Updated on page 4. Thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers from everyone, it just wasn't meant to be.
Long story medium, we brought my dog in to the vet about 3 weeks ago because he was gagging a lot and they did the usual check up and said he's in remarkable shape for a 14 y/o dog. They said the gagging was typical of older labs and gave us some medication. The medication did nothing after a couple days so we brought him back in and they were concerned he might have a cancerous tumor, so they then referred us to a specialist and after doing $1600 of tests they said he had chronic bronchitis, not cancer and gave him steroids to open up his bronchial tubes. This was a huge relief! He had been doing much better until today the lab results were brought back and he has lung cancer. He's always been an EXTREMELY healthy dog given his age/size so this hit my family and I like a freight train.
The options are surgery or this new and mostly unproven chemo medication called Palladia. Given his age, we're leaning towards the medication because the surgery has a 15% of working and he'll be in pain, not to mention the 9-10k price range compared to 400/mo for Palladia. Both expensive, but one is mostly painless and the other he'll be in extreme pain and we don't want to do that to him.
He's a 14 year old yellow Labrador retriever (he's actually white), and I'm 18 so he's been around all my life and means the world to me. I'm usually emotionally strong but I'm frequently breaking down. I just need some people praying for him, or if you're not religious just please keep him in your thoughts. His life span if the medication doesn't work is 3-6 months. They say a dog is a man's best friend and he really is mine. He's the only dog I've ever owned and can't even begin to imagine life without him. Part of me says he'll get through it, and another part of me is thinking this is God's way of telling us to say our good byes. I really hope he'll make it through, as he is still extremely healthy otherwise. He's still energetic!
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
Floppy
Long story medium, we brought my dog in to the vet about 3 weeks ago because he was gagging a lot and they did the usual check up and said he's in remarkable shape for a 14 y/o dog. They said the gagging was typical of older labs and gave us some medication. The medication did nothing after a couple days so we brought him back in and they were concerned he might have a cancerous tumor, so they then referred us to a specialist and after doing $1600 of tests they said he had chronic bronchitis, not cancer and gave him steroids to open up his bronchial tubes. This was a huge relief! He had been doing much better until today the lab results were brought back and he has lung cancer. He's always been an EXTREMELY healthy dog given his age/size so this hit my family and I like a freight train.
The options are surgery or this new and mostly unproven chemo medication called Palladia. Given his age, we're leaning towards the medication because the surgery has a 15% of working and he'll be in pain, not to mention the 9-10k price range compared to 400/mo for Palladia. Both expensive, but one is mostly painless and the other he'll be in extreme pain and we don't want to do that to him.
He's a 14 year old yellow Labrador retriever (he's actually white), and I'm 18 so he's been around all my life and means the world to me. I'm usually emotionally strong but I'm frequently breaking down. I just need some people praying for him, or if you're not religious just please keep him in your thoughts. His life span if the medication doesn't work is 3-6 months. They say a dog is a man's best friend and he really is mine. He's the only dog I've ever owned and can't even begin to imagine life without him. Part of me says he'll get through it, and another part of me is thinking this is God's way of telling us to say our good byes. I really hope he'll make it through, as he is still extremely healthy otherwise. He's still energetic!
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
Floppy
Last edited:
