[Dailydrool] Lymphoma

[Carol Yokum via Dailydrool]

When we got a seven-year male a while ago I took him into our vet and she noticed some swelling on his hind legs that looked suspicious.   So she did a test and called in a few days with the diagnosis of lymphoma.  She did not recommend chemo since she didn't believe it would prolong his life that much and said that a lot of dogs don't do well with it.   She gave a prognosis of about two months and said just to love him and give him a good home which he seemed not to have had for a while.   For a while we couldn't even tell he was sick- he ate well and loved to go for walks.   He always wanted to go visit other dogs we would run into and was so strong I could hardly control him.   We actually got to have him for six months and it was only the last couple of months that he started to deteriorate.    He'd gone on prednisone and it did help him because he continued to feel pretty good,  After a while the pred caught up with him and he started peeing in the house and we thought that he didn't even know when he was peeing.   We just covered the room where he did this with layers of beach towels which could be changed easily.   (You can imagine that our washer & dryer got quite a workout the last couple of months).    He still loved his walks and was very strong until the last 6 weeks or so.   Then he started tiring and the vet said to just go a block or so away and then back home.   The last couple of weeks it was 1/2 block each way but he continued to want to go for walks.    Someone on the drool had posted about lymphoma that a dog "would be OK until he's not."   This was so true.   One day he was good, just tired easily but happy, and the next day he gained about 10 pounds from edema and was so tired that we knew it was time.    It was very hard to bring him to the vet but as she gave him the shot, I was sitting on the floor next to him and his head was in my lap with his tail wagging until the very end.   We were very sad to lose him of course but so happy that we were able to give him a good few months with a nice place to live and lots of love. 


I didn't realize until it hit us that so many dogs got lymphoma and that bassets are especially prone to it.    I am sure that Barney knows how much he has been loved and will trust you to do whatever you decide is best for him.


Carol (now owned by Cooper)






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