Haemangiosarcoma of the Spleen

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seabiscuit

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Anyone have experiences of this? My lovely black lab has just been diagnosed. All I have is the lab report in front of me, have not spoken to the vet yet. Have found websites on it but they are all very out of date and very negative. Saying that after the spleen has burst, cancer is already very widespread, therefore they only have a few weeks left, and that chemo is pointless But these are websites written 6 years ago.
So anyone experienced this or treated this recently?
 
In my experience the prognosis isn't usually as bad as that. Haemangiosarcs are probably the most common tumour we find in dogs abdomens. They usually sit there unnoticed for some time until they suddenly pop and start to bleed. The spleen stores blood and so have a massive blood supply so when they start to bleed they really do bleed! Dogs suddenly need urgent surgery to survive and sometimes a blood transfusion is necessary. Occasionally I might pick one up palpating a dogs abdomen at its routine booster vaccination - these are the best ones to operate on because you can remove them before they have started to bleed everywhere.
I'm assuming your dog has had hers removed - your vet will have had a good look round her abdomen for spread while performing the surgery. The most common place for it to spread to is the liver. If there are obviously secondaries on the liver I usually advise people not to bring the dog round from the anaesthetic. If there aren't any signs of spread then I tend to remove the spleen and see how things go from there - it is possible for a complete cure so long as there aren't any microscopic lesions that wouldn't of been noticable at the time of the op. Perhaps your vet could check her liver parameters with a routine blood test every so often to check for signs of liver damage? Or she could be x-rayed/scanned in a few months time to look for abnormalities in the liver tissue.
I took a spleen out of Cala's sisters pitbull - it must be at least 4-5 years ago and as far as I'm aware she's still going strong so it isn't always doom and gloom.
 
Brilliant- thank you so much for all that information!
Yes Tarka has had his spleen removed,He was a perfectly normal and healthy dog until last week. One minute he was OK, the next minute he was lying down, unable to move and was foaming at the mouth. He was taken to the vets straightaway and they found that his spleen had burst blood into his stomach so they operated on him immediately.

Spoke to the vet this morning and he said that he will now be booked in for x rays and scans to determine how much/if its spread and also to determine the best course of chemotherapy?

He also said (can't remember to the exact figue) that 50% of dogs after spleen removal only survive a few weeks, 25% last a few months and another 25% go on for a good few years yet? Of course it all depends on what the scans/xrays show...so fingers crossed! He is only 5 and incredibly fit and healthy and slim. He already looks completly recovered and normal and energetic after his surgery last week so I'm really hopefull!
 
No advice but just wanted to say that I hope he makes a full recovery and there are no further complications. Hugs to you, what a worrying time
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Thank you guys. He has just been sat on my lap (big dog as he is) having cuddles for the last half hour,he wont leave me alone! Bless him he is such a soppy darling.
TripleSand H- will have a look for your post! I think that chemo is a definate possibility but depends on what the scans and xrays are showing.
 
I wish I could tell a different story but my lab Henryhorn had hermangiosarcoma and sadly only survived three weeks after diagnosis.
He hadn't been at all ill either, just slowed down a bit then one day suddenly fell over. He was rushed to the vets and on arrival appeared ok, but the blood test showed problems and after running more tests we decided to give him what time he had left without anything other than palliative treament.
They did talk about chemo but that's dependent on how far the staging has gone. 4 is advanced.
I really hope you can do something, if not my Henry was fine on the steroids for a couple of weeks, then started to lose his appetite, so I knew he was then feeling ill.
Big hugs, it's not a nice thing to find out is it? pm me any questions won't you?
 
i've done only one splenectomy that turned out to be a haemangiosarc and the dog had obvious liver mets during the op and lived another 3 months. your vet should have checked the liver during surgery to see if any signs of mets?
 
So sorry to hear that the news was not good for Tarka. Matty is suffering from exactly the same thing and had emergency surgery also. My vet is also a very good friend and tells me how it is. He says that he has seen this in dogs often and some live quite happily for years and others are lost after a few months. I think our dogs are in the hands of the gods and all we can do is keep everything crossed for them. Matty is going to have her liver and kidneys scanned at the end of this month but is back to her normal bouncy waggy tailed self for now. Good luck and doggy licks from me and Matty to you and Tarka.
 
mattilda, Christmas derby would have said thanks (and to all of you who has replied), I have been to her house for the weekend and Tarka is full of beans and is really happy in himself, played well with my dog. the only sign was bald patch and a scar on his belly which he had spleen removed 2 weeks ago. He's going in for Scan tomorrow so lots of vibes needed for this lovely Tarka.
 
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