Dog cancer tumor broke through skin and bleeding...

[dogs4life]

Anyone have experience with this?

Montana has had a big tumor on her leg since 2002. We had it removed 1.5 yrs ago by a general traditional vet against our holistic vet's recommendations. The tumor has grown back and has been vigerously growing for the last 6 months. Her skin over the tumor is very thin and has stretched so tight (because of the rapid growth) that it has broken the skin and is bleeding intermittently. There is a scab now but it's very thin and I'm not confident that the scar tissue will keep up with the growing tumor.

We took her into the vet today to check it out. He bluntly told us she needs to be put to sleep (PTS) or we need to have the tumor removed again. Given her age, I'm not convinced that surgery is much of an improvement in quality of life, and am not sure she is in any condiditon to recover from a major surgery such as this.

Today the tumor is larger than my hand but seems to not hurt or hinder her movement. She walks, runs, wants to play, and loves rolling in the grass. She really is normal, just has this huge growth that is splitting her skin open.

Sorry about the novel, but figure you'd ask all the details anyways.

So if we opt to not have surgery, does anyone have suggestions of how to keep her open wound from getting infected? Oral antibiotics is out the questions because of the nature of the tumor and the location of the tear. We were thinking of putting a shirt on her to keep it protected and maybe cleaning with buffered iodine, but we are open to your suggestions.

[greekblue]

I am sorry I cannot help you because I have no experience at all, but I wanted to say that you and Montana are on my thoughts. Hope all end well.

[StephanieandTeddy]

I did have a doggy client whose skin split over a tumour on her back leg.
other than surgery,there isn't much you can do except keep it clean and hope there is no pain and infection.

You really need to decide about your dog's quality of life down the road...If it gets any worse and she is in pain, I would also opt to PTS....it's very sad.

[dogs4life]

This is sad, no one wants to make these decisions, we don't but we will. Thanks for your replies.

We know quality of life is critical in our decision and whatever emotional turmoil we are in, we have to raise above it for her sake....it's really hard though. She will be turning 16 soon, has arthritis in her hips and back so we are worried about recovery from surgery. She had a really rough time with the first removal...took her 1 week to look OK and about a month to walk normal. It's hard to opt for surgery because we know it will come back, we know it will come back fast just like the 2nd growth.

If she is in pain, cannot or will not walk, cannot or will not run, does not want car rides, or refuses food, we will put her down here at home, we just never thought it would be this soon.

[dogs4life]

Originally Posted by StephanieandTeddy

I did have a doggy client whose skin split over a tumour on her back leg.
other than surgery,there isn't much you can do except keep it clean and hope there is no pain and infection.

You really need to decide about your dog's quality of life down the road...If it gets any worse and she is in pain, I would also opt to PTS....it's very sad.

StephanieandTeddy - What did your client do for their dog, surgery or PTS? How old was the dog when the skin split?

[gracie]

Sorry I can't help. Our dog had a cyst that broke through the skin this year and was bleeding as well. When I went to clean it the whole cyst popped out and left a hole where the lump used to be. The difference was that the hole closed up immediately. You could try the shirt or make a homemade gauze wrap to go around the area, as long as your dog doesn't try to remove it. It may be better to just work with the area of the wound. It won't hurt to try. Wishing you and your dog all the best.

[Rivsky]

I'm so sorry to hear about poor Montana

[Shadowkins]

I'm so sorry for you...it must be very stressful for your family.
Unfortunately, I do not have experience with a cancerous tumor... Shadow has had a few lumps...cycsts I guess, that have burst and the best thing was , as you say, to keep it clean. The vet had given me Habitane soap to wash the area . If Montana's is a fairly large wound I wonder if you could not put a gauze or ( now this may sound silly) but a sanitary pad and hold it in place with a tensor bandage? That way you are sure that it will stay clean for awhile.
Good luck.

[k9hullio_sam]

What a horrible situation! I think as long as she isn't in pain and you are willing to take care of it she will fine. I would try to wrap it too. We use the vet wrap on the horses, I think they have a smaller version at petsmart as well. You can use that to hold the gauze pad(or whatever you put there). So Sorry!

[dogs4life]

Montana has had tumors all her life. We have surgically removed all of them and none of them grew back. This one is different....cancerous I forgot the name, but most animals get them. I talked with lots of horse vets who see them on a regular basis.

I'll look for her paperwork to find the tumor type just in case someone has heard of other dogs or horses with it.

I decided to put her back on some suppliments to help her immune system, so maybe that can help keep infection down...they are just so darn expensive, but not as expensive as surgery.

Thanks for all ideas....

She has a shirt on now....she looks so silly, but she doesn't mind it.

Shadowkins....I was thinking of small pads too or other sanitary products too, except I'm afraid her body will attach to it.

[k9hullio_sam]

Poor Montana! At my old barn, we lost a horse to melenomas (sp?). We were able to keep him around for quite a while with them and he was very happy!

I am sure Montana is looking forward to a whole new wardrobe! (*crossing fingers*)

[dogs4life]

Sam, after looking at the Melanoma pictures in horses on the internet, I wonder if we got a "wrong diagnosis" Here is an article I found, did the horse you knew with Melanoma have a tumor like this? Also what was done for the horse? Were there multiple surgeries involved? I know you are not at that barn any more but thought you might remember....Carolina Equine Clinic - online veterinarian case studies



I looked at her paperwork just now and it's a hemangiopericytoma tumor.

Dec 2005 Aspirate results = possible spindle-cell tumor

Jan 2006 Tumor removal with wide margin removal

Feb 2006 Biopsy results on tumor removed = Soft tissue sarcoma, Hemangiopericytoma (pronounced hemangio-pericyt-oma) In plain English it's a blood vessel soft tissue tumor cased by DNA damage.

Anyone have experience with these types of tumors in horses, people or dogs?

[k9hullio_sam]

His were a ton of smaller ones that covered his tail and anal areas, and continued throughout his insides (that is the bad part). It is really common in greys because the pigment of their skin. He is the only one I knew with it, but have heard of other having large ones on other part of the body similar the link you posted.

Oh-- and because there were just a bunch of smaller ones, he never had surgery, but he did take pills during the warmer months when the melenomas were most actively growing (very expensive pills). I think it helped him tremendously and really slowed them down. Can't remember for the life of me what it was though.

ETA: I just remembered there was a boarder there as well with a horse that had a melenoma on her bottom eye lid. it started off really small, but as it continued to grow, they had to have surgery to remove it (and her entire bottom eye lid). She was much happier, ,just had to wear a flymask most of the time.

[k9hullio_sam]

I found this picture of the boarders mare, you can sort of see the melenoma on her eye(and all the tear staining). This was about a month before it was removed.

[dogs4life]

Thanks Sam! Montana's tumor is huge! I'll post pictures.