Plaque meningioma

Hello. My 9-year-old chocolate lab was recently diagnosed with plaque meningioma. He is blind in one eye, without seizure activity at this time. He was prescribed prednisone at the time, which has brought him back to some semblance of normality with energy to spare. Of course this is temporary sadly. We will be forgoing surgery and radiation, but doing research I found that some anti-progesterone medications have been used to manage meningioma symptoms. Is this something the vets have used in the past successfully? I feel like at this point, with limited time left, I would be willing to try and medication that seemingly has few side effects and could potentially help keep our dog alive for a longer period of time. Thank you

Hello - I'm sorry to hear about your dogs' diagnosis; apparently meningiomas are one of the most commonly tumours of the nervous system but for this diagnosis to have been achieved, specialist imaging or sampling must have occurred.  Thus I am going to be honest; the best advice that you can get regarding your dogs' own tumour at this point, is from the vets who have done this work.  They will have the lab-report and likely access to data from previous similar cases; they will know how the disease is manifesting in this particular patient and of any other medical issues surrounding the case.  Thus they are much better placed to comment.  I therefore wonder what brings you here at this stage?  Perhaps you have received news that you do not yet believe, or wanted reassurance as to its validity.  If this is the case, as you can pinpoint exactly what you want to understand / are not convinced by, I would strongly recommend asking this directly of the vet in charge, in relation to the particular case with which you are dealing.  I hope that this helps.

The first principle of medicine is 'Do No Harm,' so if vets have no evidence to support a particular treatment, they may decide not to offer it.  It is never unreasonable to ask why - and on what basis - a particular recommendation is being made.  My final point, which some clients find patronising or ill-fitting, in which case please ignore it (but others find useful, so I now say it to everybody, in case it helps.....)  Grief can have a huge impact on our decision-making.  As options become limited towards the end of treatment, it is common to look around for mistakes or problems or undiscovered treatments, but a stranger on the Internet (even a qualified one) is unlikely to think of something that your vet (who knows the case well) cannot understand, unless they have specialist knowledge that your vet does not.  Therefore, it may instead be helpful to ask for a second opinion on such a complex case or to be referred to a different specialist directly.  This will hopefully give you the reassurance you need, from somebody who is legitimately in a position to comment on your vets' treatment.  Wishing you both the very best of luck.