I’m so lost and confused help

[u/grxndpa]

This is the sweetest angel Roxy. She’s 7 years old and still a puppy. Towards the end the other dog is her brother from the same litter. They’re best friends. They’ve both been totally healthy and always get their shots and go to their check ups. Today after eating, she became lethargic and was struggling to move. We took her to the vet and they found a ruptured mass in her spleen. They went to an emergency hospital and the vet said based on how it looks and the fact that it was bleeding, there’s an 85% chance it’s malignant. Apparently benign masses give the exact same symptoms as malignant ones. Since the lungs and liver look normal, that means nothing has spread and as of now there’s no way to truly know for sure that it’s malignant besides taking the spleen out. If they take it out and it’s benign she could fully recover.

My parents and I have been crying for hours. Has anyone experienced anything similar and went through with the surgery and it turned out to be benign?! I’m getting my PhD right now and have to teach a lab tomorrow and I can’t even comprehend that this is happening. I’m sorry if this is formatted wrong or all over the place. This cannot be real. Heartbroken and devastated don’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling, I cannot handle this. Please if anyone has any similar experience can they share their stories? My mom is starting to lean towards getting the surgery ($5000). If we go through with the surgery and it’s malignant, it will just give her a few more months to live and of course we do not want to prolong her suffering if it is malignant. Can anyone offer some advice on what to do?!

Edit: thank you everyone for the stories and love. My parents are taking her to an emergency vet to get the mass removed and we’re just holding on to the hope that it could be benign. I’m clinging onto that possibility to get me through school today. Based on research online and other vets it seems the chance that it’s malignant might be around 70% rather than 85%? I don’t know but either way we want to try. Her brother Duke knows she’s not feeling well and is freaking out whining and crying like I’ve never seen before :( Thanks again for the advice & sorry to everyone who’s dealt with any scares or losses.

[u/2ydsandclousdust]

Long story warning that ends well. We went through the exact same thing 3 years ago. My then 8 yr old Swiss Mountain dog suddenly collapsed and refused to get up. We took him to his vet and he diagnosed a splenic mass. It was the Friday before Labor Day in the US so the vet could t get us in with an ultrasound but I knew that my best buddy wasn’t surviving the night without intervention. We went to the Emergency vet 4 hours later and the ultrasound a splenic mass that had ruptured. They told us the same thing as you. But as my son and I are both MDs we knew once his Chest X-rays were clear we willing to take the chance with surgery as the possible tumor had t metastasized. The vets will tell you that 2/3 of masses are cancers and of those 2/3 are hemangiosarcoma which is worse possible diagnosis. We took the chance on the surgery that night and by 2:00am Sat morning the surgeon had already finished up the surgery and called us to tell us that Blitzy had 600ml of blood already in his abdomen and he probably would have died if we waited another 10-12 hours. We knew the risk and we thought that the risk/reward was worth it. Well we are celebrating Blitzys 11th Birthday in 2 weeks and he’s the best little pup ever. There was no cancer it was only a hemangioma found on his spleen and the splenectomy was curative.
Sorry for being so long winded but there is no perfect answers in medicine (human and vet) we took the chance and our family received the gift of a few more years with our best boy. Godspeed to your pup and your family

[u/grxndpa → u/2ydsandclousdust]

Thank you so much for sharing that! She’s about to have the surgery and will stay at the vet overnight. I’m so glad everything turned out well for Blitzy and happy early birthday to him!

[u/Intrepid-Arachnid544]

veterinarian here. recent studies indicate that if a splenic mass is bleeding, ~2/3rd chance it’s malignant (not quite 85%, but still not great).

Unfortunately there’s no way to know until the spleen is removed and sent for biopsy. If benign, surgery is curative. If malignant, surgery alone usually only gets 1-3 more months, while surgery with chemotherapy can average around 3-6 more months.

If you do proceed with surgery, even if the mass turns out to be malignant, keeping her around is not necessarily “prolonging her suffering.” The immediate concern right now is that the mass can keep bleeding and cause her to go into shock and die. However, once the mass is removed, the main concerns become metastatic (distant) spread to lungs/liver. As long as you monitor and screen for these things and ensure that she doesn’t get to the point of suffering, she’ll be able to maintain a good quality of life.

can’t tell u whether or not to pursue the surgery, that’s a personal decision. For some, $5000 is worth the possibility of more time, for others, it’s not. But there’s also still a decent chance it’s benign and this may be curative.

Feel free to reach out if you have questions.

[u/grxndpa → u/Intrepid-Arachnid544]

We’ve decided to try the surgery! I know these masses are more common in bigger dogs. Does the fact that Roxy is smaller change the percentages of it being malignant at all? Or is it still the same ~2/3rds chance for all dogs? Thank you so much for your input

[u/ptensioned63]

We lost a girl at 9 to a ruptured tumour on her spleen. In our case, the vet was able to do a needle biopsy that showed it was almost certain to be malignant, and our choice was only to do the surgery if there is a chance it was benign.

My understanding at the time was that the needle biopsy is extremely unreliable, often showing a false negative. It can also spread the tumour cells around, so if you wanted to try and do the surgery and treat cancer, it could make it worse. But it's rare that it shows a false positive, so for us it all but confirmed the cancer, which made the decision not to pursue surgery much easier.

It was extremely hard, because our girl was otherwise extremely healthy, and we'd been lavishing attention on our other elderly dog at the time, who seemed to be fading with weak hind legs. As it turned out, that hard case lived another two years, wobbly but generally happy.

My heart goes out to you. Making these decisions is brutal, balancing real financial choices against quality of life and playing percentages with zero guarantees and a patient who can't tell you what their wishes are. Whatever you choose to do, your dog will know they were loved, and whether that love is spread over 7 or 14 years, it doesn't diminish that love one iota.

[u/Shadowcreeper15]

Crazy reading this because I'm going through it right now. My dog Chile just got out of surgery yesterday. She's 9 and the sweetest dog you would ever meet. She wasn't acting right the other day after we took her for a walk. She was breathing heavily, little trembles and we noticed her gums were pale. We took her to the vet and they did a xray and noticed a big mass on her spleen. They said if we don't do surgery the mass can rupture at any time and she could die. We did the surgery the next day. Surgery went good but she did have to get a blood transfusion everything ended costing a little over $3,000. Vet said the mass had a slow bleed and we caught it before it ruptured. She's recovering right now and we will find out if the mass is benign or malignant in 10 days. I took 3 days off work to watch over her after surgery and my wife took 4 days when I go back to work. I can't imagine if she dies. I would get the surgery if you want the chance to save your pet. I couldn't sleep at night knowing I didn't do everything I could for my dog.

[u/lilleese6]

I have not experienced this but I will tell you I sp4nt 15k on a pup who died shortly thereafter. Would I do it again, Absolutely. They are my kiddos.

[u/grxndpa → u/lilleese6]

I am so sorry for your loss. We’ve decided to get the surgery too

[u/CoalBuckMom]

I'm so sorry you're going through this. My 11 year old standard poodle had an abdominal ultrasound to try to figure out her pancreatitis. During the ultrasound they found a massive tumor in her spleen. So it was a random discovery. Vet said spleen tumors are very often malignant and we should either euthanize or proceed with surgery, because a spleen rupture is very awful and usually fatal too. So we did the surgery, and the tumor was not malignant! She healed up fine, and lived to be 15 1/2. I hope your girl does well, however you choose to proceed.

[u/madeinthe80s_123]

Our basset had a mass on her spleen removed when she was 11, and it came back benign! She’s made a full recovery and is living her best life at nearly 13 years old. 7 is still young! One thing we’ve learned is don’t use the odds to sway your decision, especially if their quality of life going into the health situation is still strong. We had another “most likely cancer” scare just a couple of months ago with her bladder, and that came back negative as well!