My dog has lung cancer. What are the best palliative care options?

Unfortunately once cancer has spread to the lungs, there is no treatment that can prolong his survival rate. Your vet is right in the sense that spending thousands of dollars doing radiation therapy and surgery (risky now because Ceasar has lung lesions) is not the best course of treatment. Palliative care (making him comfortable) is the best treatment for him at this stage of his cancer. I am so sorry your pet has cancer and I wish you all the best in the days to come. Take care.

It depends on whether or not it is a primary lung tumor metastatic disease. Ideally, you should take your pet to see a veterinary oncologist to discuss the best treatment plans(surgery vs. chemotherapy). Discuss referral with your veterinarian.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I’m sorry to hear that Leo has very advanced cancer. When there are tumors in the chest, these are often inoperable, so our goal is to keep Leo as comfortable as possible. At some point, however, especially if Leo is having a hard time breathing, he is likely suffering, and it may be time to consider having him humanely euthanized. It is always hard to let go of our pets, but sometimes it is the best decision when it means we can eliminate their suffering. I hope this is helpful, best of luck with your decision for Leo.

It’s important to keep her quiet with minimal stress. Your veterinarian may decide to switch from the metacam to prednisone at this stage as it may reduce the swelling that may ease her breathing and eating. Unfortunately this sounds like a life threatening cancer at some point so give her lots of love and enjoy every minute with her. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Moosh.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Lung cancer can be either primary (one tumor that starts in the lungs), or can be metastatic (cancer somewhere else that has spread to the lungs, leaving lots of small little tumors). Metastatic disease that has spread to the lungs carries a poor prognosis, meaning they don't live very long. Primary lung cancer is also not very good, but has the potential of maybe being responsive to surgery or chemotherapy. In general, lung cancer means they don't have too much time. The amount of time is unknown, and depends on your dog's body, the type of cancer, and how strong your dog is at this point and how much of the lung is affected. I would however expect the disease to progress, and would be thinking in terms of weeks, not months or years. They tend to start to have trouble breathing and then go downhill quickly after that. I am sorry about your little one, I hope your dog feels ok.

I am so sorry to hear about Blue. Unfortunately, there is not much that we know of besides steroids that can help slow cancer. The use of medicinal mushrooms may be of some benefit and certainly won’t hurt if Blue will take it. You want turkey tail mushroom (trametes versicolor, Yun Zhi are other names). There is some evidence that they have anti cancer effects and there have been studies done specifically on lung cancer. Dosing is not established in pets to my knowledge so ask a knowledgeable holistic vet or start with 1/10 the human dose. Best wishes to you and Blue!

The option is to do nothing and just wait until the tumor is so big that is causes problems or pain or ulcerates. There really are no other options other than surgery (debulking the tumor), maybe radiation (this willl depend on the kind of tumor) or chemotherapy (which also depends on the kind of tumor. I suggest you discuss palliative care (just treat symptoms until euthanasia) with your veterinarian. I am sorry your Rusty is so ill.