Finally Friday and What we Feared

Let me start with this is a difficult post and you will soon see why. The other day we went for a recheck on Ozzie's ear infection and we asked Dr Tracey to look at something that we have noticed for a while under his neck. We felt it several weeks ago and wondered what the heck it was. It was at least a size of a golf ball in the middle of his throat straddled by two other lumps on either side. We thought perhaps we missed this before because of all the fat and rolls around his collar. Maybe it was his thyroid or do dogs have Adam's Apples? Could it just be a case of swollen glands that would be accompanied by some kind of kennel cough? We did ignore it for a while but were going to make a point of showing it to the vet on his recheck visit. When Dr Tracey felt it her face instantly showed her concern. She felt Ozzie's back side too and said "This isn't good!" "I don't want to alarm you too much but this looks like Lymphoma." That fear in the back of my head that kept nagging me that this was bad was right! She suggested that we take blood and aspirate the lump to confirm her diagnosis. As they took Ozzie into the back room to do the test my husband and I stared at each other in shock. He was only with us for 3 years this is not fair. 
All of Ozzie's lymph nodes were enlarged, under his jaw and behind the knee. He had no other symptoms except he has been a little more lethargic than usual and stopped chewing on his Nyla-bones. Chemo would be the way to go to give him some extra time. Most dogs respond well suffering little of the ills that humans do from it since the doses are not as strong. This could give Ozzie a year or so. With no treatment he could be gone in 6 weeks. As we left the vet's office she said that the results should be back from the lab fairly quickly and then we could determine what kind of treatment would be best for him. 


So today we found out that he has high grade lymphoma which needs to be addressed sooner than later. We were given some treatment options to think about and we will wrestle with what is the best course for Ozzie. Treatment will start as soon as next week. I will keep you all up to date on Ozzie's progress. I know that this will beat him in the end since there is no real cure, but we will fight the good fight as long as we can!

Lymphoma in Dogs