"Groggy" wrote in message
...
....

Last week, I took her to the vet for a regular injection and asked
about the lump on her chest. The young girl vet becomes still, and I
can tell that her manner is more serious, more thoughtful. "I need to
check this" she says, and goes outside to get a needle to sample the
lump. After looking in a microscope she is concerned that the lump has
uneven cell growth, and suggests that a small surgical procedure is in
order to know for sure. Today we got the results and they were not
good. The 'growth' is a mast cell which is particularly aggressive.

So, there is not a lot can be done without radical surgery or
chemotherapy. I don't mind the expense, but they delay the inevitable
and lower the quality of what time remains. For now we'll focus on
making fun the time left, leaving snacks around the place by
'accident' and going for more walks.

It might not be that bad... last year our nine year old Golden Retriever
Megan underwent a major surgery to remove a similar large and aggressive
mast in her abdomen. After a few weeks of recovery she was running around
again like a puppy... Now that the cold weather has hit it looks like she
has arthritis in her hind quarters and she is dealing with her annual bout
of dermatitis but there are no symptoms of the mast reoccurring. She's off
to the vet this afternoon to deal with the current issues!

John