BEVOLASVEGAS
Posted : 1/6/2008 1:30:11 AM
I have an almost 10 year old boxer. While Chyna is a great dog, & I absolutely adore her, I will likely never own another boxer.
When she was 3 years old, I found a small lump over her rib cage. I took her to the vet, & she was diagnosed with a mast cell tumor. It was surgically removed, & histopathologists graded it a Grade 1 mast cell tumor. It was deemed “completely excised” so no other treatment was recommended.
A year later, at 4 years old, she had 3 lumps pop up on her back. These lumps literally popped up overnight. Another trip to the vet confirmed more mast cell tumors. Surgery was again done to remove them. This time histopathologists graded them Grade 2 mast cell tumor. This time they thought that all of the tumors were adequately removed but they were not certain of it. They recommended chemotherapy. She went through chemo just she goes through life…at full speed!
Chyna was “cancer free” until she was 7. Then she had an anal tumor removed, that was diagnosed as hemangiosarcoma. It was deemed “completely excised” but since this form of cancer tends to spread to the lungs, spleen, or heart, it was recommended that she undergo a chest x-ray, abdominal ultrasound, & an echocardiogram. Thankfully, all of these tests came back normal.
About 6 months after the hemangiosarcoma scare, she had a small histiocytoma removed from her tip of her ear. I was so excited that this was a benign tumor, that I suddenly didn’t care that she had a notch taken out of her ear in order to remove it.
So far she has not had any more tumors arise. We do bi-weekly “tumor checks” so that if there is something coming up, we’ll catch it early. We visit her oncologist yearly, & bloods are drawn at least twice a year, even if she is doing well.
After all of Chyna’s cancer dealings, I doubt that I will own another boxer. I have easily spent over $10,000 just in cancer treatments. With that being said, she is such a sweet girl, that if I needed to do it again tomorrow I would.