# Lymphoma in 14 year old lab



## Peppers Mom (Jun 10, 2008)

Hello,
I just registered hoping to get some insight and information on my 14 year old black lab. She had dime size lymphs in her neck/chin area that overnight swelled to the size of a baseball. She has no fever, is alert, eating fine, and otherwise herself.

I dropped her off at the vets this morning hoping maybe it was a tooth abcess given her age, but was told it is lymphoma. They still have her and are doing a series of tests to see how affected she is, but given the severe swelling in her face and neck they weren't hopefully optimistic.

I know two people who had younger dogs with this, they did the chemo and sadly just prolonged their lives a few months but they were terribly sick that time from the treatment. Because of that I am very reluctant to try the chemo on her and the suggestion when we left was prednazone (sp?) to keep the swelling down and letting her live out her life as happy as possible.

I'm pretty sad right now, and was hoping to hear some experience you have had with older dogs and lymphoma. Basically I am wondering how much time I may have with her (I know the tests will give me a better idea when they come through) and what I can do to keep her from suffering.

Thank you for the support and I am willing to hear the good and bad. You know with a dog in their teens your time gets shorter, but it is difficult to have them go from basically fine to severely swollen over night and from thinking you had a few good years left, to knowing that time is now so much more limited.


----------



## Shalva (Mar 23, 2007)

I am sorry to hear about your dog, it is so hard 

I have had different experience than you have had, I have seen several older dogs do very well on chemo and go into remission for quite a while. For me lymphoma is one of the few cancers that I would do chemo for or at least give it a shot. 

I dont have much else to offer other than it might be worth visiting a veterinary oncologist 
good luck


----------



## 3dogsplus (Sep 10, 2006)

I am sorry to hear about Pepper. I know that finding out your dog has cancer is very devistating. The only good news is that lymphoma can respond to chemotherapy pretty well.

There are a few things that will affect Peppers potential to respond to chemotherapy. These include whether she feels sick or not, if she has a high calcium level, if there are any non-lymphoid organs involved (intestines) and what type of lymph cells are involved.

A majority of dogs are affected by B cell lymphoma. This is the most responsive to chemotherapy with a median (50% liver longer, 50% live less) life expectancy is 12 months.

A smaller number of dogs are affected by T cell lymphoma. This is less responsive to chemotherapy with a median live expectancy of 6-9 months.

The good news about chemotherapy and dogs is that they have fewer side effects. The reasons for this are the lack of psychological effects (they don't know they have cancer and they don't know the chemo can make them sick), if you think about what a dog can eat and not get sick, they have a much more forgiving intestinal tract than we do, and veterinarians realize that the chance for cure is not as good as it is in human medicine so they decrease the dose and thus the toxic effect to give quality and quantity life rather than just quanity.

Treating with prednisone alone is a definite alternative to chemotherapy. It is acually one of the drugs used in a chemotherapy protocol. It can results in a remission but it is usually short. Treatment with prednisone alone usually results in a life expectancy of 2-3 months. 

The other thing to keep in mind is something called multiple drug resistance (MDR). This is where the cancer cells become less responsive to other chemotherapy drugs when the patient takes one of the drugs in the MDR list. Prednisone is one of the drugs that can cause MDR. Once a dog starts on prednisone, you haev about a week before the resistance occurs.

If you are at all interested, you may want to ask you vet to refer you to a veterinary oncologist and they could answer many of your questions in more detail and give you the most current information regarding treatment and prognosis of lymphoma in dogs.

I also agree with Shalva that lymphoma is one of the cancers that I would treat my dog for. 

Good luck, my prayers are with you


----------



## Peppers Mom (Jun 10, 2008)

I want to thank you both kindly for your replies, I didn't really know where else to turn with this, and the articles I've read on google all seem so conflicting.

I had a close friend with a 6 year old Golden/Corgi that died of lymphoma. They did the chemo treatments on this dog, and he was miserable to say the least, he couldn't hold food down, was constantly sick, and the owners decided the pain he was suffering from the treatment wasn't worth it and took him off. He had been in remission and it immediately cropped back up and he died only a short couple of weeks later.

They did blood tests, x-rays, and a biopsy on Pepper yesterday. I was told that the good news is, it is not systemic yet, all her organs look great and she seems otherwise in good health. The biopsy will be back friday but the vet was pretty certain (based on her experience) this is lymphoma. She is on an antibiotic (from where they cut and sutured her for the biopsy), pain meds and an anti-inflamatory, plus she told me to give her chicken and fish oil.

This morning she was not herself and it was the first I have noticed a change in her mentally, up until now it was all physical. Part of me wonders if it is the medicine, but she seems to be having a hard time breathing and her neck is very swollen again this morning. While it was mainly the left side before, now it is more uniform. I guess they wanted to wait for the biopsy results before putting her on prednisone, but I don't like the fact that her neck is so swollen and I'm afraid her breathing is a bit labored.

Re the chemo, it sounds like it doesn't cure but rather prolongs thier life? I'm very fearful of prolonging her life if it means she will be suffering like my friends dog did. She is 14 years old, and part of me just wants to help her ride out her last years/months/weeks pain free and happy. It is a tough decision to make, for sure.

3dogsplus, I suppose I'll know what type of cells are affected after I get her results back.

Again, thank you both for your replies.


----------



## Pai (Apr 23, 2008)

One of my old dogs (lab mix) died from lymphoma... he was only 5 though. It was very hard. My parents didn't want to put him to sleep, but he was wasting away before our eyes and we had to admit it was the right thing to do. If the dog is just going to suffer longer, it is better to just put them to sleep, in my opinion, even though it is a very emotional thing. Dogs don't think about death, so it is not as scary a thing for them like it is for us, I think.


----------



## 3dogsplus (Sep 10, 2006)

I am sorry that Pepper is feeling bad today. Hopefully it is the medications as well as recovering from her biopsy.

I know it is hard to beleive when the only experience you have with a dog with lymphoma is a bad one but a vast majority of dogs that heve chemo for lymphoma handle it very well!

Most oncologist and their staff spoil their patients rotten and some patients even look forward to their visits. Also keep in mind that you are the ultimate decision maker when it comes to the chemotherapy so if Pepper does not handle the strong chemotherapy well, you just let your vet know and go to prednisone.


----------

