How to Tell If My Dog Has Leukemia? Symptoms and Treatment

Leukemia is the type of cancer that affects the white blood cells, destroying them and slowly bringing the dog's life to an end.

But it's not all bad news — fortunately, there are now many treatments available to keep canine leukemia from progressing, and even to slow down the disease's symptoms. Want to know more? We explain it in detail below.

How Does Leukemia Affect My Dog?

Leukemia is a progressive disease of the bone marrow, characterized by abnormal proliferation and development of hematopoietic cells (the precursors of blood cells).

When a dog has leukemia, its bone marrow produces a large number of defective white blood cells (also called leukocytes). These enter the bloodstream but can't properly do their job, which is protecting the dog's body.

Because of this process affecting the white blood cells, the dog's defenses (its immune system) are severely affected. This makes the dog much more prone to picking up other illnesses.

How Does Leukemia Develop?

The origins of leukemia are just as mysterious as those of other forms of cancer. There's no single causal factor that applies to all types of canine leukemia.

Leukemia doesn't always present the same way in dogs. Sometimes it can be an acute leukemia, which appears suddenly, and other times it's a leukemia that develops slowly, progressing bit by bit. This is what's known as chronic canine leukemia.

Genetics, exposure to radiation and chemicals, and viral infections are considered risk factors that can predispose a dog to this disease. That said, there's still a lot to learn about what causes it.

Although genetic changes can occur spontaneously over the course of the animal's life, several environmental agents can contribute to DNA damage and speed up the progression of the cancer. Experimentally, exposure to ionizing radiation induces DNA damage and causes this type of disease in dogs.

How to Tell If a Dog Has Leukemia? Symptoms

Leukemia shows up through multiple general symptoms in our dog, since it's a disease that affects the whole body.

To diagnose it, veterinary tests are needed, but if you notice any of these symptoms, you should consider getting these tests done urgently.

The most obvious signs of acute leukemias:

• The dog seems very fatigued, weak.
• It keeps losing weight and has no appetite.
• Vomiting / episodes of unexplained diarrhea.
• Excessively pale mucous membranes / swollen lymph nodes.
• Heart rate seems elevated / panting, difficulty breathing.
• Urinates more frequently or in larger amounts / seems dehydrated.
• Shows signs of bleeding.
• Fever associated with infectious diseases.
• Joint pain.
• In some cases, neurological signs (confusion, stumbling gait).
• Limping.

A dog with leukemia will usually experience general malaise and may also have an enlarged liver and spleen. Only a vet can run the tests needed to definitively confirm this diagnosis. That's why, if you suspect your furry friend's health is at risk, it's important to take it to the vet soon.

Chronic leukemias usually follow a much less aggressive course, with pets generally showing nonspecific signs, like the ones mentioned above (for acute leukemia), but since it's a slower process, it gives specialists more time to work out a treatment plan.

What Tests Does a Vet Run to Diagnose Leukemia?

If, after an exam and reviewing the dog's history, the vet suspects leukemia, they may want to perform a bone marrow biopsy. This is done by putting the dog under anesthesia, through a simple surgical procedure.

The sample is usually taken from the hip area and, once extracted, sent to a lab for analysis. A cytological study will show whether it's cancer.

Canine leukemia isn't a very common disease in dogs, with adult females of large breeds showing the highest percentage of cases.

Treatment to Cure Leukemia in Dogs

Dogs with acute leukemia usually don't have a favorable short- to medium-term prognosis, since the disease progresses much faster and more aggressively.

If it's a type of chronic leukemia and it's caught in time, dogs can live several more years with proper treatment that slows the disease's progression. In more than 40% of dogs with chronic leukemias, it's been shown that they die from a cause unrelated to the leukemia, after several years of treatment.

The basic treatment approach doesn't differ much between chronic and acute leukemias. Leukemia treatments are usually based on chemotherapy sessions, transfusions to replace blood cells, steroids, and antibiotics depending on the specific clinical picture. The vet can also prescribe pain relief medication to ease the discomfort the dog is experiencing.

Treatment for acute leukemias often requires hospitalizing your pet, since it involves hydration support and correcting physiological parameters, so your pet experiences as little discomfort as possible.

Multidisciplinary teams are currently working on researching the disease to develop drugs that minimize symptoms in both types of leukemia, but the truth is that, to this day, leukemia (mainly in its acute form) is potentially fatal and difficult news to take in.

Your furry friend is going to need you more than ever, and you need to support it as you fight this terrible disease together.