You folks might have noticed on the front page of this site, a cute little miniature schnauzer named Bitsy. This is my little baby I have had since a puppy. Pretty much the best behaved, intelligent pets I have ever owned.
Bitsy is 10 years old, and has been my best friend and constant companion. She has had trouble in the past with fat lumps that sort of looked like cysts but were not.
One day I noticed lumps appearing on her face. They grew alarmingly fast, much faster then the previous lumps I have seen on her.
We took her to the vet immediately and he determined it was a swollen lymph node. First thing the vet did was take a blood sample, then a sample from the lump. When the results came back our hearts sank when he told us it was positive for lymphoma cancer... The big C...
Living in panama city Florida, the nearest place that was qualified to properly diagnose and recommend treatment was the small animal clinic in Auburn AL. So we immediately took her there. After the initial examination we were given three choices:
The L-COP protocol
modified Wisconsin
Chemotherapy with serial half-body radiation
They each have pros and cons. Overall response rates and median survival times are similar: About one year with treatment.
The first one the L-COP protocol is relatively inexpensive and easy to administer. There are only a few drugs involved, so incidence of side effects are low. This drug combination as a solitary therapy has a bit lower remission rate (70-80%) and shorter median survival time (6-8 months) then the modified Wisconsin protocol, or the half body radiation.
Also the first one makes it harder for any "rescue" therapy to work due to tolerances.
The second one, the modified Wisconsin is a bit more complicated, using the 5 most effective drugs against lymphoma in a cyclic fashion, which also makes it more expensive. It has a very high remission rate (>90%) and the length of the first remission is longer then the protocols that use fewer drugs. Survival time is still around one year though.
The half body radiation has virtually the SAME survival and remission rate, but only takes about half the time to administer. The downside is you need to be near a place with the radiation equipment (hard to find) and is more expensive.
We opted for the modified Wisconsin. They found a vet in my area qualified to administer the drugs, so we were able to return home.
A few important notes about Chemotherapy in dogs.
There is virtually no side effects. Pets do NOT suffer from chemotherapy like humans do. Why? because the goal of the therapy is to cause remission for a year, whereas in humans the goal is typically 10+ years. So scaled to comparison, the dosage is MUCH smaller then a human gets, thus less side effects.
We are on week three of chemo for Bitsy. She has suffered no ill side effects, still plays barks and enjoys life as usual. She DID get a cyst on her back, but antibiotics cured that right away.
For those of you saying "I won't put my dog through the suffering of chemotherapy" you are dead WRONG. Bitsy is NOT suffering, and I thank God I did this for her. She is happy, and now I get to have her around a lot longer then I would have without it.
Doing nothing, in the vet's opinion, she would not have lived but maybe another month at best.
I hope Bitsy's story helps you make up your mind about lymphoma cancer treatment. It is not a hardship to the pet. No hair loss, no appetite loss, it's all good so far. Don't let your pet suffer and die if there is anything you can do about it.
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