My Sweet little Chloe is in the late stages of Liver Cancer

by Brenda
(NSW Australia)

Hi,

Twelve months ago my 11 year old maltese (Chloe) developed a lump in her tummy so I took her to the vets to see what it was. She was operated on the next day and they had to remove her spleen as it had a tumor on it and that was the only way to get the tumor out.

She came home and all was well until two months ago. I noticed she started getting little white wart-like lumps on parts of her body. I took her back to the vet who told me that it was common for dogs to get these little lumps (only the size of a match head). So off we go again but within 3 weeks, one of the lumps on her leg had doubled in size. I just started to notice that she was starting to refuse her dinner every now and then and was vomiting small amounts as well.

She stopped wanting to play and I knew something was not right with her, so off to the vets once again. This time he seemed worried about her. He decided to remove the lump from her leg and then proceeded to check her all over.

During the checkup, he felt another lump in her tummy and told us he was more concerned with the lump in her tummy, so it was decided that she have surgery the next day to see what was going on and to remove the lump on her leg.

I received a phone call just after lunch and the vet told me that it was not very good news and that he couldn't remove the lump in her tummy as it was in the liver, so he sent some away for tests which came back 5 days later.

He told me that it was too late. Chloe had secondary cancer and that it was right through her liver and skin. He also told me that it would probably be in her lungs as well. My Chloe was given only a few weeks (8) at the most.

I was devasted. It has been 3 weeks now and my little one is not well at all. They have put her on tablets called Microlone and he says that they should help her a little. She has been on these tablets for two days now and I have noticed that she has her appetite back and she is having little games with me. It is good to see her perk up a little but I don't know for how long.

The vet says I will know when the time has come to let her go as I don't want her to suffer but it will be so hard to let her go...