u/Spell-Physical

for context, my dog started acting sort of sluggish a little less than a month ago, and we noticed he was heavier. when we took him in to his regular vet, we ended up having to go straight to the ER to get fluid drained from his abdomen. We took him into a cardiologist later that week, to which we discovered he was in right sided heart failure due to a mass (chemodectoma) in his heart. we started treatment, and the doctors said he’s out of CHF (congestive heart failure) which is a good thing, because it means treatment will be easier. However, when we did a CT scan yesterday, they found his tumor is actually doing a full 360 around a pulmonary artery, which is what’s actually causing him to have heart issues in the first place. the tumor is a little on the larger side, but the oncologist said the one large dose of radiation during stereotactic radio surgery should help. Since he’s undergoing heart issues already, they advised against undergoing anesthesia multiple times in a row, so they decided one dose would be the easiest, though arythmias are possible, and so is sudden death. Please keep my little Bruce in your thoughts and prayers. He’s a strong dog, and I know he’ll pull through.

EDIT: The oncologist advised against undergoing chemo, as he already has had a history of gi issues, meaning his daily life could become a struggle for him.

The vets gave me two options, one is palliative radiation therapy (3-6 treatments over 4 weeks) or palladia (chemotherapy pills). In all of your experiences, what did you all choose? right now, he seems happy on just the heart management medications alone, but i’m still very worried about my poor baby :( he’s 9 years old and seemed super healthy, so this caught me off guard.

edit: we’ve been told he still has 6-12 months to live, maybe longer on chemo, so we really don’t know. just trying to figure out which options we have and if anyone has experience with it.