One of the things Alayne and I have been wrestling with this past week is a cancer diagnosis in one of our own personal dogs, Shiloh. He was one of the original "Seattle six-pack" that moved out to Montana with us. He is also, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit, the only "normal" dog we ever adopted. Shiloh was just an impossibly cute, adorable 12-week old puppy at a Seattle-area shelter where we were volunteering. I fell for him. He came home. Shiloh’s now eight years old.
Two weeks ago he suddenly became lethargic, wasn’t eating, his gums were a bit pale, and he just seemed down. He’d bounce back for a day, then look like he felt poorly again. An ultrasound revealed nodules on his spleen and "free fluid" — presumably blood — in the abdomen. Our primary care vet in Helena, Dr. Brenda Culver, told us what she suspected: a blood-borne cancer called a hemangiosarcoma.
Here’s one description of this cancer:
Hemangiosarcoma is a very aggressive, high-grade soft tissue sarcoma with the most common areas affected being the spleen and heart. A highly malignant cancer which preys on blood vessels, it can spread rapidly, causing tumors almost anywhere in the body. Hemangiosarcoma is insidious, as it attempts to build its own blood vessel network, making blood blister-like formations which disrupt normal organ function. It is commonly in the advanced stage before detection, making it virtually a silent killer.
For some very graphic, don’t-look-at-these-before-dinner photos of hemangiosarcomas, click here.
Brenda operated last week to remove his spleen. She found one nodule had ruptured, spilling the blood into the abdomen. The other nodule was still full of blood. Shiloh did have cancer, and it was hemangiosarcoma. This was truly bad news. Hemangiosaromas are always fatal.
Without chemotherapy, Shiloh would live perhaps three months. With chemo, he may live six to nine months. So today Alayne took Shiloh to Brenda’s clinic in Helena for his first chemotherapy treatment using a drug called adriamycin. The drug was slowly dripped into Shiloh via an IV, and the treatment lasted about an hour. Alayne took these photos while Shiloh quietly sat still in the exam room at the clinic with the adriamycin dripping into his veins.
Back at the ranch this evening, Shiloh was back to his happy self, although the chemotherapy may slow him down over the next few days.
In case you’re wondering about his odd-looking haircoat, we had to have Shiloh shaved a couple of months ago because of cheatgrass spurs that had worked their way through his thick coat and into his skin. His hair is now growing back, but not exactly in a uniform fashion, so he’s a bit patchy. I don’t know if the chemo is going to affect that or not.
Shiloh will have the chemo treatments every four weeks for the next four months, and we’ll just have to monitor his health and his quality of life as we go.
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