Trouble breathing with Lymphoma

Hi, at 7.5 yrs old my Bernese mountain dog has sadly been diagnosed with Lymphoma recently (I think stage 3 is my best guess). We are awaiting the call from the oncologist to discuss chemotherapy, but based on a few other discussions (particularly with our vet), it sounds like it would be too difficult on my girl and so I assume we are in the last weeks of her life now. I'm doing everything I can to make that as enjoyable as possible for her. She is on 2x steroids (20g macrolone) and 4x antinol (I'm not sure if this will do anything) per day. For now, she is relatively happy and healthy, eating, pooing and walking well however what breaks my heart is watching her struggle to breathe at regular times, particularly overnight. I believe because the lymph nodes are swollen she is forced to take short rapid breaths for large periods of time. It appears tiring and somewhat uncomfortable. My question is do you have any ideas at all to help us alleviate this symptom, so she can have a much more comfortable end of life period? Our current vet doesn't have any further advice on it. I can send a video if it might help. Kind regards, Sam

Hello there.  This is a very sensitive question specific to your dogs' case and one on which I, having never met your dog or vet or seen the history, am in no position to comment.  It could be that there are anti-inflammatories or airway drugs that may help, but these have to be carefully balanced with all the other drugs in the picture and therefore I can reccommend only asking your vet when they can expect to speak with the specialist, whether this can be done more urgently and whether there is anything they would reccommend doing in the short-term.

While I am in no position to give second opinions, some vets use a different vet at weekends or out of hours and because breathing is so important and cause cause distress or rapid deterioration, they might be prepared to take a look on an emergency basis.