Rottnk9s

Let me begin by introducing us ... I am Dawn and Kamo is my 3 year old rottweiler. Kamo is an amazing, agile, clownish beautiful boy who is my heart. He is a constant companion, obedience and conformation show dog and amazing "bestest buddy" to my 4 year old nephew.

Here is our story:

It started off as head shaking (like when a dog has an ear infection) without an infection present and progressed to a sore neck with muscle spasms that he would walk out of and be fine all day, then to severe neck pain on the left side of the neck. In 3 days he went from this neck pain to neurological signs on his front feet to then being wobbly on his hind legs.

After several tests for infectious and parasitic diseases he was squeezed in to see a specialist. He had a CT scan, CSF tap and a myelogram but was bumped until later in the afternoon/early evening due to an emergency surgery. While he had a rocky time during the myelogram ... he recovered well and stayed the evening at the referral center. The next day the radiologist looked at Kamo's images and determined that he has an orange sized mass just in front of his shoulder blades that is pressing down on his spinal column and causing him the pain and neurological signs that we were seeing. We then did an ultrasound guided biopsy to see what kind of mass we were dealing with.

Pathology report from the biopsy let us know that Kamo had a Grade II soft tissue sarcoma that is pressing down on his spinal cord. Unfortunately while they were able to grade the mass, they were unable to determine exactly what type of tumor it was. Most sarcomas are locally invasive meaning that they like to attack where they are but don't always spread ... of course not all sarcomas read the book and some will indeed metastasis to the liver, lymph nodes etc. Once I got over the shock that he actually did have cancer I had to decide what to do for him. So after discussing the options with 2 surgeons and an oncologist I decided to have the mass removed.

Surgery consisted of decreasing the bulk of the tumor. They removed a mass that was 8cm in diameter. The mass was also pressing on his spinal column and had crushed his C6 vertebrae. Because of this they removed the top of the vertebrae to decrease the compression on his spinal column. The mass was then sent away for pathology and came back as a grade II soft tissue sarcoma as previously predicted. They also ran a CD18 stain to check for the possibility of a histiosarcoma. This test came back inconclusive ... of course!!!

So my Kamo is currently undergoing 7 weeks of radiation therapy as well as a chemo protocol. He has a prognosis of 12+ months because of the unknown histiocytic issue but may be around for another 5 years.

I am going to cruse through all the posts to read up what I can about this terrible disease and I am sorry to meet you all this way.

Thanks for listening to our story
Dawn and Kamo

Rottnk9s

I should have put this in the introduction section ... sorry

rockytola

Hi Dawn and of course Kamo:
So sorry to hear about your guy. You will find a wealth of knowledge here on this site as well as links to places to get more information. I lost my 7 year old Cocker Spaniel to Lymphoma last August after a years battle. He did chemo and other meds to reduce the swelling etc. and did well until the very end. I would recommend (as a lot of people here do), trying to find a holistic vet to discuss ways of helping his immune system as well as other supplements. I am sure your current vets have talked about diet (cancer likes carbs) so a slow change in diet would be a good idea too...more protein fewer carbs. Any additional changes you make either in food or other meds, make sure you keep your oncologist informed so that they know what is going on. Also keep a log of daily activities to track any changes in behavior. Last of all make sure that you both give each other lotsa love and hugs:-) :-). Whether he lives for another year or 5 as you said, you both want to take advantage and enjoy every minute together. Good luck with the treatment and ask any questions for advice and support.
Prayers to you and your family and fingers crossed that Kamo does well!

John

Benpaws

Dear Friend,
Nobody ever wants to have to join a group like this but you could not come to a better place given the circumstances. We have all been where you are now and there are wonderful, compassionate people here who care deeply.

John has already given you the best suggestions on diet and keeping RECORDS of Kamo's daily acitivities and any changes you might notice, however small they might be.

We lost our schnauzer Benny at age 6 to Mast Cell Tumour cancer. We had several months with him thanks to the help of a very special friend who guided us through his nutritional needs and supplements. April 2 marks the First Anniversary of his death and tears still come.

This disease is horrible and strikes out of nowhere and often attacks "the young." We noticed Benny's first tumour prior to his 4th birthday and there was gross negligence until it was too late and the tumour was removed but returned 8 months later.

There are so many posts here which have a wealth of information and prayers go out to you and Kamo and hopefully you will have him for a much longer time now that the surgery has been performed.

Blessings,
Joanne & Shadow

Rottnk9s

Thank you. Kamo is doing amazingly well and is his normal crazy self. I hope that he will be around a lot longer!!!

He has always been on a raw diet and we use holistic medicine on a regular basis so I am hoping that this will help him beat this nasty disease. I will go cruising through the posts!!!