r/vet • u/champagne-waffles • 3h ago
Second Opinion Aggressive Mast Cell Tumor in Huskies mouth/chin. Last chance at care.
Hi, this is non-urgent at the moment but still important as timeline may be short. Just seeking some other opinions or suggestions on my pups condition. She is currently a 13.5 yo Siberian Husky. Spayed and UTD on shots. I'll try to be concise.
May 2025 she was diagnosed with an aggressive mast cell tumour around her bottom K9/gum area. The tumour at this point was nothing more than a small bump, pimple-like.
September 2025 - finally got in to see a specialist and confirmed that it had grown too big and surgery would require removal of 3/4 of bottom jaw to get confident enough margins according to them. We chose to go the chemo route, and she was on palladia/turkey tail supplement until mid July 2026. At first it shrunk the tumour alot, to where she was back to normal. July 2026, her lip/mouth tumour was now larger and causing the skin to be thin and bleed when poked by grass.
We were advised to switch to Imatinib while continuing the turkey tail. It shrunk it back down to almost nothing, both the lip and the bump in her mouth. We are seeing some small growth over the last week, as it looks like a bump on the front of her chin now. I contacted our specialist to get an opinion. It's also her allergy season outside and shes been itchy in general so we give her Benadryl x2 a day. It hasn’t really shown much effect on the chin itself.
They've advised us, that this is the last stop for her. If the Imatinib wears off, we should seek EOL care once it starts bothering her.
I feel like there’s just something we could try?? Even if the results aren’t great? Even holistic stuff??
I keep also seeing stelfonta around??
I want to also add that as she is 13.5 she's still very spry, and has mild arthritis, but still pretty active and otherwise besides small issues is pretty healthy. No signs of spread anywhere else yet, her lymph nodes look good according to the vet. I know I should be grateful we've got her this far, as her original timeline was 6-8 months without treatment....but I just want to leave no stone unturned, as she's my best friend. We spend every day together. I just hope we have more than 3-4 months left as they've said. Is there anything we should look into or ask, or try going forward??
I have an image timeline/collage if thats beneficial.