Have a 9yr old boxer mix. She had a couple tumors removed this week. Both Mass Cell Tumors. One on the front leg was hard to get to due to muscle and tendons. So not sure they got it all.
They mentioned getting us in touch with a vet oncologist to discuss chemo, oral and radiation.

Know that it is hell on humans. Anyone treat their dog with chemo?

We did, back in 2015. Our results were not good, but it was cancer of the blood vessels. I hope your results are better.

No, but I’ve worked with many dogs and chemo drugs. It’s definitely hard on them. What’s the prognosis with treatment? At 9 yrs old, your pup is still healthy and young enough to make this a real consideration (imho). Depending on the length of treatment and the vets ddx, it ,
may very well be worth your while.

Does a cat count?

This goes back many years (almost 20, I think) but we had a female cat with breast cancer, surgically removed first one side of breasts, shortly after they did the other side, and chemo was recommended.

I forget how many weekly rounds she went through, between six and eight, but each one was hell on the poor thing. They didn't prevent the spread and she died of lung cancer within a couple months. It was awful to watch her go through it all.

The next year, another of our cats from the same lineage, niece of the first one, came down with breast cancer as well. I called the oncologist and asked if treatments had improved at all, she said they hadn't, so we didn't treat. When the cancer progressed to the point where the cat was suffering, we had her euthanized. Less trauma for the cat, if not for us.

I strongly recommend you question the oncologist about the survival rate from the treatment, and make your decision based on that. My experience is that pets who recover from extreme illnesses bounce back emotionally pretty quick, if their humans are there to support them, so just getting through it is the issue.

Good luck, I pray that treatments now are better than they were in our case. Of course, you can e-mail me if there's anything else I can help with.

We had a Golden with one many years ago, on the back of one lower leg.
They gave him Prednisone (I think) or some steroid and he lived quite a while and had a quality life. When he eventually got to a point he was done, he was at a normal life expectancy anyway.
If I was doing it over, I'd do the same thing.

It’s a stop gap. Usually it will give you 3-12 months more time with the animal. And it’s hell on the k9 going through it. You will have determine your route. When I was faced with this with my GSD, I put her down and it was the humane choice.

A Boxer at 9, I wouldn’t do it.

Years ago our 10 y/o lab had bone cancer, she went to 3 legs for 9 months, wasn’t worth it.

The current almost 9 year old Shepherd required serious front elbow surgery at 9 months old. That was rather essential.

My folks did chemo on a dog with hemangiosarcoma. Couple of other friends did chemo on dogs. All of them said never again.

My 7 year male basset had cancer in his ear canal and then 6 months of chemo.He had his ear canal removed and then chemo. He did very well, Dr said dogs handle chemo a lot better than humans. He passed away once tumor came back and he literally went down hill in 2 weeks.

I never saw any issues with chemo and his treatments were biweekly with each session lasting about 2 hours. Once he went down hill I didn't let him suffer but to do it again I would in a heartbeat.

Looked into it for our JRT. We decided that the extra few months she might get from it would not be worth putting her through the effects of it.

We passed on it and just made the most of what time we had with her.

Been through it with two Chow Chows years apart at Cornell University. They were great. Gave us some more quality time with them. We discussed things with our vet before that we didn’t want the dog to suffer.

Really sorry to hear about to cancer.

Cancer treatment in dogs, especially at that age is a waste of money. Their bodies can't handle the treatment and they end up worse off in their last days.

I don’t know about chemo, but we had a Lab who got cancer at 13. Surgery got the tumor out, but he then had radiation to finish the job. No suffering from the surgery or the radiation, turns out dogs are more resistant to radiation than humans. The worst he got was loosing some fur that grew back in white. He lived another 3 1/2 years, the cancer never came back.

Had a 6 year old lab with lymphoma, we tried chemotherapy but Remy didn’t take well to it, we had to put him down.Besides the emotional affect it is expensive. Its all about the dog and not to have him suffer

We are facing that potential decision with our bulldog. My personal opinion is that I will not want to do it.

All this dog has ever known is happiness, comfort, and joy. Unlike a human, it’s not possible to explain to a pet why they are so uncomfortable, I can only imagine it must be terrifying for them.

I’ve had dogs my whole life, and for every single one of them I’ve always tried to make the decision that their comfort and happiness comes before my desire to have them around.

I wish you the best of wisdom and comfort as you have to make this decision for your pup.

A friend did the chemo treatments for and spent about 8k and gave the dog another year of life.

I really wouldn’t want to put my dogs through any hardship to prolong their lives just for my pleasure.

At 9 years old, I’ve had to take them to the vet this year for expensive back pains. But the fix in both cases were simple anti inflammatory medicine. But ever since I had them, I vowed not to make them go through any surgery other than when they were spayed.

Fenbendazole seems to work as well to kill cancer cells. The FDA is not happy with this so wants to ban it in the United States. Too much money to be made in treating cancer instead of curing it.