Expert: Kaza - 4/10/2009

Question
I have a 14 year old Bichon Frise & she has recently been opened up a small tumor on the side of her face. We’ve taken her to the vet where they told us that we could do surgery to remove it. I haven’t had great experience with humans going under so I am extra hesitant to do so on an older dog like ours (she’s equivalent to a 98 year old). She’s not in perfect health either with many bladder mishaps while sleeping & sometimes throws up a water/yellow looking vomit. It doesn’t seam to hurt her until it opens it up again. We have bought a soft caller which works for a bit but she finds away to get around it & I’m not fond of those hard plastic ones, they look very uncomfortable for the dog.
Should we risk surgery? My husband thinks we should but I rather her die when she’s meant to then on an operating table.


Answer
Hi Theresa
the problem with tumours is this, on the skin surface they tend to look rather small in comparison to what lies beneath, as such yes I would risk it, yes there are reasons to consider such as anasthesia which may indeed be problematic, there are also the after effects such as pneumonia. However, cancer if it is malignant will kill her for sure and the death isnt so pleasant. I hate to say this but the risks are high on both ends of the spectrum.
The yellow bile is simply that she is regurgitating from the lower intestine, no real problem at all, they all do it at every age.

This I am afraid is a decision that you and hubby need to talk about, in my experience though , at her age either way its not great, but hey she may well surprise everyone and this is a benign growth that can be excised easily and she may well live another 5 years.

I wish you well

K

www.eurobichons.com