Mammary tumours in G S D - Page 1

A month ago, my 12 year old female German Shepherd had 2 mammary tumours removed. One was a benign tumour that had been there for at least 5 years and the other was cancerous (located between hind legs). The pathologist wasn't sure if the cancerous one was a transitional tumour or a primitive tumour. He suspected that if it was transitional then its a secondary tumour possibly from the bladder although she doesn't have any symptoms of urinary cancer. If it's a primitive tumour then he thinks it's the primary tumour.

A few days after surgery one of her hind legs swelled. 1 week after surgery, an infection developed at the drain site. She had a second surgery to "clean up" the areas that included removing a lot of hemotomas (clotted blood). The swelling in the hind leg went away and stayed that way even after I stopped giving her meloxicam.

On Thursday (a month after the 1st surgery) both her hind legs swelled. One worse than the other. The next day, I took her back to the vet also because I noticed a new lump and she seemed painful when I took her for a walk and when she tried to lay down. The vet wonders if the new tumour is inflammatory mammary cancer and has prescribed a drug that women take for inflammatory breast cancer in addition to a diuretic. This new tumour is a fair size and has developed over 2 weeks.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had a dog with one type of cancer and then after removal, a new type of tumour developed over a few weeks.

I have her on turkey tail (coriolis) and theracumin, wild salmon oil, and just started giving her 500 mg of vitamin C.

She has EPI and has been on a raw or home cooked diet her whole life, and gets regular exercise. She only gets a rabies vaccine.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Juno11

yea I had this....my on female developed one mammary tumor, we removed it together with a part of her breast. 1 year later another mammary tumor, we removed it with the other half of the breast.....some weeks later I felt another tumor in the upper part, but we left it be....and then she developed bone cancer which affected the lung....

Mammary tumors in GSD females are not all that uncommon. Generally, approximately 50% are benign. If caught in time and fully removed, a cancerous mammary tumor will not spread. The problem is that full removal is rarely full in that cells from the surgery are left behind to spread at some point. The age at which females are spayed is said by some to affect whether there will be mammary tumors. If it is not to be a breeding female, then any time after the 4th heat is usually recommended. If a breeding female, usually by their 7th year.

Over 30 years, I have had five GSD females all from German show lines. 3 developed tumors. My first female, never bred, developed a benign tumor. It appeared when she was 7. I was a relative newbie at the time. If I had known more I would have spayed her when she was five. We had it removed and had her spayed at the same time. It was not next to her back leg so there was no swelling. She lived to be 15 with no further occurrence. The second, also a non breeding female, developed an aggressive cancerous mammary tumor when she was five. It was toward the back leg. The doctors gave her 3 months if we did not operate. We had it removed immediately. Still, the prognosis was not good, but there was no swelling in the real legs. A year later, it spread to another area, not her rear leg. Again surgery. A year after that another and another surgery. On the way, we went through several courses of chemo therapy which may or may not have slowed things down. Hard to tell. Fortunately, the chemo did not bother her and she bounced back from each surgery quickly. She lived to be just short of her 10th birthday. But the cancer kept coming back and eventually went to her brain. The third female was bred when she was 4.5 years old. She had a caesarian delivery during which the repro specialist delivering the puppies found a benign tumor and recommended removal as soon as she recovered from the delivery. We had her spayed when she was five and she will be 9 in one month. So far, no further recurrence. There was no leg swelling.

Depending on your dog's age and physical condition and your budget, I would take her to a specialty clinic to consult with oncologists.