About five weeks ago our beloved and very fit 12-year old greyhound cross had a strange spasm, like a miniature stroke. The next day he was disoriented, bumping into things and not noticing when he was peeing. The vet suggested various possibilities including the onset of senility and put him on tablets to increase blood flow to the brain.
That night he was incontinent in the house and seemingly very poorly. Over the next few days he alternated between at one point being flat out and another being seemingly recovered. The vet put him on antibiotics. His eyesight/orientation recovered during this period.
I took a urine sample to the vet and a test indicated protein in the urine, upon which they did a blood test, which indicated raised levels of white blood cells and bilirubin. We were told he still had an infection and he was put on a further antiobiotic.
On the last visit I had pointed out the dog's distended abdomen, which seemed to be full of liquid, although they didn't seem unduly concerned. This seemed to come and go. By this point the dog had seemingly made an an amazing recovery, and was tearing around like a puppy again. However after two blissful days like this he suddenly collapsed on his walk, and his abdomen was swelling again.
I took him to a different vet for a second opinion and they conducted a thorough 30 min examination and booked him in for tests. He was found to be hugely anemic. Alas the swollen/"full" abdomen meant they couldn't see anything in x-rays and ultrasound. Alas a needle into the abdomen revealed the liquid was blood. They had to operate immediately but on opening him up found two large tumours and up to 40 smaller ones: a spleen hemangiosarcoma had bled, spreading the cancers. There was no option but to do the kind thing.
We are devastated, especially as he was such an active dog and seemingly had lots more happy days to come. I realise such cancers are among the most difficult to diagnose and the hardest to treat, but cannot help wondering if they should have investigated the symptoms more thoroughly at the start, when ultrasound may have revealed the problem, even if the outcome may have been no different.