[Dailydrool] Wyatt Update

[stevebarlow4 at verizon.net]

Took Wyatt to NC State, while the lab reports have not come back as of 11:50 today to tell the type of cancer...  there is bad news.

He has something on his spleen, it could be a hemotoba, but it's likely a cancer.  There is also indications of the beginning of the spread to the lungs.... but it's not the lungs that will get him first.

If it is a spleen tumor, the leg tumor may be a secondary tumor, since it 'jumped' the bone, there is a good chance that it's NOT osteosarcoma.. but of the three others options.. 2 are only slightly better, and one is actually worse.   They think the Spleen may be the primary tumor which would explain his weight loss.  

If I had my bets, I would bet on the less agressive spleen tumor and it sprading to the leg.   This may buy him more time.. but maybe not.  If he's been losing weight since december, it's likely been with him for a while.(he was 74lbs sometime last year, was 67 in feb, and 64 now.. so he's lost 10lbs but hasn't lost his appetite"

The really odd thing is... I can pick him up, right on the spleen with no yelp. My sisters dog who had a tumor like that would let me know when I picked her up.  Wyatt's only noticable pain the the leg.

I'll let you know when I know more. I had hoped to get radiation treatment to kill the pain in the leg.. accepting the fact that it would eventually get him.. but so I wouldn't have to make a decision on his life because his leg hurts... and that's still possible.. but the options are different...    If you give him Chemo, it doesn't help with the pain, but can hault or slow the growth giving him more time. If you use radiation, it doesn't slow the cancer but can make him more comfortable.   The Radiation requires him to be 'under' and is $1200... the Chemo is $300 each and done 3 weeks apart.  Chemo can be done locally... but I don't like Chemo from what I've seen it do with people.     Again, no more point in rambling until I know more.

Wyatt has been doing better every day since I put him on K-9 Immunity, but he took a step back today, but you also have to remember he did a LOT of walking, rode in a car for 6 hours, was poked and proded, didn't get enough water.. and when I say poked, they took tissue samples of his spleen and bone, so yeah, he's been poked.  He's limping today...

And to make it worse, he's got a bug bite or something on his front leg that he keeps licking.. it looks better today.. they gave me antibiotics and a elizabethian collar... but the wife thinks we shoudl just let him lick.. I don't think that's logical.

Well, still rambling... keep us in your prayers.. and I'll let you know when I know something.  Depending on the type of cancer and how advanced it is... well, I'm not going to have his spleen removed.. they had 13 year old dog there who was absolutely miserable after such a surgery. He's been through so muc!