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Sorry, this is going to be long, but I'll try to be as brief as possible. Sadie has routinely undergone blood tests to check on the health of her liver, since she has been on medication for arthritis for a couple years. The last blood test showed very elevated liver enzymes. Her vet recommended a liver ultrasound to check & see if maybe there was some liver disease going on. We had that appointement today. Her liver is significantly diseased, but that turned out to be the lesser problem. The vet found a large mass on her spleen. He said there is no way of knowing from the ultrasound if it is a cyst or benign tumor, or a cancerous tumor, but he added that 65% of these masses end up being cancerous. Here are my options: 1) Biopsy the liver only to determine the type of liver disease & begin treatment of that & ultrasound the spleen in a month. If the mass has not grown, it is likely benign and would only need to be watched. If it has grown, then it would likely be cancer, as they grow quickly & surgery would be necessary then. The big risk of this option, is that if it is cancer, one month could allow it to grow and spread to other organs. Option 2) Remove the spleen & mass and biospy her liver at the same time to determine its problem. The big risk here, is surgery at her age (11yrs) and with a diseased liver. My dilemma: do I wait the month, hoping it's not cancerous, but with the odds against that, possibly giving the cancer time to grow, or do I have them do surgery now, hoping to avoid cancer spread but take the risk of losing her in surgery because of her age and health risks? I know there is no easy answer. As the vet said, if only we had a crystal ball... I have to make the decision that I feel is best, with the risks I can live with. It's just hard to balance doing what you can to extend their lives, but not be unreasonable and put them through too much. Thanks for listening. Any words of wisdom would be appreciated!