Possible tumor on young dog?

Hello all. So my female Husky Lyric is 1 1/2. Very young. I got her from a breeder whom I thought was reputable. Turns out she lied about her age and genetic screening. I got in contact with some of Lyric’s half siblings parents and they seem to have some similar issues going on, and they are younger. Sounds like this breeder has produced a few pups in the past ( not sure if of relation ) that passed away at 2 years old due to an internal tumor/ cancer. So, I will list the majority of her issues to be safe, although I’m not sure if some will be in any relation. She had a grand mal seizure at 7 months, no cause, vet assumed epilepsy but she has never had another. She had her first heat then I was going to spay her as bet recommended one heat ( and to wait until dog is older for development purposes. ) She had this heat, and then 2 months later right around the time of her spay appointment she started another... back to back. Awful heats. After this ended I took her in, everything appeared fine, vet scheduled another spay for May 18th and said she is going to check around her ovaries/ organs etc with a scope as she thinks there may be a tumor. Fast forward, she started another heat yet again. Spay was canceled yet again. A week or two through she had this random heavy bleed and soaked her entire diaper. Unusual as she has only ever had splotches of blood in a diaper. Vet said it isn’t super worrisome as long as she didn’t bleed excessively continuously. She had 2 urinalysis, first one showed elevated white blood cells and urine was very concentrated. Vet waited 2 weeks and then while still on antibiotics she did another, in which all then looked normal. Lyric is now almost 4 weeks in this cycle. I had a diaper on her this morning ( I change frequently and they are always clean ), I took it off to change and her blood was almost... solid? There were chunks of blood on each splotch. The one spot of blood almost looked like jelly. I was told blood clots are not normal for a dogs heat, but these don’t even look like clots. other issues- she has had loose stool ongoing for like half a year, I ruled out chicken intolerance, she has had multiple fecal cultures. Her eyes have been a constant bright red ( the whites ) aswell for months. I am thinking maybe another protein intolerance and am going to do an elimination diet post spay. Not sure if this is all related but those are ( assuming ) allergies ^ to food. now for issues that may be related. -Her seizure; never diagnosed and never had a cause found. - Her odd heat cycles/ bleeding of course - She has been a super frequent pee-er for as long as I can remember. Has to go out frequently, has always drank loads ( which stopped within the past few weeks? ) and squats to go about 12 times while walking when we go for a walk. - Besides randomly stopping her excessive drinking, within the past month she has also started showing disinterest in her food. It takes about a 1/2 hour of leaving it in her kennel with her for her to eat. She used to gobble it down in which she needed a slow feeder. - I want to say she has been lethargic. She still had energy and plays a lot, but before whenever I would come home she would start howling before I got to the room their kennels are in. Now within the past month she doesn’t get excited. Even if I am gone for 2 days and they are being watched ( in which she used to go nuts when I arrived. ) Now she just continues laying down and doesn’t even sit up, just slowly looks up at me when I go to her kennel. - Immense Anxiety. I first noticed this a few months ago. It came with her first heat then went away. She would pace 24/7 and cry. Now she is just always whiny and on edge, and won’t let me leave the room without her. She just whines all the time and acts panicky. While Huskies are known to be vocal, this is new for her. And this isn’t really a Husky being vocal as in “ talking “ or howling, she just always cries this high pitch cry. She used to be the calmest dog ever, everyone joked and said she was a broken Husky haha ( although she has always been athletic, she was just super chill at home. ) My question; does vet’s prognosis sound correct? Or would you guys not assume a tumor? Have any of you experienced a young dog having a tumor whether on their liver, uterus, ovaries etc? Do you guys agree that she may have one? And if you don’t, what are your opinions? photo is of today’s diaper from early morning. I couldn’t get a great photo but if you zoom you can see the chunks on each spot of blood, and the one spot looks thick almost like jelly.

Hello.  What a complex situation.  You begin by suggesting that there is a line / family of huskies with a history of dying of cancer before the age of two years old.  You do not state the type of cancer or indeed whether it is consistent between them, so it is difficult for me to comment at all about this except to say that it sounds to be highly unusual and I wonder about extenuating circumstances.

You then discuss repeated heats, making it difficult to perform a spey operation (indeed, most vets prefer to spey when a pet is not bleeding if they can), and more recently the development of lethargy as well as polyuria and polydipsia (drinking a lot and urinating a lot).   Indeed, there is more than one possibly that explains these symptoms as you have described them but I would expect your vets to have more clinical information including their examinations and tests to narrow the differential diagnoses (possible diagnoses from the initial signs) down.  From the information your have given alone, neoplasia (cancer) is certainly a possibility, even in young animals (as you know, human children and young adults develop cancers too, albeit more rarely than older adults).  If you would like a full second opinion of their findings, the normal route would be to ask your vets to refer these notes for a formal second opinion from someone who can see the full details of the case.  Your vets may also have carried out or requested further tests for example imaging, an exploratory laporotomy or blood tests to rule out medical causes of bleeding.  I hope that this helps a little and would be interested to hear what happens next.  All the best with your young girl.

Not sure how to reply directly to you but thank you. The other owners in this situation didn’t include what type of cancer. All they said was that their pups experienced similar ( the very odd heats, anxiety, and frequent urination. ) They didn’t say where the tumors were found but said they were internal, no lumps could be felt. This was said by 2 out of the 3 relatives I found of my dog’s, that were purchased way previously. The only other relatives I know of hers are from the younger litter. Our vet did some blood work I believe, though not extensive. A urinalysis was done a month ago and it looked odd then we went back in 2 weeks later while she was on antibiotics and it looked normal. Other than that no tests have been ran ( besides stool cultures for her allergy symptoms to rule out bacterial infections, came back good. ) She didn’t say they are running any further tests, she is just taking it step by step. Since she needs spayed she is looking around with a scope then. She said if they find a tumor or anything odd they will send a sample in, but it sounds like they aren’t doing further testing unless she has a tumor. They are only going to do X-rays if her trachea looks odd ( separate matter. ) I should also add the excessive urination has been ongoing since we got her. Infections were ruled out. She used to drink and drink to the point our vet said we couldn’t leave water down as she would go drink a huge large bowl at once if allowed. The excessive drinking only stopped about a month or 2 ago, right around the time she started showing more lethargic sings, and she also has been eating very slow. She used to gobble her food in which she needed a slow feeder so it is unusual.

Are they going to do this spey sooner rather than later?  Looknig forward to hearing what they find.

Yes! They are doing it June 10th. At first they didn’t want to do it until August, but they want her in sooner now. I just took her diaper off and it looks like her heat is ending ( finally- 4 weeks in ), but she has brown spots on her diaper. I am paranoid because I know Pyometra shows itself with discharge sometimes but I feel it also may be old blood? I will keep an eye on her for any swelling or other symptoms. She had this discharge before ( a few weeks ago ) with her blood. Vet said she did not suspect pyometra. And a few days ago she had some thick chunky blood. Vet is really suspecting a tumor now and thinks it may be causing the odd blood/ discharge 😢. We will see. I will update you then!

Hey Liz! Not sure if you will see this but thought I’d update ❤️. Lyric had her spay today. I am not sure if they did any in depth searching with the scope ( they were very busy and it was a different vet last minute than we signed on. ) They looked confused when we asked the results and said her organs are all there/ look in color. So I am not sure if they needed to check behind them or anything to search for tumors. She did great, her trachea look’s good. Only thing is her uterus was “ very large “ per their words. They said nothing of infection so we don’t know why it would have been but it can explain all the hormonal issues.