Has anybody put their dog through chemotherapy? I'd like to get a feel for its cost, how it affected the dog, if it worked, and if they would do it again -- all things considered.

-We put our lab/huskie mix through chemo and it wasn't bad at all. Of course, all chemotherapy treatments are probably not the same. Our dog had (or has) the tendency to develop mast cell tumors. She's already undergone surgery on two previous occasions to remove tumors. The treatment for this involved a human chemotherapeutic drug called Leukaran (sp?) and the corticosteroid prednisone. Both are pills so they were easy to administer. The combined effect of the two (mostly from the prednisone, I think) was to make the dog extra hungry and thirsty. She finished her bowl of food every day, which was unusual for her, and drank a lot. She had a few pee accidents in the house. She gained about 8 pounds. Her energy level probably fell off a little. But it wasn't too bad. The two tumors she had when the treatment started went away. The Leukaran was fairly expensive ($65/100 pills or thereabouts), but the prednisone was cheap. She was only on Leukaran for about 6 weeks, but we're still tapering down the prednisone dose now, six months later.

We'd certainly do it again, because we're talking about a dog that's less than 4 years old and should have many years ahead of her.

-I have. Princess had lymphosarcoma and she was in chemo off and on for six months, at first monthly then weekly ( at $100 per treatment). She was 11 at the time, a beagle mix. She tolerated it very well. She didn't get sick, or loose much hair. The cancer came back 6 weeks after we finished the first round of chemo, so we started again, although I knew her chances were not real good. I stopped treatment when she gave indications that she was not tolerating it as well anymore, and she was put down shortly there after, because she seemd to be in pain and had difficulty breathing.

Would I do again? For a dog who's been with me since puppyhood, stayed around longer than my husband? A dog I owed my life too? Of course I would! Even it did mean risking the loss of my house again, because the expenses was more than I could afford. I felt that that every GOOD week I could buy her was worth the money, so I bought her few.

Now, should you do it? That's something you have to decide. How old is the dog? What are his chances of recovering? How well can he tolerate it? And how well can your check book tolerate it? $100 per trreatment is cheap. I later found out my vet was chargung me cost only, so be preapred to pay a lot more.