Tumour resection on a 13 year old dog or not?
Hi all my family and I are in a predicament at the moment I have a 13 year old Maltese and Shih Tzu mix and we found out she has a tumour about the size of half her liver this morning.
We had taken her to her vet yesterday as she hasn’t been eating regardless of what type of food we gave her. She has high liver enzymes and as well as bilirubin (unfortunately don’t have exact values). The vet at that point said we can take her to a hospital or bring her back the next day for an ultrasound. We opted to take her to the hospital where she was admitted. This morning they did the ultrasound and found a tumour in their words “the size was half her liver” and have given us two options:
1)humane euthanasia (which would happen tomorrow)
2)risky surgery to remove it
I’m having trouble accepting the possible loss of her as she was acting normal for the most part except the lack of eating. They’re given us gabapentin, mirtazapine, and cerenia for pain/anxiety, appetite stimulation, and nausea. They also gave her a dose of ketamine for pain as well. They’re hesitant on surgery mainly because of her age and a heart murmur that has only been detected within the last week.
We’ve had her for all 13 years of her life and I’m truly struggling to come to terms with her loss especially as she was acting okay prior to this and since coming home (although loopy) she drank water and used the bathroom outside. But at the same time we don’t want her to suffer.
Added information she is 3.9kg and has lost some weight due to this recent appetite loss. She was also getting cytopoint injections for allergies.
Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this in advance and apologies if I’m saying the same thing repeatedly my mind is racing .