Story told by Terri and Dennis D.

About 3 weeks ago, I noticed a wart like growth on my 14 year old terrier mix, Angel's lip. She takes Rimadyl every morning but I have to drop it in her mouth. A year and a half ago we rescued a yorkie, Missy, who only reaches Angel's mouth. They often fight over toys so I thought Angel had just hurt her lip.

That Thursday I noticed red, chicken pox looking blisters on her body. I called the vet to see if dogs can get chicken pox and made an appointment to come in on Sunday. The initial aspirate did not show any infection and we sent the sample off for further examination. Antibiotics and an anti-naseau shot given.

Monday the vet called to say no cancer cells are seen but the sample is inconclusive. Tuesday morning I ran Angel over for blood work. Thursday the blood work came back with all systems working well but her white blood cell count high. The redding of her spots might be lessening. Hopeful I guess.

By Saturday she had grown a bump on her eye lid that was really bothering her. The bump is hard to describe. Initally it was dangily but within a couple of days it looked more like a bloody full tick.

Sunday we went to the vet again to have the annoying eye growth removed. While she was under anesthesia we were to get a biopsy of a skin blister (as more have appeared), removed the growth from her lip and the one from her eye. As the vet started to intebate she found a large tumor in the back of her throat. We fixed the lip, eye, and took biopsies of everything including the newly found tumor. We changed her antibiotics and waited.

Today, Wednesday, we heard bad news from the vet. Angel has been diagnosed with malignant histiocytosis. There appears to be no treatment. We have started her on meds to coat her digestive system and some prednizone.

We know this is the end but as long as she can chase squirrels we're going to let her. I hope this story helps someone else diagnose their dog earlier as the vet said this is a rare cancer. To all of you reading this to help your own loved one my heart goes out to you.

UPDATE
I lost Angel two days after her diagnosis (Wednesday diagnosed, friday gone). I attempted to keep her comfortable with lots of anti naseau meds but on Friday she woke up and was sick several times so around noon I took her to the vet to say goodbye.

Naar onze Histio website in het Nederlands