Senior husky with low neutrophils & cancer. Is steroid treatment right?

Question

My 11 year old husky Has been sick and had a very low neutrophil count a few weeks ago. They redrew blood and the count dropped even lower. No other counts were off. Because of his other symptoms - throwing up bile, a seizure a few weeks ago, they believe it to be cancer but because of his age don’t want to put him under to run tests so have him on steroids. Is this the best course? What type of cancer could it be? Pet's info: Dog | Siberian Husky | Male | neutered | 43 lbs

Stacey Anstaett, DVM · Accepted Answer

Im so sorry to hear this news. It is so difficult to face these decisions, I know. It may be that he has cancer in his bone marrow that is preventing him from making neutrophils. It is also possible that the primary cancer is somewhere else (for example a brain tumor) and the low neutrophils are what we call a "paraneoplastic syndrome," which is just a fancy way to say that cancer is a jerk and it will make other things go haywire for no particular reason. Again I am so sorry. It sounds like trying him on steroids is a perfectly reasonable course of action at this point. If that does not help, it may be time to consider euthanasia. You clearly have Shadow's quality of life as your main focus, which is very important. I am so sorry for your heartache. Thanks for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Senior husky with low neutrophils & cancer. Is steroid treatment right?

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