My senior dog has a large cancerous breast tumor. What to do?

I am afraid there is really nothing that you can do for her other than giving her a lot of TLC and watching the tumor. Should it open up and ulcerate it will cause infection and that may be the time to say good bye. If you think she may be in pain, you can ask your vet for some pain medicine for her. I am so sorry, but 15 years is a grand old age and you took good care of her.

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.

Unfortunately, this is a difficult situation because most tumors that are cancerous and rupture are not going to heal on their own. A double mastectomy will be a very large and could be difficult recovery time for an 11 year old dog. Also, please know that even with surgery, you may not get another 3 years out of her simply because she is already at the top end of her life span. Also, there is always the risk that the cancer has already spread. Another option you may want to talk to your vet about is whether they can just do a palliative "debulking" of the mass that has ruptured. If there is a way to just resect the one tumor that has ruptured, this potentially could give her a good quality of life without doing a full double mastectomy. With the tumor being ruptured, I am afraid you are being forced to either do a debulking surgery, full mastectomy, or euthanasia. Leaving it alone isn't a good option because it won't likely heal on its own and if it isn't already, it will become infected.

I am sorry, but there is no cure for cancer. Small tumors can be removed surgically and then undergo chemotherapy or radiation therapy depending on the type of tumor and if clean margins were made during surgery. If this is not an option for Hundoll, then he would be considered for hospice-type care. I would recommend that you have have him evaluated by a vet for pain. You can feed him whatever he wants at this point. Acupuncture may help with some of the pain, but it won't be able to stop the growth of the tumor. You may be able to find a vet in your area that uses herbal remedies, but they need to be prescribed after careful examination of the dog.

Unfortunately this sounds like a mammary gland tumor. you cannot do anything at home i'm afraid as this condition needs ti be dealt with surgically, the only effective solution is a surgery to have this tumor removed.

Unfortunately there isn't really any way to shrink or remove a tumor without surgery, I have had some veterinarians have some luck in helping to stop bleeding from tumors with a Chinese medicine called yunnan baiyao. I would ask your vet if they feel this would be useful for your dog if the tumor is bleeding.

Poor girl. Because this mass is open and seems to be bothering her I would highly consider having this mass removed surgically. Sometimes if the mass is small (less than 2 cm's) we can do a sedative on the pet and quickly remove these. However if it is a larger mass then general anesthesia may be required. She also needs to be placed on oral antibiotics to keep this area from getting infected and daily cleaning of the mass as well. Sterile saline flushes can help keep this area relatively clean and then an e-collar placed on her can help prevent licking. If surgery isn't an option for you, then medical management with antibiotics, e-collar and regular cleanings may allow proper healing of the area, but in most cases surgical removal is the best option. Best of luck!