twitch
Well-Known Member
violet is now 34 months old, overweight and has three tumors. she is in otherwise great health and i think it will be the tumors that will be the end of her. she has one under her armpit that started out as a fatty deposit but now has little hard lumps, kinda feels like pebbles, that you can feel inside that-that started a few months ago and is realtively slow growing. she also has a largish lump on her side. we thought it was an abscess as it was responding to hot-cold compresses but a FNA determined a tumor, the response to the hot-cold compresses was coincidental. it was fast growing but seems to have plateaued in growth rate. it is however the heaviest of the three tumors. the other one is by her groin and i think is going to be the one to do her in. it is very fast growing, with a very noticiable change in size each week. if it continues to grow at that rate it will only be a 2-3 more weeks before i will have to put her down due to mobilty/quality of life issues and possible pain. the one under her arm and the one are her side i can get my fingers completely around without feeling much of any connective tissue. the one in her groin i can't get my fingers around hardly at all though.
now i know she's quite old and i know being overweight is a danger in any operation as well. so i'm on the fence. i don't know if i should try to have the tumors removed as she is in otherwise perfect health, or if i should just leave them and make the last few weeks extra special somehow. if she doesn't have the operation the tumors are going to impede her movement and might cause her pain shortly now. if she has the operation there is a real chance that she will not make it through it, but if she does survive, there is no way to know how much longer she will have. the stress from the operation may give her a resp infection and that could take her. the cost of the operation is minimal as i do have a vet now that does operations for a fraction of the cost of most other vets and we have quite a bit stashed away in the vet can right now anyway.
so i ask you what your thoughts are on this. she is old, she is fat but otherwise healthy. the tumors are what are going to do her in. she has three of them, cropping up within the last 3/4 months. should we try to remove them or accept that her death is going to be to be soon and just make the most of her time left? should i risk the last few weeks for a long shot on an unknown ammount of time? is this simply a foolish idea considering her age and weight-just a more expensive way for euthanasia? right now the idea is bouncing around in my head but i can't decide one way or the other. i want her to be with us as long as possible of course, but what are her chances of survival of an operation really...?
now i know she's quite old and i know being overweight is a danger in any operation as well. so i'm on the fence. i don't know if i should try to have the tumors removed as she is in otherwise perfect health, or if i should just leave them and make the last few weeks extra special somehow. if she doesn't have the operation the tumors are going to impede her movement and might cause her pain shortly now. if she has the operation there is a real chance that she will not make it through it, but if she does survive, there is no way to know how much longer she will have. the stress from the operation may give her a resp infection and that could take her. the cost of the operation is minimal as i do have a vet now that does operations for a fraction of the cost of most other vets and we have quite a bit stashed away in the vet can right now anyway.
so i ask you what your thoughts are on this. she is old, she is fat but otherwise healthy. the tumors are what are going to do her in. she has three of them, cropping up within the last 3/4 months. should we try to remove them or accept that her death is going to be to be soon and just make the most of her time left? should i risk the last few weeks for a long shot on an unknown ammount of time? is this simply a foolish idea considering her age and weight-just a more expensive way for euthanasia? right now the idea is bouncing around in my head but i can't decide one way or the other. i want her to be with us as long as possible of course, but what are her chances of survival of an operation really...?