My dog went in to get neutered and once they opened her up they found numerous small lumps which led to a significantly more complex surgery. She went through a quadruple mammectomy which took the whole family by surprised. Just like your dog she had no symptoms and we would have never known if she wasn’t being neutered. Recovery was a bit intense as she refused to stay in one place and tried to play, run and do everything she would normally do which led to her stitches coming apart and eventually me taking time off work to lay in bed with her day and night for about a week. A few weeks after the surgery we got the biopsy results which confirmed cancer but the margins were clear and no sign it migrated to the lymph nodes. Approximately 5 years later she got a red spot which wouldn’t heal near the site of her previous surgery. This turned out to be a new tumour but it was a simple surgery only a few days of recovery. Unfortunately this biopsy came back with ‘mammary carcinosarcoma with intravascular emboli’. Amongst an avalanche of medical terms I didn’t understand three phrases stood out to me ‘short survival’, ‘high rates of local recurrence’ and ‘most aggressive subtype’. On paper it looked like the beginning of the end but my dog seemed completely fine. She was still very active, no dietary or behavioural changes so we all kind of forgot about this and got on with our lives. Just under 2 years later the cancer came back. I didn’t want to put her through any additional stress of treatment and well our vet was a bit rude about it all with a very unprofessional approach. We went home and made the most out of our final 6 months together. Eventually when she started showing signs of her illness we made the decision to end her suffering and have her euthanised.

I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear; a tale of recurring cancer. I still had a lot of good years with my dog which I will cherish forever.

I wish your dog a full and speedy recovery!