I do not envy the veterinarians who work emergency. It costs a lot of money to keep a hospital open and fully staffed 24 hrs a day. They see a lot of terrible diseases and give out a lot of bad news. I, on the other hand, see a lot of wellness appointments and I don’t have to pay to keep a hospital open 24/7 so overall, I tend to be pretty optimistic and error toward the side of giving the dog a chance to live in this situation and can charge less than an ER or specialty hospital. I am a general practitioner with many years of experience in soft tissue surgery but I am not a board-certified surgeon.
When I find a mass on the spleen on a physical exam or because there are a few abnormalities on their bloodwork and I perform an ultrasound to look for one, I’m always asked the question, “what would you do if he was your dog?”. To me, this is overall an easy decision. I take it out. Obviously, you have to make sure that the dog can handle anesthesia, doesn’t have any signs of metastasis or other severe concurrent diseases, but overall, I take it out. No matter the age of the dog. Age is just a number, not a disease. I have performed splenectomies on 14-year-old dogs who have gone to live for another two years and died of old age.
Out of the last six spleens I removed, 66% of them were benign. That means those dogs are cured of this disease!! Would you spend $1500 to possibly cure your dog of a disease that could easily kill him (if the mass ruptured)?? I would. I understand that everyone does not have to financial ability to spend that amount of money and that is really okay. It is a lot of money. But it is a good idea to call around if you get a much higher estimate of the cost. Half of those six patients of mine came to me from other clinics because either their regular veterinarians do not feel comfortable performing those surgeries or they were quoted 2-4 times that amount at an emergency/specialty hospital.
I really hope Jake’s tumor is benign. And there are a couple of prognostic factors that give me hope that it could be benign. Jake’s tumor was not actively bleeding when it was found. Jake was not anemic and had a normal platelet count. Jake did not have signs of metastasis to his lungs or liver. And if it’s not benign, then I will have that tough conversation with his mom and go over the herbs we will use to slow down the growth of the tumor and I can give her some expectations for the next 3-10 months of his life. But at least, for now, Jake is home with his mom, he is feeling much better since taking his spleen out, and his mom can take a little time to come to terms with his diagnosis if it is not what we expect.
So yes, I would take out my dog’s spleen if I could afford $1500 and my dog was otherwise in good shape. I’ll take those odds that her mass would be benign. And if the pathology report said otherwise, then at least I was able to hug on my dog for many more months before I had to say goodbye.