# Sammy has sebaceous gland adenocarcinoma...any tips?



## SammyGum (Jan 25, 2016)

Hello! I'm new posting here, but have gathered LOTS of info from all of you over the years and thank you for the excellent resources!

Our sweet Sammy is 10. In September, he began to obsessively lick at his left front paw. We didn't think much of it at the time, as he's allergy prone and has times of the year when paw licking is more prevalent. Tried to just keep him occupied and give benadryl. A few weeks later, the spot he was licking swelled to the size of a tennis ball overnight on his wrist, right above his pads. It never affected his walking, but I had him checked out at the vet. Put him on antibiotics, did a fine needle aspirate and got nothing conclusive from that. No change with antibiotics and a couple of weeks later the mass became ulcerated and started to bleed and ooze, so he's been bandaged and in the cone for the better part of the last 3 months (he's cone-free whenever we are with him...only coned while we are at work now.) Vet tried a stronger antibiotic with no change. She referred Sammy to U of I vet clinic, where he saw an oncologist and was diagnosed with sebaceous gland adenocarcinoma right after Christmas, apparently a pretty rare cancer in dogs. Due to the location of the tumor , there isn't enough tissue to put him back together if the mass were removed, so the only remedy at that point was amputation, which we were not going to put him through at his age. They found it has spread to his lymph nodes so amputation was off the table now anyways. We are just going to spoil him rotten til we get a sign that it's time, but that's the problem...Other than the discomfort in the form of wiggling around when we change his bandages, Sammy seems fine! They are such stoic dogs, that I'm afraid I'm missing something by not being aware of his pain. He has never whimpered in pain in the 10 years we've had him...ever...not even when he was hit by a car! He walks fine, runs fine, plays, prances, greets us daily wagging like crazy, he's eating and voiding fine. We are having such a hard time thinking of having to put him to sleep when everything else is still vigorous on him! Sure, he was slowing down before this mass presented itself, so things like getting up from laying down and going up and down stairs take a little longer, but he's managing just fine. So now it's down to managing his wound, which is getting worse...bleeding more,oozing more...sorry to be graphic. The vet seems to think the mass rupturing and not the disease process is what will be the deciding factor in euthanizing. She thinks that we won't be able to control his pain at that point and that may happen in days to weeks (this was a month ago). RIght now, he's on Rimadyl 2x day for pain and he seems to be doing well on it. I'm afraid we are missing something and I obviously don't want him to suffer, but I just don't see that he's ready to go either. We know he's not going to recover,but in trying to manage this wound, we are resorting to trying honey to see if it has any effect. Yes, we let the vets know. They said go for it...can't hurt at this point. 
Anyway...long story longer....anyone have any experience with this type of cancer, with wound care, managing wounds, and when to know when it's time to let go?  We've never had to decide to euthanize any of our pets before and Sammy's the first dog we've ever had.

Thanks for any advice!


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## Ginams (Jan 20, 2015)

Reading your post breaks my heart all over again because we lost our German shepherd to this exact form of cancer in August 2015. 

Her main mass was on her right hip. We noticed in October 2014 that she had a bump, but the fine needle aspirate showed nothing and her blood work was clear. The mass ruptured at the end of March 2015 and we had removal, with wide margins, at the end of April. Our vet thought it was going to be benign, but pathology came back with the dreaded diagnosis. We had two months, after the removal, of good health (her follow up X-Rays were clear), but the mass returned with a vengeance in July. 

With regard to wound care when her mass opened back up, we cleaned the site twice per day with a chlorhexadine solution and put a lidocaine cream up to four times per day.

We had just 5 weeks with her after that and, with her, the pain became very apparent. She went from being her normal, mellow self to having a really tough time settling and getting comfortable. Some may be because of the location of her mass, but she panted constantly, even with fans and the a/c on (sign of pain) and started to refuse her food, which was a huge indicator for her of not feeling well. I made an appointment with our vet the week before we ended up putting her down and our vet sat and cried with me and let me know that she saw an obvious decline in Sasha's health. I think I really knew what she was going to say, but needed someone else to finally say it out loud.

I also had a few people that knew Sasha well spend some time with her and they were very honest in telling me when they noticed the decline in her health as well. I feel that they were better able to observe differences than I was since I was with her all the time. I always hear people say "you'll know when it is time," but I don't think that is the case with everyone/pet. With Sasha, I knew, but I really feel that having people who were honest and knew us well as outside observers really helped. 

I am so sorry you are having to go through this with your Sammy. I hope you get the opportunity to make many more memories with your pup. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

I don't have any experience with this type of Cancer, nor have I heard of it until now. 
I just wanted to tell you I am sorry you and your boy are going through this. 

My thoughts and prayers are with you all.


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## Rookie's Dad (Feb 19, 2014)

Not sure if it's the same as Mass Cell Tumors, but it sounds about the same. We went through the same things you are going through, tumor growth, tumor removal, more tumor(s) reappearing, then the tumor rupturing, trying to stop the oozing, etc. Rookie was fine as far as eating, pooping, walking, playing until he wasn't, and then we knew it was time. It happened very fast at the end, but the whole down hill slide took 9 months, it was very hard. Here is some of the things we were told: Give him lots of treats, and lots of love. Don't be sad when you are with him, they pick up on that. Watch his eyes, they can tell you a lot. And finally, "Better a day too early, than an hour to late". Hope that helps, best of luck.

Rookie, my Heart Dog.


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## SammyGum (Jan 25, 2016)

*Thank you all for your kinds words*

I'm sorry any one of our beauties has to go through something as horrible as cancer! Just not fair. :no:

As far as wound care goes, we are also cleaning with chlorhexadine solution, then putting honey over the mass and covering with a sanitary pad and wrapping...so much more absorbent than gauze pads! 

The vets were on board with us trying honey and want to know the outcome. We are hoping that the honey might help heal the wounds to decrease bleeding and oozing. We know it's not going to affect his cancer diagnosis, but we'd love to buy Sammy some more wound free, cone-free time. I recently discussed honey treatment with my sister in law, who is an oncologist (human). She said a few years ago, a resident of hers suggested honey for a man living with cancer and many non-healing wounds in a hospice facility. They started putting honey on the man's wounds and the wounds healed over! He still had cancer, of course, but was able to go home wound free and he died a year and a half later of a heart attack. We'll see what happens with Sammy. :crossfing 

Thank you again for your kind words, tips and experiences. I just wanted to bounce our experience off of the Golden professionals here.


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