[GoldenAngel]

Hi! I'm a new member and am causing myself too many sleepless nights prowling the internet looking for info and advice on behalf of my deeply beloved Golden Retriever Teddy (8 years old). He had a biopsy on a small pink fleshy mass behind his lower left canine tooth which came back as acanthomatous ameloblastoma (a benign but locally invasive tumor that can invade bone). I went to an oncologist yesterday who admits that its small, but suggests radical surgical excision which would mean he would lose the lower canine and a chunk of his jaw because they have to use wide margins when they remove it (cost of $4-5K and two nights in hospital). I am devastated. I can't imagine him away from me for 2 nights as he was traumatized when he had to be away for 3 hours when he had a ear hematoma drained. The vet said he would win the award for most dramatic/tragic performance at the vet... The thought of leaving him for 2 nights makes me physically ill with worry to imagine it. I have read about radiation or bleomycin injections (which the oncologist doesn't do) and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this kind of tumor and what they have chosen to do and if they have any advice or recommendations.... Right now this mass isn't bothering him at all - it's not bleeding, not affecting his ability to eat or mood etc. and I am hesitant at taking off half his jaw for a benign tumor that isn't affecting his quality of life right now...