Re: [CanineCancer] Not an uncommon tale: 3 yr old Boxer with Mast Cell on tip of docked tail

Thank you Cath for writing and for your well wishes. I send the continued wellness to your golden girl. Grade II MCT's are rarely "the cause of death" in dogs in my experience. Most dogs don't have lymph or organ involvment for a VERY long time :-) My departed boxer girl challenged me with MCT's from the time she was 5 and had incomplete excision of a grade II AT UC Davis at age 9. She lived to be almost 14 and the MCT's did not take her - it was her cardimoyopathy that started at about 10.

 

The reason why I wrote is that I am getting varried information from oncologists on how to proceed. Colorado State says to do a lumpectomy, another private oncologist the same and then a very conservative local oncologist said to take part of the tail. I know 'too much" sometimes and can see both sides of the coin and it troubles me.

 

On one hand I see the purpose of getting clear margins and doing the tail amputation, on another hand if it is grade II or III clear margins don't really matter as grade III is a death sentence and grade II without complete excision can still have years of life. also there is that new MCT chemo drug - I have not heard wonderful things about it - anyone here?

 

So put my dog through a traumatic, radical sugery for potentially no reason or be conservative and wish I had not...that is why I am really looking for people who have had MCT's on the tail and how those were removed and what that was like for the dog.

 

I have a very waggy, happy boy and do not want to take that from him.

 

Thank you for the support you give just by reading this and hopefully someone here has been where I am and can share their experience.

 

PS: I will not put my dog through radiation - no way no how.

 

Jennifer

---

From: cath phillips <pupsnjumps@hughes.net>
To: CanineCancer@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, July 24, 2010 7:26:02 AM
Subject: Re: [CanineCancer] Not an uncommon tale: 3 yr old Boxer with Mast Cell on tip of docked tail

 

Jennifer: First, welcome to this group. It is so hard to "have" to join a
group like this but here you will find an incredible group of knowledgeable,
caring people.

I don't know if Lila's story will help or not, but here goes.

My Golden Retriever, Lila was diagnosed with a grade II Mast Cell tumor on
the very top of her head on Christmas Eve, 2007. She was 12 at the time. A
2nd surgery did get clean margins but left the top of her pretty little head
looking a bit lumpy but beautiful in my eyes.

Because she is a very fearful girl, trips to the vet were extremely
difficult on her and I wanted her to have quality of life. After she was
diagnosed, we changed (very slowly) her food to Evo, put her on DHA (algea
based fish oil) and PolyMVA and thankfully she has had no reoccurance of
MCT. I have every lump and bump checked on her but all have been benign.

She is now 14 1/2 years old and doing good.

I wish I could help more, but hope this helps a little.

cath - Lila dx Grade 2 Mast Cell 12-24-07. Missing her Angel Joley
(Hemangiosarcoma , crossed the Rainbow Bridge 1-23-07) Golden Retriever, my
"heartlight".

"What I know, I can fight. What can be named, I can endure. But what lies
in shadow, I can neither fight nor endure."
www.caninecancerawareness.org

__._,_.___

Community email addresses:
  To post a message to the list, write to: CanineCancer@yahoogroups.com.  If your message is not of general interest to all members, please write to that person privately!
  Subscribe:    CanineCancer-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
  Unsubscribe:  CanineCancer-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
  List owner:   CanineCancer-owner@yahoogroups.com

View personal experiences (treatment, etc) with main folder:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CanineCancer/files/0_Personal_Experiences/
Sub-folders here by cancer "type".  Send your experiences for inclusion to the owner or moderator.

And Eating problems:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CanineCancer/files/0_For_When_They_Refuse_Food/

Enter your dog in the demographics data base:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CanineCancer/database

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___