Has anyone here ever had a senior dog require surgery?

by **deviddiya** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 6:47 pm

I have an 11 year old Rottweiler and she needs surgery to remove a tumor on her leg. Of course at her age I'm a bit nervous, but would never cancel the surgery because the vet says it may be cancerous.

Has anyone here ever had a senior dog who needed surgery? What was it for? How did your dog do afterwords?

Just would like to hear other peoples stories to ease my mind, thanks

by **critters** » Sat Aug 18, 2012 7:43 am

Not dogs, but I have senior cats worked on regularly, including a peck of them this summer. I don't judge simply based on age.

by **Ravi** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 1:09 pm

Hello. In July of this year I had to do an amputation of my dog's rear left leg due to osteosarcoma. She's almost 14 years old and a medium sized breed. There were no complications and the next day she was up and walking but she couldn't keep it up for very long due to having only one rear leg but as time went on she got back to her normal self. Don't wait too long to do the surgery because if it is cancer it might be the aggressive kind, the longer you wait is the more it will spread.

by **springrmax** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:36 pm

Yes, two years ago, my then 14 year old English Springer Spaniel was diagnosed with operable lung cancer. This was a very large surgery for any animal and I agonized over it as she was 14. I am happy to report that although the first week post-op had difficulties as she definitely needed the pain medication, she recovered beautifully and is still with me. During the last month, she lost the use of her hind legs and we are still trying to figure that one out. While attempting to determine whether to have the surgery or not, I interviewed several veterinary hospitals for this surgery and chose one in Newburgh, NY that specialized in oncology rather than Animal Medical in NYC as I wanted her to be a primary focus during her surgical stay. She was as was I - they were so kind to both of us. I hope this helps. Good luck!

by **CarolC** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:30 am

springrmax
Is the vet not sure what's causing the new problem?

by **springrmax** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:05 am

Yes, advanced arthritis and spondelosis (not sure of spelling). And she is 16 years and 4 months of age. She also has early stages of congestive heart failure for which the meds appear to be working. We have also been battling a drug resistant urinary tract infection.

I am still very glad that I did the surgery 2 years ago. I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to interview several veterinary hospitals specializing in oncology and that I chose the one in Newburgh. Shauna received wonderful care and I got to have her with me for 2 more healthy years.

We only have a little time left together and I want to make it as vet/needle/medicine free as possible but I also want to keep her as comfortable as possible for what time we have left. I am trying to figure out how to figure out when it will be time.