples of what I mean by watching his details are with my Bremen he always stood guard watching out the front window and when people or dogs would walk by the house he would jump around, wag his tail, growl, all sorts of stuff. He did this almost the entire time he had cancer and through all the treatments. The last three weeks of his life he had stopped. He even stopped getting up to say hi when I got home, although he did lay in his bed looking peaceful and would give me a warm look and wag his tail. But when all these things slipped that made him who he was, I knew he was already gone. It was still hard to judge though because your mind is tainted by optimism, denial, and also the fact that it is such a slow decline down that it is hard to notice. Bremen slowly lost one piece of himself at a time so I found myself questioning how much he had really lost. Be careful about that, your mind plays tricks on you when something happens slowly and when you don't want to let go. Maybe keep a journal of his behavior so you can look back and compare as you go along in the journey.

I know most times this cancer is not curable. That does not mean it cannot happen, but just know that at best you will most likely buy some more time with your Pez. It will be the best time for Pez though, I know that. Once you get such a terrible diagnoses for a pet that you love so much, everything they get from you is so much better and has so much more thought put into it.

Good luck with his treatments and enjoy every moment. If you ever need to talk, go ahead and email me :-)

Love to you and Pez.

Jackie & Angel Bremen

sorry to hear of your loss

Mo

Lovemydogs7,

I am very sorry to hear about your loss.

Thank you for all the information. I do notice myself being overly consumed by how he is doing and not enjoying the time with him as much. I check his nose 2-4 times a day to judge if his tumor is growing. Even my husband is getting sick of it. He told me he did not want to hear about the size of his nose anymore.

He is still himself right now. The only thing really different right now is his breathing and staying away from my other dog a little more than he did. This is because she bumped his nose while playing the other day.

But, he continues to play with her. When I see him playing with her I chuckle to myself. He was trying to hump my other dog yesterday at my mother-in-law's and she even said, "There is nothing wrong with that dog!"

However, he definately knows there is something wrong, because he has been a little more of a cuddle bug lately. I will be sure to take it all in. Pez has a great spirit and I am hoping, we have a wonderful and enjoyable time with him for however long we are able to have him and can look past all the worry that comes along with his disease.

Thanks again,
Krissy

For any of you that have been following my posts about my dog, Pez, I wanted to give you an update. Unfortunately, the chemo did not work. He had 2 treatments and was scheduled for a third, but the tumor was growing fast.

Pez had surgery yesterday and had the front part of his nose removed, the black part. I go to pick him up in about an hour. According to the vet's office, he is doing well.

The vet stated that the cancer had gone further into his nose than what she thought, but she believes she got it all. The pathology results will take about a week. She projects he will have a good recovery and noted he is a "neat" dog.

Pez is otherwise healthy and strong, 11 year old. We would have not done the surgery otherwise. In fact, he was playing with his toys and my Dane on Sunday, the day before his surgery.

To all of you out there that are dealing with this, it is very difficult to decide the right thing to do. Pez's cancer was very small when he had the first nose bleed. The vet doing the CT scan stated they normally don't catch it this early. This was the first week of November and by the first week of January, Pez's nose was swollen approximately 1/2 inch from normal and I could see the red tumor cells spreading over the front of his nose. I feel like I should have listened to my inner voice and scheduled his surgery before the second chemo treatment, because by that time I felt I knew the chemo was not working. But another month later, here we are, he is had the surgery. It must be mentioned, I was completely against the surgery initially.

In my opinion, if your dog's tumor was diagnosed early, you have some time to try the chemo. The surgery is the best option, especially if the cancer is not caught in an early stage. Remember to keep in mind your dog's overall health and expense before deciding what option you are going to try. If our dog was not in overall good health, we probably would have done nothing.

But whatever you decide to do, know your baby loves you no matter what.

Vegchowfun

I see this thread hasn't had any activity since January, but I am hoping that maybe some of you are still around. I just got the diagnosis today that our beloved golden named Frisco has SCC.

For us - the tumor is below the nose, but appears to be eating away at the right part of the nose. It has spread quite quickly and seems to have grown since we did the biopsy last week.

I took a lot of notes on what everyone has tried and have a lot of information to research.

Our boy is 12 (13 this year) and had a tumor removed last year on his side that was spindle cell carcinmoa. I am kind of kicking myself right now - because I asked the vet if Frisco should be on some kind of immunity booster to prevent cancer from returning and the vet said that since that particular kind of cancer didn't work that way --- there really wasn't a reason to add anything.

We have been treating this cancer as an allergy for a month or more. It really didn't start looking like anything else until about a month ago. Now - it is aggresively moving across the lower part of his nose. No sign of invasion into the nasal - although part of the nose is pretty much disfigured.

I was wondering if anyone has learned anything new they would try if they had to do it again or if there is anything you have since learned that you could pass on to me.

Thanks so much.

Sushiboofay,

I am very sorry to hear your dog has been diagnosed with this. I unfortunately have a ton of experience with this type of cancer as well as the treatments available for it. I actually have a lot to say and would love to help. If you email me privately I would like to give you my phone number so we can talk. jkgranzow@yahoo.com

Jackie

Hi,
My beloved golden, Dylan had SCC and if you email me privately, i would love to tell you our experiences, treatments, and outcomes. Dylan was just short of 12 when he was diagnosed,too. I'm here for you if need anything.
Sue

Hi, it's Sue again, I forgot my email
proofpawsitive@wi.rr.com