# When is it time with nasal cancer?



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Welcome, I am sorry about your boy.

Have you discussed this with your Vet?


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

I am so sorry about your boy's health issues. It is a terrible decision that many of us have had to make. There is a good quality of life assessment here (use the link in the last post to get the PDF)

https://www.goldenretrieverforum.co...eed-standard/440010-quality-life-scale-2.html

It sounds like you've loved him well and will make the most loving choice about when the time has come.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Nasal cancer for my guy was a tumor in his head. His head was very sensitive and he couldn’t be petted on his head. His eyes were almost blind. One day I took him to the vet for blood work. The needles for the blood work caused him to bleed internally. We didn’t know it. He had no ability to clot blood anymore. The next morning we figured it out when we saw what looked like a huge goiter under his chin. We knew it was from the blood flowing into that area under the skin. His gums were white. We took him to the e-vet as soon as we could say our good byes. He was a very good dog, just the best. It was a hard decision because he could still walk and he still ate a little. But I knew the internal bleeding was a huge problem and something we couldn’t fix. He was happy and wagging his tail until the end. Truly the best boy. But no more nose bleeds and no more pain for him.

You’ll have to find your own line in the sand. Is it when they stop eating? Is it when they are just miserable looking? Whatever it is, decide what that limit is now. If he’s crossed the line, then it’s time. Whatever you decide, don’t let anyone make you feel guilty that you didn’t do enough. Don’t let anyone second guess you. Don’t feel bad that you are doing something wrong. Your guy is depending on your to help him. He is sick and the nose bleeds are hard to take. He’s probably in a lot of pain now. We all know it’s not an easy decision.

Good luck and I hope you get those last quiet moments together before you send him off.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

I wish Ann (Max's Mom) could post here.... she had a dog go through that type of situation.... 

With my Jacks his tumors were all up in his nostrils for the most part. As the tumors spread outward - they were minor/smallish sores around the outside of his nostrils. With him, he never developed the huge disfiguring tumors and his tumors were limited to the soft tissue vs spreading into the bone/cartilage. 

The sores bled very easily + he did have some bad nosebleeds a few times towards the end. These nosebleeds were bad enough to leave pretty sizable blood spots all over my room.... but I did manage to keep those minimal with the aid of YB. 

With the sores, I put ointments on there to encourage healing. I don't know if that helped, but the sores again did not get huge or become infected. 

With him - I had to make a decision when his one nostril was completely blocked by a tumor and I saw tumors developing in the other nostril. Based on the speed of growth, he was looking at a matter of days before his second nostril was blocked off and I knew he would suffer. He was already struggling with the one nostril being blocked up with the nosebleeds getting caught up beyond the blockage. This caused a lot of reverse sneeze symptoms and some panicking from him. 

In addition to that, he had a toe that in ordinary circumstances would have been removed due to infection starting to spread to his bone. 

In addition to that, he had lymphoma and in ordinary circumstances - would have had the one affected lymph node removed + chemo. 

With me, I was forced to let him go when I did rather than see him suffer. I said goodbye when he was still relatively healthy and his normal self. 

He never went off his food and right through the end he was running around, playing, going hiking and swimming like normal. 

^^^ What I'm saying is I made a decision at a time when everything was OK because I knew there was a matter of days before things would go very bad. 

That's what you need to consider with your dog and sort out with your vet. 

A huge tumor on his nose (I gather it's up high on the muzzle) sometimes looks worse than it is and the dog might be absolutely fine and not suffering too much from the condition. The bleeding is alarming when it happens, but even that is not the end of everything (Jacks had nosebleeds for a year before the tumors showed up). The arthritis, etc... is a fact of life with an old dog. 

I'd suggest talking to your vet about what to look out for as far as signs that your dog is starting to fail or things are getting bad with the tumor. When those signs happen, you'll know it's time.


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