Help Charmer Fight Canine Cancer

Time means everything.  In hindsight I would have run, not walked to a specialist surgeon.  What went wrong for Charmer is the veterinarian I saw sent him to an oncologist in radiation.  He needed to see first a special cancer surgeon. 

From the time I spotted Charmer’s tumor in his mouth, to the time it grew to an inoperable size was less than 21 days!!!  But it took the doctors, through all the red tape, and wrong treatments given along the way, 44 days to discover that and by then it was too late!!

If your dog has a tumor in his mouth or nose, or any facial area, even if it has not been biopsied, I urge you to run, don’t walk to your nearest specialist surgeon.  That means you request your vet to refer you to a surgeon specialzing in cancer surgeries for dogs.

If I had to do it over again, I would not have waited the extra 10 days it took for my veterinarian to fit Charmer into their routine schedule for a biopsy, but I would have instead forked over the extra big bucks to have the specialist surgeon do a biopsy/surgery at the same time.  But I didn’t know that 21 days is too long to wait for a cancer that is malignant, even it it doesn’t look like anything more than very inflamed gums around the tooth. Because unseen to you can be simultaneous hidden growth in your dog’s cheekbone, nose or eye cavities that will translate into a death sentence because those places cannot be operated successfully to remove tumor growth.

Malignant cancer is not a routine office visit or fits into routine office protocols where you can accept a week away or more appointments just to schedule a biopsy.  Once certain parts of your dog’s facial, mouth and head cavities are invaded, kiss your dog goodbye, because modern veterinarian science has come a long way, but there are still some cancers that it is powerless to conquer if the cancer has crossed into the inoperable realm.

Inoperable is a death sentence for your dog, period.

If you don’t have the money, beg for help from family, get a loan, apply to carecredit.com, pawn your jewelry, but just get the cash together RIGHT NOW!  CANCER DOES NOT WAIT FOR ANYBODY, OR ANYTHING, OR WAIT FOR YOU TO GET THE MONEY TOGETHER AS YOU CAN!!

You want the surgeon to get clean margins of the tumor, so hopefully every last cancer cell is removed.  But you have to get your dog to him while the tumor is still not considered invasive and the surgeon can remove it.  Be prepared that the surgery may involved removing part of your dog’s jawbone.  Don’t baulk at this; better your dog’s jaw bone then your dog be dead.  Dog’s do suprisingly well with parts of their jawbones removed.

The reason many times the jawbones have to be removed partially, is that the cancer will have roots in the bone, and any roots left behind will just grow back, often in just days!!!

Unfortunately malignant cancer does not afford you the time to get an official diagnosis; don’t let your dog fall between the beaurocractic red tape of any animal hospitals formal scheduling etcera.  Insist that your dog get surgery, if it is feasible, the same or next day.

After your dog recovers from surgery is when radiation may be further effective to kill any microscopic cancer cells that the surgery may have missed.  However, not all cancers respond well to radiation or chemotherapy, and that is where the biopsy will come in, to determine if your dog’s cancer will or will not do well with radiation/chemo.

Even though it is expensive, it is best to have your surgeon do a cat scan of the tumor, as that is the only way the surgeon will be able to tell how extensive the tumor is.  Without that cat scan, my oncologist was saying Charmer’s tumor was just fluid, a horrible misdiagnosis that cost Charmer time he may have been able to be saved.

If your pet does not have cancer, I urge you to get dog insurance that provides cancer coverage, and keep the policy, as some of these insurances, have a cut off age they will provide cancer coverage to pets, and that is usually at 8 years of age or so.  Good pet insurance will also reimburse part of your cost for a cat scan or mri.

Once it is too late is not the time to spend the money, but in the early stages while the tumor in your dog’s mouth can still be removed by an expert surgeon.