Hi Amy,

I'm sorry you and Izzy are dealing with a MCT.  My pug Maggie lost her rear leg to a MCT and had several additional tumors.  Mag's little sis Tani also had recurring MCTs although hers were all on her torso.

The location of the tumor is tough- how big is it?  Probably impossible to remove and get any kind of margins. 

When Tani's mast cell came back in 2011 (first 3 tumors removed in 2007) she was 11 and dealing with many other health issues.  I didn't want to put her though a big surgery so she had two tumors removed under a local anesthetic using a punch and a couple stitches each, but before the path report came back 2 more popped up.  At that point I decided that taking tumors off was not going to work so I just left them alone.  I had two vets recommend palladia but I felt for Tani that it was not the right thing. She lived to be almost 15 and did not pass from mast cell. 

I don't know if the location of the tumor would let a vet get it off with a punch.  One risk would be that getting only part of the tumor might make it hard for the skin to heal, and it also could come back.  In Tani's case we never had recurrence at the same spot even though at least one of the tumor removals did not get good margins.

I treated Tani with diet and supplements.  She had terrible arthritis so was on rimadyl and eventually adequan injections.  There is some talk that anti-inflammatoris slow tumor growth so maybe they helped with the mast cell.  I also had her on K9 Immunity Plus, fish oil and other supplements for the arthritis.  We also saw a holistic vet who helped me choose a diet to help her fight off the cancer.

I would ask the oncologist what all the possible options are, that is what I always did.  Even knowing I would not choose surgery I still wanted all my options explained.  You could ask about all the chemo drugs available to treat MCT, there are more than palladia.  Unfortunately kinivet is no longer available in the US but Maggie took 2 different chemo drugs.  Chemo may not be very effective without the tumor removed and it may be too expensive.  But still ask about all the drugs available and the side effects.  The other treatment they do is radiation.  I don't know the cost but it would mean putting Izzy under anesthetic many times so you probably don't want to do that. 

In my experience anytime we aspirated a tumor, or even just manipulated it the pugs would be on benadryl and pepcid.  Mast cell can cause an allergic like reaction and affect the stomach, definitely ask the oncologist about those meds. Maggie was on prednisone as part of her chemo treatments.  It can reduce inflammation but does have side effects.

Good luck with the oncology visit.

I did see the pictures you posted, and congrats on Stormy! 

Karen and the Spirit Pug Girls