Dog Bone Cancer Causes, Treatments

Canine osteosarcoma is the tumors or the cancer in dogs that affects the bone.



Any bone in the dog’s body can be affected with this osteosarcoma. But most often the osteosarcoma in the dogs form right above the knee joint or right below the knee joint or a little above the wrist joint that is in the front legs or right below the dog’s shoulder joint. Canine osteosarcoma or dog bone cancer occurs most often among larger breed dogs.

Some of the symptoms of canine osteosarcoma include a lameness that affects the leg where the cancer of the bone is present.



Initially the lameness may be an intermittent phenomenon but later once the tumor begins to grow, there is more damage to the dog’s bone and hence lameness tends to become a more permanent feature as the pain increases and intensifies. Another symptom of canine bone cancer is a swelling appearing in the bone of the dog around the tumor formation level. This is evident in the form of a hard swelling on the dog’s leg.



These bones are usually weakened due to the cancer formation and can cause the bone to break easily leading to pathological fractures. There are various dog bone cancer causes. Some of them include stress or an unhealthy lifestyle. Traces of Sodium Pentobarbital have been found in some of the commercial dog food products which can be cancerous in the long run.     

There are various dog bone cancer treatments. These include relieving the pain that is caused by the cancer affecting the bone and thus attempting to slow down the spread of the cancer to the other parts of the body. There are largely two kinds of surgical procedures that the vet can perform to help in the removal of the tumor of the bone. These include amputating the affected dog’s limb or there is a limb sparing surgery that can also be done. This involves the removal of the tumor of the bone but sparing the rest of the dog’s leg. Both these surgeries are considered as pain controlling treatments. There are various other pain relieving drugs that can also be used to help in treating canine dog cancer. Some of them are tramadol, amantidine, gabaoentin etc. At times radiotherapy can also be used in controlling the pain which is a result of the bone cancer. Chemotherapy is considered to be the only effective way in treating osteosarcoma as the spread of the cancer has normally already taken place by the time the tumor of the bone is evident. Canine osteosarcoma can be a very aggressive type of bone cancer that rapidly spreads to various other areas of the dog’s body.