My old dog has a lung tumor and trouble swallowing. Second opinion?

Gumbo definitely is at increased anesthetic risk (risk of adverse events during anesthesia and risk of poor recovery) at age 14 (7-8 years of age is considered geriatric), even with normal blood work (normal liver/kidney values). In addition those are extremely large masses and surgical removal could definitely affect anal tone (result in incontinence) assuming that anesthesia and recovery do go well. There is also a possibility that the type of cancer Gumbo has is metastatic and has already spread to the lungs for which the prognosis is poor (chest rads would be recommended prior to proceeding with surgery). I would recommend bringing Gumbo to have the anal glands checked regularly to make sure that they are empty. I also recommend keeping Gumbo as comfortable as possible as consulting with your veterinarian about treatment and humane endpoints if the masses become ulcerated.

At the age of 13 surgery in this location may actually not prolong your dog's life, but actually cause him more suffering, as, in order to remove this fairly large tumor, parts of the tongue and neck tissue may need to be removed. This will take a while to heal, be painful and will interfere with eating. I think you can trust your vet with the assessment. If you would like a second opinion, consult with a veterinary oncologist. I am sure your vet can refer you to one and will not mind.

How does a vet have no equipment to examine the dog? If that vet did not know what is going after looking at the dog I'm not sure how much I can tell you over the internet without looking at the dog. The most I can tell you is that at 14 years old this is likely cancer and you are not going to be able to fix it. I suggest you take him to another vet that does have equipment so you can try to get a diagnosis. A biopsy of the tumors are needed. If it is cancer it may have spread to his lungs and that is why is not able to breathe well. If you cannot afford to do all the testing to figure out what is happening then you may need to make the decision to euthanize him as it sounds like he is suffering and in pain. Please take him to another vet to get this sorted out.

Hello. That is a lot of money to do a dentistry & remove a small tumor, but prices are extremely variable in different parts of the country. I assume that your dog is an older one, otherwise, we do not recommend removing teeth just for the fun of it. If there is quite a bit of peridontal disease, then dentistry can actually extend a pets life. The small tumor looks pretty irritated, also your dog has been licking it quite a bit. I have no problem removing it now rather than waiting or doing an aspirate mainly because if it grows much bigger, regardless of whether it is malignant or benign, your veterinarian will have trouble finding enough skin to close the site. The best thing to do is to get a second opinion & see if there is agreement as to how to proceed. If so, consider having both procedures done. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It can be very difficult to evaluate x-rays without being on the computer that took them - I can't manipulate the lightness and darkness or zoom in all the way. That being said, I am concerned that there is something very serious going on in Jasmine's liver. It is much, much larger than in a normal dog. I can't see the entire spleen, but the parts that I see appear normal. I can also see that there is some free fluid in her chest cavity - this would be fluid between the lungs and chest wall that can cause trouble breathing. I would recommend re-evaluation immediately with an emergency vet. There could be many things going on, but the heavy breathing you described combined with the abnormalities in the chest have me worried that she may be having severe issues with breathing. This can cause severe anxiety and stress in a dog. The vet will probably want to repeat the x-rays and bloodwork, and may be able to draw off fluid if it is still there to ease her breathing.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Your veterinarian may be referring to a thyroid tumor. The next step before considering surgery would be proceeding with a CT scan to check on how invasive the tumor appears to be. Then the next treatment option can be determined. A FNA can be performed at the time to determine the tumor type. If not too invasive surgery may be possible. If too invasive, and this is a thyroid carcinoma (the most common tumor in that region), radiation therapy or chemotherapy may be next best options. The prognosis with these tumors depends on the type which is why that needs to be tested. Also, it depends on how invasive it is and if it can be resected. If you think you have more information on the case that you did not describe in the question, feel free to request a consultation with me and I can continue to help. Best of luck and have a blessed day!

Poor girl. : ( Tumor can develop at any rate in pets so yes 6 months is plenty of time for a tumor to develop and show up. However, if there is a lot of fluid there, a tumor may not be readily visible on an x-ray. A CT or MRI scan is more sensitive to picking up small tumors or tumors that are obscured by fluid. A lung tumor or advancement of her heart condition are two likely possibilities to these symptoms. We have to keep in mind that heart disease can't be cured but only managed to a certain point with medication. It is possible that these symptoms are simply an indication that the heart condition may have surpassed medical management capabilities. If you are however still looking for options and cannot commit to advanced imaging (CT, MRI scan), then you can inquire with your vet about possibly increaseing China's medications. Lasix has a wide range of therapeutic index so it may be able to be increased. Another heart medication called Pimobendan also can be added to her treatment regimen. I am not sure if you meant to include this with your list of medications, b/c one of the medications seems to have been autocorrected to say "veterinary". Best of luck with your pet China and I hope that you can get her stabilized soon! Take care.