Staffy soft tissue sarcomas

Hi everyone. I love my darling Staffy more than anything. He is nearly 14 and Spritely... But for three soft tissue sarcomas down his front right leg. We would love to hear about anyone else experience with this type of cancer. Our options are amputation or pain relief until he can't bear it any longer. We are so not ready for him to leave us. He doesn't have enough skin to heal if a surgeon removes them. Anyone out there have any suggestions? Thank you.

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Hi from me and mine

I'm really sorry to hear your bad news. I've not had experience of this type of cancer but did have a lurcher who we lost to lymphoma a few years ago, so my thoughts are based on that.

I would opt for palliative care only. We put Harley (11 years old) through chemo on the basis that he had been good for his age and the prognosis was for a couple more years of good life, hopefully. It was distressing for him and gained us a mere 6 months, most of which was spent having treatment. And of course he didn't understand why we were doing it to him.

I wish we had chosen palliative care only but, like you, I felt I needed to do everything possible. I felt I would regret not trying but in the end I regretted making his last months worse than they should have been. We did stop the treatment after a while when I saw how upsetting it was for him.

Amputation itself isn't the mental trauma for dogs that it is for humans but with any animal it's a major operation and one that carries risks. Even just the anesthetic carries risk, especially with older dogs. I would not put one of mine through it.

14 is a good age for a staffie and I bet he's had a fantastic life with you. I know you're not ready to let go, we never are, but there comes a point where we have to accept that it is in the dog's best interest to bow to the inevitable. I would hate for you to end up as I did, regretting that you had caused more distress in order to gain just a few months.

It is hard, incredibly hard, but focus on making the rest of his life as happy and comfortable as possible, and love him to bits.

ah bless sorry for your sad news 14 is an excellent age for a staffy. hope you find a solution. good luck

Thank you

Hi ya, welcome to the forum from Flo and me

Sorry to read about your little fellas diagnosis. I don't have any experience with this sort of thing but I think that what Liz has written is pretty much the route I would take. We all love our fur kids and only want what's best for them at the end of the day, maybe it's better that he has quality at the end.

Hiya from me and Vinnie

Hi and welcome to the forum from me and the zoo xx

I'm so sorry for you to be going through this. We lost our gorgeous boy last June to a carcinoma in the nose

My thoughts would be for palliative care. We thought about radiotherapy to shrink the tumour but it would risk his eyesight and he'd been stressed and in pain for some time following and the prognosis was a possible 7 - 12 months more with him. As it was, following diagnosis, we had 2 months with him before we had to have him pts due to his nosebleeds becoming horrendous.

I really am sorry you are going through this and if there was anything I could do to take it away I would xxx

Hello from me too and I'm also sorry to hear of your boy's diagnosis.
How sad - they give you so much love and it's very hard that they are unable to understand but I'm sure all your boy needs to know is that you love him very, very much. You will make the right decision for him when the time comes. I send my love to you and your darling boy xx