Hi Sterling,
Nice to hear from you again, but so sorry for the circumstances. You surely are an angel to reach out to this woman and her service dog.

My heart goes out to Gail, and her unfortunate sweet pup, Tyrell. This particular canine cancer runs cold-blooded chills through my whole body, I have way more experience with it than I chose to have. Both my precious Polly and my sweet black Lab Maggie, before Polly, succumbed to this crappy cancer. My Maggie died very quickly from hemangiosarcoma once she was diagnosed from her emergency splenectomy, she only lived 46 days from her surgery. She had no chemo, mostly because her spleen was already rupturing, and chemo most likely would have only "possibly" added another month or two to her already grim prognosis.

Polly's situation was much different, in that it presented in her right front leg first. (Hemangiosarcoma most often attacks internally first, the spleen or liver.) After 2 unsuccessful surgeries to remove the cancer in her leg, she ultimately had to have her amputation. There are many times I wish I had just amputated to begin with, but the reality of this awful cancer is, it will absolutely attack internally sooner or later.....we were just really blessed with Polly's attacking later. She only lived for 4 months after her amp, but ultimately lived for over 13 months from the start of her tumor on her leg, till her passing away from her liver rupturing from this cancer. We also did as many rounds of chemo as we could, 6 of i.v. chemo, and 6 rounds of at home chemo with cyclophosphamide. She also had a terrible time with the i.v. chemo, so we had to formulate a plan of many anti-nausea, appetite stimulant, and various other drugs to make her tolerate the chemo.

All-in-all, there are some things I would do differently in hind sight, for both my girls, I guess due to my guilt of thinking maybe I did not do enough, but the brutal reality of this cancer is, there is really no successful way to battle it. You may slow it down, maybe, but it will always win, most often sooner than later.

I wish more than anything, that I could give you some words of hope and positive results, but this cancer is truly, truly evil, and brutally devastating, and very quick moving....I still cry at the thought of any other pups anywhere, that develop this death-sentence of a cancer.

I really wish Gail well, and hope beyond hope, that some pup somewhere will get a bit lucky with this terrible cancer, maybe Tyrell will live a bit longer......there is always that hope. I guess if I have anything positive to suggest, is chemo is definitely still the best option to slow this cancer down. I don't want to sound like a complete "Debbie-downer", because I do believe chemo helped Polly live longer, not nearly as long as I wanted, but still longer than most. I just have too much unwanted experience with this cancer, so please forgive any and all negativity I have.

Love,
Bonnie and Angel Polly, and Angel Maggie

I lost the love of my life, Shelby Lynne, to hemangiosarcoma almost 11 months ago.... Shelby's presented in an unusual way too. Probably was in her leg when it broke but we couldn't find it until her spleen got inflamed and it was removed and discovered. We started her on chemo and I was told 1 - 3 months. We got 8 glorious months!!!! Shelby then did lose her rear leg and then - after 2 biopsies - did they find traces of hemangiosarcoma. 

It is a CRUEL disease and I hate it with every bit of my soul. It finally entered Shelby's brain and she had seizures (however, in hindsight what we thought were low iron fainting spells were probably seizures) but once it was in her brain, she was not in pain but she was not my girl. I helped her over the rainbow bridge on April 8 of last year.

I have almost no regrets about our course of action. Perhaps had I removed her leg when it first broke I would have found the cancer sooner but it was hiding from us. I did the best I could with the info I had. And the entire time, Shelby knew she was LOVED and adored. 

I believe the chemo did help Shelby. Her quality of life was very good - even until the end. Her spirit will forever live on in my heart and I will fight for better cures and treatments to this awful cancer.

Much love and prayers,

alison with the spirit of shelby fur-ever in her heart (and little jasper too)

I just watched the news report on Gail and Tyrell.  It breaks my heart that Tyrell and Gail are having to go through this.  Tyrell is so adorable and I wish I could give him a big hug!

Stirling you're truly an Angel for reaching out to Gail and her beloved Tyrell!  I pray that you can offer Gail some hope with possible treatment options for Tyrell.  I know fighting cancer can seem like a losing battle and at times it is...but I'm a firm believer in hope that there are times when a furkid can kick cancer's butt!  We can never lose hope!

Hugs

Sahana and her Angel Leland