I love this photo so much that I use it as my Facebook profile photo.
X-rays revealed no foreign objects in his digestive tract, but did show that he had an enlarged spleen. Off we went that afternoon to the specialty vet for an ultrasound, to make sure that we weren't dealing with a mass of some sort (which is what took our Emma in October). The ultrasound showed a slight thickening of his stomach in one spot, two things behind his stomach that appeared to be large lymph nodes, and no mass in his enlarged spleen. The radiologist took needle samples of his spleen and liver, and these samples were sent for pathology review. We received results of the biopsy the next week ... benign.
Daniel does the best he can to deal with cleaning lady day.
Daniel continued to feel kind of lousy, and he was losing weight. My 70-pound dog was down to 63 pounds ... and his normally slim greyhound figure was now marked by prominent ribs and bony hips. Daniel has kept his enthusiastic appetite, so I significantly increased the amount of food he was getting, hoping to stop the weight loss. Back to the vet we went for more tests.
My sweet boy, sitting in the sunshine.
Waiting for test results, and missing phone calls and messages had me on edge for weeks. None of Daniel's symptoms or results pointed toward any one diagnosis, so we began to rule out things one by one. With a negative biopsy on the first sample, we sent blood samples to test for various tick-borne diseases ... which can cause spleen enlargement and anemia. Pending the results of the tick tests, Daniel was put on a two week course of Doxycycline, just in case. Tick tests were negative, and we were no closer to an answer.
Such a sweet face!
The vet suggested that we do another ultrasound to see if his spleen and/or stomach looked different than they had two months before ... they didn't ... no significant change at all. More biopsy and blood samples were taken and sent for analysis. The biopsy, again, was negative.
Sleepy boy.
Right before we left on our trip in mid-July, I authorized some additional tests on extra samples that the doctor had taken of Daniel's spleen during the second ultrasound. It's called a PARR Assay, and it tests the spleen samples at the microbiological level, looking for genetic markers for various types of lymphoma. I got a message on my cell phone last week from the doctor ... Daniel's tests showed that the sample was positive for T-cell Lymphoma.
He's so tolerant. :)
On Friday, while we were in Fairbanks and had Internet access, I looked up the phone number for the oncologist that we saw while Maggie was being treated for lymphoma. Dr. Sheafor and I communicate very well, and I knew that she was the perfect person to consult about Daniel's condition. We made an appointment for this past Monday morning.
My friend Gale sent me this photo, and the two below, while Daniel was staying at her house while we were in Alaska.
Dr. Sheafor examined Daniel and reviewed all of his test results. She explained that T-cell Lymphoma is usually a much more aggressive disease than what we are dealing with. She didn't doubt the test results ... instead, she said that Daniel's history fits with one of the uncommon low-grade lymphomas of the spleen.
Daniel wanted to play with ALL of the toys in the toy box.
Same as it was with Maggie, who was on CCNU three years ago for a different type of lymphoma, Daniel is handling treatment very well so far. The prednisone is making him hungry and thirsty ... the hungry part may allow him to put on some of his lost weight, and the thirst makes him drink more and he needs more frequent turnouts.
He had quite a collection ... and a whole lot of fun.
The hard fact is this ... Daniel has cancer. While this is crappy news, it could be worse. It appears to be a type of cancer that may respond to treatment ... I am grateful for that. It's comforting to finally know what we are dealing with, and to have a plan in place with a doctor that I trust.
(I'm telling Daniel's story in such detail, because it may help someone else in the future ... as they search the Web, trying to find out what could possibly be wrong with their dog.)