Had anyone had to deal with a tumor in your dogs mouth

[rsquared]

Our 9 yr old lab had a tumor on his lower gums under his canine tooth
It is not cauliflowered but mostly just looks like the coloration of the rest of his mouth

The local vet wanted to cut it out along with some of his jaw
But isnt sure if it is a benign tumor or malignant

Estimate is $6000 to $10,000

With no guarantee it will cure him

Looking for a country vet and a second opinion

[BigRed323]

Our 9 yr old lab had a tumor on his lower gums under his canine tooth
It is not cauliflowered but mostly just looks like the coloration of the rest of his mouth

The local vet wanted to cut it out along with some of his jaw
But isnt sure if it is a benign tumor or malignant

Estimate is $6000 to $10,000

With no guarantee it will cure him

Looking for a country vet and a second opinion

Pm sent

[TX_Hoghunter]

Good luck with your dog but no way in hell I would spend that kind of money on a dog. Especially an older one.

-john

[rsquared]

Agreed John
That’s why we are getting more opinions

[wsteffen]

It's hard. A few years back we had a dog with a collapsed lung. He was my buddy, but $7000 later I had to let him go. I'd probably do it again, but where I am at in life, I have no monetary worries. If it would affect your families life style, it would be hard to do.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

My wife is a vet and we own the clinic in Whitney. She just removed a suspicious tumor from a dogs mouth actually today. Even with histopath the total was well under $1,000. Of course, it could be a little different depending on condition/location and all.

[Bullseye07]

My buddy just put down his dog that had a tumor on its upper jaw. Crappy situation. Vet could’ve removed it for a crazy amount of money and it might’ve stayed away but it was cancerous. It was up into her sinuses. Bad deal. Sorry to hear about your pup.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Big Lee]

Go see a second opinion. Dr. Carlton in Jarrell animal hospital cones from a long line of veterinary experience. And has many resources at his fingertips. Tell him Lee, his Dad's practice hospital manager sent you.

[OSU Fisher]

That's a tough call... Being a little on the older side makes the decision even more difficult. Also the area (anything face) is even more difficult. If it was a leg you could remove the whole thing and have a good chance of survival assuming it hasnt spread to other areas/vitals. You really need to find out what type of cancer and the stage its in. I know of a couple success stories of dogs having portion of the jaw removed. We recently went through something sorta similar with our golden. A little younger though. Hes our baby and my highly trained field trial/hunting buddy. We were willing to do whatever possible. His cancer was on the top of his snout. Long story short we started with extensive surgery that didnt work... This wadnt cheap 7k ish. The issue with the face is its hard to remove a tone of tissue. We tried this as it was the cheaper of the 2 best options. The other option was a small surgery finished with a month of radiation. This part was roughly 15k. After it came back we had to make a tough decision. We ended up going through with another surgery and radiation. We shoulda done that in the first place and woulda saved the initial 7k on the first surgery. They told us with proper small surgery finished with proper radiation 80% in 5 years are cancer free. If your willing to spend some $ and travel time I HIGHLY recommend Colorado State vet school. They are probably the best in the country and have a huge cancer facility. We used them after it returned the 2nd time. We should have went there from the start. Their knowledge and care is the best I have ever seen. They treated us and our boy like family. And their prices are very competitive. I couldn't be more pleased with the process. After the first visit to re asses everything They went over every care option and didnt push anything on us. They understand everyone's finances are different. They were very accommodating as we live 16 hrs away. We even boarded him with a tech so he didnt have to stay at the school for the month. He was spoiled during his month stay. Any questions feel free to reach out. I understand how difficult of a deal it and did a TON of research over our close to 2 year process. Hes doing extremely well so far but time will tell. We were lucky that it stayed stage 1 and hadn't spread. He was also 5 years old. Best of luck! Dang dogs....

Obviously we financially could do it but the turning point in my decision was a buddy asked me if I would miss that $ in 3 years or would I miss that dog... I knew I would just spend that $ on some toy/toys I really didn't need... Ex. Had to hold off on last years APR TBH build. His question hit home for me and I knew what we had to do.

[Laszlo]

Sounds high to me. This is hard, I know. Hope you can find someone decent.

Veterinary costs can vary widely. For example to get my dogs teeth cleaned in town locally costs anywhere from $300 to $450. I crossed the border about 20 miles into Oklahoma and got it done for $150. They even threw in a nail clipping for free with a little bag of treats. Same drill with heart worm meds. Cross the border and they are at least 35% less.

People can get very emotional when it comes to their family pets. Too many vets know this and take advantage.

[TX_Hoghunter]

Agreed John
That’s why we are getting more opinions

Hey I revisited this today and hope what I wrote did not come across as harsh. I did not mean for it too. Fingers crossed for your dog.

-john

[perow]

Our boxer/mastiff mix had one the size of a golf ball on her lower jaw near the front. Our vet said it could be cut off with a chuck of her lower jaw and the skin folded over but her tongue would always hang out.

He didn’t recommend us doing it but we wanted a second opinion and he got us a referral to the best of the best A&M Vet school. They said they could do it no problem-$4k we schedule the surgery but during the CT scan the found a mass in her chest and surgery was out of the question

The mass never seemed to bother her too much, sometimes she would scrap it and we just kept it clean. You can see the mass in the pic but also can notice it never caused her to miss a meal

[perow]

[rsquared]

Thanks for all the input

We are looking at another vet tomorrow and also at alternative options if it is malignant
Wife is not wanting him to lose part of his jaw