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This morning the vet diagnosed Basil with advanced lymphoma. This was quite a shock to us; he's not a young dog (somewhere around 11-12) and he's had a few health problems, but we certainly weren't expecting this.
We might be able to get him a year or so with chemo; from what I can make out, chemo doesn't knock dogs about as badly as humans, but I think quite likely it'd still be very stressful for him. He's a nervous dog who's afraid of a lot of things, including the vet's office, and I can't imagine he'd deal well with having a drip inserted regularly.
Otherwise it's palliative treatment, and probably only a couple of months.
Poor guy. At least with Dog-Or we knew he'd had a long and happy life with us. Basil's a rescue dog; we'll never know his story before he came to us, but I don't think it was a happy one. He's always been defensive, the sort of dog who'd bite you if you touched him in his sleep (and then apologise afterwards) but he's mellowed out a lot in the time he's been with us; there are still behavioural issues but he clearly likes us and wants to please us. I really did hope we'd have a bit longer to enjoy one another's company.
We might be able to get him a year or so with chemo; from what I can make out, chemo doesn't knock dogs about as badly as humans, but I think quite likely it'd still be very stressful for him. He's a nervous dog who's afraid of a lot of things, including the vet's office, and I can't imagine he'd deal well with having a drip inserted regularly.
Otherwise it's palliative treatment, and probably only a couple of months.
Poor guy. At least with Dog-Or we knew he'd had a long and happy life with us. Basil's a rescue dog; we'll never know his story before he came to us, but I don't think it was a happy one. He's always been defensive, the sort of dog who'd bite you if you touched him in his sleep (and then apologise afterwards) but he's mellowed out a lot in the time he's been with us; there are still behavioural issues but he clearly likes us and wants to please us. I really did hope we'd have a bit longer to enjoy one another's company.
