Oh Shari . . .

I lost my first golden to hemangiosarcoma of the spleen.  He was a rescue (golden) and I thought he was about 5.  A very reserved quiet dog.  The first symptom was when I was trying to sort of move him under the tummy and he yelped.  I took him to the vet the next day or so and they said back problems.  This was probably Oct/Nov.  They did xrays, I'm guessing of the back??  I remember they gave me prednisone and it was awful.  I think they also gave him muscle relaxants.  He was OK, then not OK.  then they said maybe arthritis.  Not good enough.  I got his records together and took him to UW-Madison mid January.  They said they had a good idea, they would do xrays, go have lunch and come back.  I remember the Vet saying there was so much blood in the abdomen they could barely see the organs.  He had a huge bi-lobe tumor on his spleen.  I left him there and they did surgery the next day and I picked him up the day following surgery.  I still remember him coming out slowly with his tail wagging.  I never saw such a long incision.  they gave him a few months.  Now this was maybe 1985 or so and you didn't hear much about chemo, etc.  Almost a week later he was barking at a neighbor's dog in my yard and a little later the incision began weeping.  To make a long story short, he was put to sleep that night, a decision I came to regret and knowing what I know now it was probably just a seroma or something.  Hemangio is a silent killer and it attacks young dogs.  They may have small bleeds and you would not really be aware of it. 

Dakota has  Golden genes and at one point Harley's oncolgoist told me he could have two different cancers going on -- "being a golden".  She was treating other dogs with two cancers.  It's very possible that you removed the soft tissue sarcoma when he had his amp, but I don't know that that would prevent another form of cancer from taking up residence.  Maybe Kelly or Pam say if this is a possibility.

Since I let Harley go last week, I have been tossing and turning wondering (just like you) what the heck happened.  Harley had his leg biopsied three times after surgery so these were tissue sample biopsies not FNAs and even the last one in Sept. came back as benign.  He had two lung tumors.  A FNA of one was done and it confirmed cancer but could only narrow it to carcinoma, histo or I think it was liposarcoma.  Sample of lung and leg were not a match.  So where did lung tumors come from.  he had an abdominal ultrasound and there were two small masses on spleen 1.2 & 1.4 cm  Since they were smaller than lung masses (4 & 6 cm) they did not met to lungs.  My uneducated guess is that lung tumors were probably primary not metastasis and what was thought to be age spots on his spleen might have been the start of hemangio.  His platelets had dropped to 30,000.  One cause of that is splenic cancer.  He was not responding to the Prednisone and Azathioprine which was another red flag that the platelet drop was indicative of something else going on -- splenic cancer or bone marrow issues.  I thought about an ultrasound but to be honest could not bring myself to know that might be happening.  Even if he had the spleen removed, he still had two lung tumors which were 7.5 and 11 cm as of Nov. 15.  His only symptoms were muscle waste from the Pred and lethargy from the Azathioprine.  I think those were just keeping him above water from any major bleeds. 

Just like you, I did just about everything that could be done and have no real answers.  You probably gave Dakota more quality time by preventing a faster or further metastasis of the STS, but what Shelby's mom said is so true, you can't do daily body scans.  I am on the Golden Retriever Forum a lot and I have to tell you, at least once a week someone posts a tragic story about their dog being taken by hemangio.  It hides in the spleen and also the heart.

You're a logical, caring, intelligent person.  Logically you know you did everything right, but sometimes our hearts and brains don't see eye to eye. 

Sorry, for such a long post but I tried to show the similarities.  I feel Harley looking down at me shaking his head.