Hemangiosarcoma (liver and spleen cancer) diagnosed on Muggly (June 1st to July 4th 2016)

Today is a very sad day, we finally had to say goodbye to our dog Muggly, he was diagnosed with Hemangiosarcoma (liver and spleen cancer) a month ago when his belly was bloated and he was not himself. He has been with us for 8 years and we found him in the SPCA when he was around 3 years old. 

I decided to write about our experience because I was searching blogs and forums about dogs that got those kind of cancer and I could not find anything about their experience.


On May 30th, he was diagnosed with the cancer, he was very lethargic and not himself and his belly looked big. At first, I thought he had a twisted stomach so we went straight to the ER for animals.

You can notice Muggly's belly is big

He was very tired

After hours of being there, the vet sat us down and they could see a lot of fluid in his stomach and it was blood which is an indication of either hemangiosarcoma or maybe he had a trauma. Muggly had emergency exploration surgery just in case it was trauma and not cancer but unfortunately, they found the tumor in his spleen, the size of a tennis ball. He was very lucky because he didn't bleed out and the spleen would bleed and stop so this is why he was in a good shape when they got him - the vet was so surprise how good and how his vitals were all good.

The prognosis was 2 months without chemotherapy and 6 months with it. Chemotherapy is very different for animals - when you hear chemo, the thought of a person with no hair and no energy comes in mind but for animals, chemo is not to eradicate the cancer but to give a better quality of life to the animal unlike for us, chemo is to kill the cancer so the cancer patient gets a bigger dosage.

Chemo for animal is around 700$ per 2 weeks for 6 treatments and we decided not to give him chemo because financially and because by doing the surgery, we have already prolonged his life and the end result will still be death. Also with the surgery, they found spots on his abdomen wall which is an indication of stage 4 so the cancer metastasized so it was too late.

Recovery (June 2nd to June 13th)

Muggly stayed in the hospital for 1 more day and he came home with us with a stapled stomach and lots of antibiotics and painkillers.

The day after the surgery, we would strongly suggest owners not to visit them because Muggly got up in panic so if this happens again for our next dog, we will not visit him until he is ready to be home

At home, his energy level was very low and we could only walk him little walks of 10 mins.  The first few days were crazy, he was in so much pain that he could only lie down if we fed him painkillers. I wrote everything down from his first meal, walk, pee, poo and the time of the painkillers, my husband was annoyed that I was charting his care but I knew it was important, I want to know if he pooed or peed and if we have to increase the painkillers - I would totally suggest this, charting the care. Also, we had to leave to go to my husband graduation in Boston so my brother-in-law took care of him for us which helped that he also followed my instructions of charting.

His incision (June 2nd) 2 days after the surgery, lots of fluid build up inside

By June 6th Muggly was already better and we had decreased his painkillers and we decided to stop his antibiotics after 7 days (he was prescribed for 10 days) and my husband (medicine background) did not like that because for a spleenectomy, you dont need that much antibiotics and the type of antibiotics prescribed would upset his stomach. Because my husband is a doctor, we knew the risk of stopping the antibiotics but I would strongly suggest you to ask your vet if you can stop them early. We also would give him a painkiller when we were heading to bed so he could comfortably lie down in his bed.

June 6th, 6 days after his surgery, the fluids are gone and the incision is paler

June 8th, way better

June 13th - appointment with oncologist

We already decided not to go with the chemo but my hubby wanted to hear what he had to say and also take Muggly's stitches out.
The oncologist told us without chemo, he would only live for a month which I was ok with the news because the surgery helped me the beginning of my grief and I knew we will have to decide when to put him down.

June 13th till July 3rd
Muggly had tons of fun up north in the country house, he swam, ran around, hunted and sun tanned. Unfortunately he would also be sometime tired and would just want to be alone outside - he refused coming in and would sleep outside, now I know that if a dog is like that, its because he knows something wrong with him and that he is going to die. At first, I thought it was because he was getting old but helas, I was wrong, he had cancer.
His lethargy started maybe 2 months ago, he stopped eating (but was still a good size) and would not want to go for walks and our other dog Rocky also stopped eating, maybe to inform us that something was wrong with Muggly. At first, we thought maybe because he is sick of eating his food so my in laws didnt think much about it BUT when he stopped walking... that was a red alert, Muggly, our greyhound/shepherd mix doesn't wanna go for walks...that is strange.

June 25th, Muggly feeling way better, playing with the hubby in the country house

Swimming in the lake

July 4th - a sad day, a month and a few days more...

He refused to walk and you can notice that he is lethargic

I was working nightshift overtime and got a text message from my mother-in-law to call her, she informed me that Muggly was only drinking water, not eating, not peeing and refused to go for a walk. The end is coming and she wanted permission to put him down when the time comes. I was hoping that Muggly could have stayed alive till I get home in a week but unfortunately, he was getting worst and the family decided to put him down at 16:00,

I facetimed them when I woke up from my  nap and they already injected Muggly with the tranquilizer, he was fighting the effect of the drug, refusing to lie down and Rocky was lying next to him. I just could not watch it anymore. He will be so missed.