UPDATE: MCT--grade 2 with dirty margins

SIGH. One of our fosters had a lump pop up quickly--red and angry and we had it removed and sent off. Came back grade 2 with dirty margins. I haven't been able to speak to the vet as yet--waiting for her/his call. But I'm assuming another surgery is a possibility in the hopes of getting clean margins. LUmp was behind her left front leg--not in the arm pit, but close

Anyone dealt with this? I need to know a couple of things. What treatment, if any, you used and the cost. We are absolutely skinned financially right now and if the MCT treatment (chemo or radiation or both) is our only option, I don't have a single clue what we will do. I have four other dogs that need relatively expensive vetting for absolutely curable things so I am having to make tough calls and tough decisions.

We are not writing this girl off, by any means, but I'd like some more information. I have done a ton of research and frankly, it's been more confusing than helpful. Opinions as to treatment and prognosis seem to be all over the map. Further, our local oncology place anaesthatizes dogs for each and every radiation treatment--which I understand, but it raises a number of other issues of concern. In addition, this foster dog also needs very expensive facial surgery to fix her eye issues.

Thanks folks

UPDATE: We did a second surgery on this girl and we got clean margins this time. WHEW.

Blanche, it was good to talk to you today, sorry about the reason.

Further to that, Alice said DEFINITELY try contacting the chemo manufacturers, with a supporting letter from the vet, as this is not an uncommon thing for them to donate drugs. I really feel this girl has a lot more going for her than my LouLou did when she had "Grade 2 with dirty margins" on her MCT removal, and as we discussed, LouLou lived another 6 more years until she was 17, without a recurrence.

I am ready, willing and able to start a fund-raiser going through Facebook with a "Chip-in" page, just say the word. If certain not-so-nice people can prevail on the goodwill of Facebook "friends" to pay their OWN vet bills and raise $1500, I am sure people will open their wallets.

It was, as always, a tremendous pleasure. Nay, an HONOUR to talk to you and vicariously talk to Alice.

As soon as I've actually talked to the damn vet, I'll let you know where we are headed.

In the meantime, everyone think some good thoughts about this girl. Her name is Posie and here's her link:

http://www.pugalug.com/posie.html

I can add nothing to the actual conversation at hand, but I adore this little girl! What a beauty!

Blanche, I'm sure this could be a dumb question, but this is what I got with Emmet when he had his MCT--we did a second surgery to get clean margins. Is that an option? E's was on his front leg, so not a lot of room to take "extra." (I should add--the second surgery gave us clean margins).

Also, his was Grade 2 / low, which the vet told me was much better than Grade 2 / high. (I remember from a thread of Amanda's, the low/high has to do with the aggressiveness of it, I think.)

At any rate, after the second surgery, the only "treatment" E has had is a Chinese Herbal powder I give him in his food. Sending the best wishes for your girl.

I am ready, willing and able to start a fund-raiser going through Facebook with a "Chip-in" page, just say the word. If certain not-so-nice people can prevail on the goodwill of Facebook "friends" to pay their OWN vet bills and raise $1500, I am sure people will open their wallets.[/quote]

Rona,if you do a chip-in please send it to me. I will pm you my email addy(I'm not on FB ) and will be glad to help anyway I can by passing along to my contacts and also donating. I wanted to send out a plea anyways for Pug A Lug,but I think doing it this way and maybe one pug at a time with their own stories and pictures will help. Of course with permission from Blanche.

Blanche,Posey is a darling girl and you can count me in for some moola for her

Continued good thoughts for Pug A Lug and Miss Posey!

Trish

Eph91 wrote:Blanche, I'm sure this could be a dumb question, but this is what I got with Emmet when he had his MCT--we did a second surgery to get clean margins. Is that an option? E's was on his front leg, so not a lot of room to take "extra." (I should add--the second surgery gave us clean margins).

Also, his was Grade 2 / low, which the vet told me was much better than Grade 2 / high. (I remember from a thread of Amanda's, the low/high has to do with the aggressiveness of it, I think.)

At any rate, after the second surgery, the only "treatment" E has had is a Chinese Herbal powder I give him in his food. Sending the best wishes for your girl.

Surgically, the spot is a good one with lots of room (I think) for a second surgery. The rest of the questions are the ones I will be asking the vet who I still haven't spoken with--slight GRRR on my part that it's taking so long to talk to him/her.

My guess is the first thing they will want to do is stage it...ie see if it has gotten into other organs which would of course, affect proposed treatments. We had a little guy who had TONS of MCTs...I mean he went from 2 to 24 in 4 weeks..so we did the chemo. Most "regular" vets don't do it so we had to go to the Vet school. It involved a once a month visit to the vet school for his chemo drips, then 2 weeks later the foster mom gave some meds orally and then we had to have another blood test before he could have the next treatment as it can cause anemia. One time he was a little anemic so we had to wait a few weeks. All in all is was 6 months and he did great with the treatment and went on to live another 3 1/2 years.

I would think they would stage it (which is usually an ultrasound and maybe xrays) and then if all looks good, do another surgery.

Best of luck with this little ones. I sure hate MCTs!!

Pugsavers wrote:My guess is the first thing they will want to do is stage it...ie see if it has gotten into other organs which would of course, affect proposed treatments. We had a little guy who had TONS of MCTs...I mean he went from 2 to 24 in 4 weeks..so we did the chemo. Most "regular" vets don't do it so we had to go to the Vet school. It involved a once a month visit to the vet school for his chemo drips, then 2 weeks later the foster mom gave some meds orally and then we had to have another blood test before he could have the next treatment as it can cause anemia. One time he was a little anemic so we had to wait a few weeks. All in all is was 6 months and he did great with the treatment and went on to live another 3 1/2 years.

I would think they would stage it (which is usually an ultrasound and maybe xrays) and then if all looks good, do another surgery.

Best of luck with this little ones. I sure hate MCTs!!

Thanks Roxane. This is really helpful as we've had lots of MCTs, but usually grade 1 and clean margins. I've had one with advanced grade 3 through the all breed rescue that we had to let go. So I've been at either extreme, but never stuck in the middle and from what I am reading and hearing, grade 2 with dirty margins is hard to call as some act like grade 1s and some act like grade 3s. There doesn't seem to be alot of predictability in the grade 2s.

We did a second surgery on this girl and we got clean margins this time. Not a guarantee that she won't get another and we're looking into some options to reduce the likelihood, but for now, she's doing well.

Now onto her eye surgery needs......

Glad you got the clean margins. Keep us posted.

That's great news Blanche!