How long does a dog live with a brain tumor? Surprising Answer

Symptoms & Diagnosis

Symptoms of a brain tumor in dogs can vary. The following are initial symptoms that your dog may display if they have a brain tumor:

Altered behavior

Aggression

Abnormal pupil size

Decreased cognitive function

Acute seizures

Difficulty walking

Hearing loss

Blindness

Proper diagnosis begins with a thorough examination by your veterinarian. This may include examining the pupils and their response to light, evaluating limb extension, taking blood work, x-rays to show if the cancer has spread to the lungs, and undergoing a CT or MRI.

Once a diagnosis has been confirmed, there are a few methods of treatment which can be followed. More often than not, emergency treatment is required. The reason being, dogs commonly present with acute seizures resulting from the tumor itself. Slow growing tumors can cause pressure changes within the brain which can lead to seizures. The following steps are typically taken to treat and stop the triggers of canine seizures:

Placing an IV catheter

Checking blood sugar

Administering IV anti-seizure medication to stop the seizures

Providing medication and initiating comfort measures to reduce brain swelling

Once seizures are under control, there are five general treatment options for the tumor itself:

Medical Management: This option focuses on managing the pain in dogs and other symptoms associated with the tumor in an effort to increase the dog’s quality of life. Unfortunately, this is a method of symptom management and thus the life expectancy of pups under this method of treatment is merely a few months.

Traditional Radiation and Chemotherapy: Certain veterinary hospitals offer radiation and chemotherapy for dogs, which requires general anesthesia to help radiate the brain. Under a typical radiation treatment schedule, each treatment lasts a couple minutes and will occur daily, five days a week for up to three consecutive weeks. This method may help extend your dog’s life by several months, depending on how they respond to the treatment. However, albeit rare, there is also potential the radiation impacts healthy brain tissue too, which could cause negative side effects.

Brain Surgery: Brain surgery for dogs is not nearly as advanced as brain surgery for humans. Dog’s must be put under anesthesia when undergoing this kind of invasive procedure. Upon undergoing anesthesia, the surgeon will take out the tumor from underneath. If successful, this method also yields the potential to increase your pup’s life expectancy. However, it can be costly and is typically only done by specific, certified surgeons. This method is also not without its risks, which include worsening seizures and surgical complications.

Stereotactic Radiation Therapy: This form of radiation therapy is highly specialized and involves brief anesthesia for only a few days. It directly targets the tumor, rather than the entire brain (including its healthy tissue). Naturally, it has a greater chance of success than traditional radiation, but it can be quite expensive.

Euthanasia: While it may garner mixed opinions, euthanasia is nonetheless an option some dog owners elect to proceed with due to the severity of the symptoms and a bleak prognosis.

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How will my vet know that my dog has a brain tumour?

Your vet may suspect that your pet has a brain tumour because of the signs you describe.

The brain cannot be seen on standard X-rays so special diagnostic tests are needed to allow your vet to take pictures of your pet’s brain. Diagnosis of brain tumours in dogs and cats is based on imaging the brain either with a CT-scan or an MRI-scan. Although these tests are very good for detecting the presence of a mass in the brain, they are not good at identifying the exact nature of this mass (i.e. whether it is a tumour, inflammation or even bleeding within the brain).

A sample of the fluid from around the brain may need to be taken to rule-out an inflammation of the brain and, in rare cases, this can reveal the presence of a certain type of tumour called lymphoma. In order to confirm the exact cause of the mass and, if it is a tumour, to find out how malignant it is, a tissue sample must be collected. This sample can be obtained by inserting a biopsy needle through the skull. Alternatively, if surgical removal of the mass is planned, a sample may simply be collected at the time of surgery.

Aggressive tumours may spread around the body (metastasise). Brain tumours in dogs and cats can spread to the chest and tumours from other sites (especially lung, liver, prostate, and mammary gland) may spread to the brain. X-rays of the chest and abdomen as well as an abdominal ultrasound may be necessary to confirm that tumours are not present elsewhere in the body.

Brain Tumors in Dogs