Published on: March 24, 2022 • By: Echo · In Forum: Dogs
Ask our vets a question or search our existing threads. If you've got a question about your pet, this is the place to get an answer.
Author
Topic
Echo
Participant
March 24, 2022 at 01:12pm
Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some help/insight into an xray of my dog. I was told he has a tumour in his stomach/spleen/liver which has spread to his lungs.
These are the xrays the vet provided to confirm this, however, I'm obviously not a professional although I can guess what organs I'm looking at I can't see anything distinctively untoward, and would love a second opinion from anyone who's able to tell me if the vets diagnosis is accurate.
I understand it's difficult to diagnose anything on xrays alone, but I would really appreciate it if someone could confirm there's evidence here to suggest my vet is right.
Thanks in advance.
Hello! I'm afraid that this dog isn't my patient and these are not my radiographs, so without your vets' blessing I would not give a second opinion on them. Usually to get a second opinion, your vet would present the radiographs and history to a radiography or other medical expert who is formally in a position to know more about this area than they are themselves (eg they have further qualifications in the subject); this is called a referral and thanks to the internet, referrals can be done very quickly nowadays. They might then send a case report back.
Cancer is notoriously difficult to diagnose from chest radiographs alone, even when both views (a lateral - from the side - and a DV, front to back) are presented and even when the medical context is available. I have seen infection that looks just like cancer on radiographs and even if it were ethically permissable, I would not attempt to make such a judgement.
It would be better to ask your vet to talk you through their opinion.
Best of luck with your dog.
Thinking about this, ultrasound is often a very good way in which to examine the spleen, liver and pancreas. Again though, it would be difficult to diagnose cancer from the outside; I think that questions such as: what do you know so far? How sure are you? What would you like to do? What tests would you do in order to understand more? - are good ones for your vet in order to help you to understand the situation better.