My eight year old German Shepherd Samson was tested last week for lymphoma after I noticed his lymph nodes were abnormally large. We just got the results back today and it unfortunately came back positive. I'm absolutely heart broken since I basically grew up with him and we've had him since he was a little puppy. Our Veterinarian gave us the contact information for a local oncologist but I haven't had a chance to contact them yet. The prognosis from the Vet isn't very reassuring, from the information my Vet gave me we only have two options:A.) Leave the cancer untreated and continue giving him Prednisone to keep his lymph node swelling down. The Vet said the longest he could see him living with this option would be six months.B.) Pursue treatment through the oncologist which consists of a chemotherapy treatment and three days of isolation, followed with monthly visits to our vet. The Vet said that this would increase his life expectancy to a year to a year and a half if successful and told us that the treatment has a high rate of success in his experience, around 90%. The cost was quoted around $2500-$3000 which would be split between my Father and I.I was wondering if anyone had any experience in a situation like this? The three day isolation is making me hesitant since this would definitely be a traumatizing experience for Sam, but giving him extra time with us sounds like it could be worth it. The Vet said that dogs respond well to the chemotherapy treatment in his experience and don't lose their hair or get extremely ill like Humans do. I also had a friend that recommended buying a ketogenic based dog food, saying that it might decrease the cancer growth since studies show that cancers use sugars to grow or something along those lines. Not sure how accurate this is so if anyone has any advice I'd greatly appreciate it.This was so unexpected and hard since he doesn't act like he's sick at all. He still loves messing with the cat, barking at other dogs, playing with his toys, wanting treats... I'm not going to lie I can't stop crying, I don't want to lose my dog like this.Bonus picture of him, I seriously can't stand the thought of not having him next to me when watching hockey. via /r/dogs http://ift.tt/2rYQnaZ
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