Jump to content
BC Boards

Anal Gland Adenocarcinoma: Listen to your dogs


Jumpin Boots
 Share

Recommended Posts

In early December Timber became obsessed with Renoir's hind end area. To the point the boys got in a few scrums, which prior to this has only happened a time or two over the 3-1/2 years we've had Timber. A small mass ended up being found in one of his anal gland sac's and after an fna the mass was confirmed as anal gland adenocarcinoma.

 

While, this is not good news, and this form of cancer is rather aggressive, early detection is key. Renoir's calcium levels are still completely within normal limits, and neither radio-graphs or ultrasound showed any metastasis to his chest/abdomen/lymph-nodes. We saw an oncology specialist yesterday, who was wonderful and gave a great layout of our options. The next step is surgery, then once the pathology report comes back, we can decide whether to pursue radiation and/or chemotherapy. Thank goodness for pet insurance!

 

I just wanted to share this to encourage people to watch their dogs and if you have multiple dogs, keep an eye on their interactions. Take note if there is a change in their interactions and consider whether it could be from a medical change in one of the dogs. At this point Renoir is showing no symptoms or signs of disease; the average age this is detected in dogs is 10.5 years, Renoir is 8 years 10 months old. Many times the mass is caught when it is either bulging out the back of the anus, during annual rectal exams by a dvm, or the dog begins to have difficulty passing bowel movements.

 

Good boy Timber!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dogs can be amazing at detecting health issues. I have heard that some are being trained for testing as cancer detection dogs. I have heard too many anecdotes to dismiss the value of a dog's superior senses in detecting health issues.

 

What a great job Timber did in alerting you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was worried this was going to an anecdote about how you wished you had listened to your dog. It easily could have been. Really really glad you had the awareness to listen so well to what he was telling you. You are a great owner. Good luck with the surgery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bodhi sniffed at me a lot when I had uterine cancer. If I'd figured out why he was doing it, I might have found the cancer sooner, though as it was it was still caught early.

 

The point is that he was sniffing an unreasonable amount, and yes, I should have figured out there was a good reason for it.

 

Best wishes for Renoir.

 

And yes, good boy, Timber!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad to hear you caught it early. This is the cancer I lost my beloved Tweed to shortly after he turned 15 years old. Unfortunately, we did not catch it early as it did not expand outward, but inward, and by the time it was detectable, he could no longer defecate easily, and given his advanced age surgery was not an option. Even more unfortunately, it had been identified by an ultrasound a year earlier, but was misdiagnosed as a "fatty mass." None of my dogs acted strangely about his rear end, but then again, nodog in my house would have dared to snuffle Mr. Tweedles behind as it was a big no-no in his social rules to live by ;-)

 

RDM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...