He will be 11 in Oct. Vet put him under and cauterized the mass and a ton of flushing. Pathology showed two types of malignancy cells. Sarcoma and transient.

He wants to do a follow up in Oct to see if it has grown back any or what the next steps should be.

I have read online that radiation treatment is the recommended path, but I also want to be realistic due to the breed and age of my pet.

Any advice?

No advice. I'm just real sad for you. Good luck.

My 10 year old lab had a mast cell tumor on the bridge of her nose. Did 6 radiation treatments (1 per week for 6 weeks) last Christmas. She lost the hair where the radiation was aimed but didn't have to do chemo or anything else... follow up CT showed the mass was gone... so far so good!

Our previous Weimaraner had a cancerous mass in her nose, she was around 11 I think when we got that diagnosis. She died at the kennel while we were in Texas for Thanksgiving and she was a month away from being 13. Vet told us it was very likely a pulmonary embolism that killed her. Not the cancer itself.

All this to say, don't give up hope, and love your dog.

OldSchoolRdAg said:

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deer corn, if you don't mind talking about it, how did you discover the problem? Nose bleed? Did you have a CT scan done or other tests to diagnose? Thanks

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He would not stop sneezing. Rapid fire 5-8 times. I thought he had a sticker lodged in his nostril bc he runs through that tall grass that has the arrow-head looking stickers.

My vet thought it was allergies. I said no way bc he had never started sneezing like this. I could also tell just looking up his nostril, that something was inflamed and the cavity was pink vs the black of the other side.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't hold still for the vet to really get a good look, so he had to be put under for flushing and and true look.

I was confident the flushing would result in a wayward sticker embedded in his nose.

No, it was a tumor that the vet cauterized and thought he got all of it. Will see soon.

After the removal, he has had watery nasal discharge and still sneezing. But it is healing or growing back? No way to know. An awful feeling.

No other tests yet other than the pathology of the mass that was removed.

OldSchoolRdAg said:

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My 12-year-old Aussie had a sudden nosebleed about a week ago. I took her to an emergency clinic and based on examination and age the vet thought it was probably nasal tumor or cancer. They put her on a Chinese supplement called Yunnan to stop the bleeding and it did overnight. During a follow up with my own vet, she feels it is also most likely a tumor but took some pause when lab work showed her platelets were extremely low. She has been on prednisone and Yunnan the past week. Her red blood count is improving and there has been no additional bleeding to date. Planning on a CT scan to get a more definitive diagnosis. If cancer, I will have to consider treatments and outcomes. Quality of life vs. length of life. As many of you know, it is really tough.

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Hits close to home. I had an 11 year old Aussie who started to get nosebleeds. I took him to the vet who referred me to the specialty vet. After films, the guy came out and asked me if I was a doctor (my vet had told him in advance). Yup. Then asked me if, by chance, I was an ENT doctor. Correct again. He groaned a bit, then went over the films, explained he thought it was a malignancy, so we scheduled a surgery to confirm. Pathology came back inconclusive.
I took the dog to the office on a Saturday, sedated him with some meds a vet patient of mine gave me, used cocaine from the office as topical, and had a CRNA friend come over with oxygen. I biopsied him in the office and sent it to another friend who was a pediatric pathologist. Sure enough, sinus cancer.
After a discussion with the vet, the only option was putting him through radiation under the hopes that the tumor hadn't spread vs no treatment.
Everybody is different, but MY personal feeling is that a dog should be happy, they don't fear dying, and if they seem to be suffering they're probably already suffering a lot more than you know (they don't complain much). A dog that can't smell and probably will have significant crusting in his nose wasn't my idea of a happy dog.
Hopefully you won't have to make the same choice I had to make. They're such smart, wonderful dogs.