Hi, Everyone! This is a bit too long for a tweet, so I figured I’d put it here.

As you probably know, Queso has a mass on her spleen. That’s probably a hemangiosarcoma, a nasty, fast-growing cancer that is sadly common in lots of dogs, especially Goldens, and especially old ones. We can’t know for sure because that would require surgery, and for lots of reasons, she probably wouldn’t survive surgery at this point.

Dogs typically die from these cancers because the tumors are very big with lots of blood vessels, and they rupture. On top of this, Queso also has stage 3 kidney failure and a bunch of other things going on as a result. She’s not in good shape.

The main, urgent thing to look for with this kind of cancer is if the dog’s gums are pale instead of pink. This means they don’t have the blood flow they should, and often can mean the tumor has ruptured and is bleeding out. When this happens, there’s not really anything to do. That’s the end.

Today, I got home and Queso looked distressed. I checked her gums and they were white. Not good. So we went straight to the vet. I thought it might be the end for her.

Fortunately, she is still with us. Her tumor is not bleeding into her abdomen, so that’s very good. However, over the last week her anemia (a result of the kidney failure at least and maybe also the tumor) has gotten a lot worse. She’s just above the level where things like blood transfusions come into play. We wouldn’t actually do a transfusion, because if her systems aren’t working or she’s bleeding, it won’t fix anything, but it shows how serious the situation is.

She has also stopped eating in the last few days. That’s common when the anemia is advanced. We could at least get her to eat snacks early this week, but she hasn’t even wanted those in the last few days.

So we came home from the vet with some medicine to try to stimulate her appetite and some vitamins to try to make her feel a bit perkier. She’s not in pain or suffering, but she’s tired and not feeling her best.

Honestly, I don’t think we have a lot of time left with her. Hopefully these new meds will make her feel better for a while. As always, we will keep you updated, and please send her all your cheesy vibes.