u/Revolutionary_Put1

Our beloved Sisi, was only 5 years and 9 months old before we had to put her down for an aggressive and inoperable mass in her throat that was compressing her airway and esophagus. Its devastating thinking about how it progressed.

She was the biggest brat ever - all bark and no bite. All the times she would block the hallway or be in the way in the kitchen. The way she would smile at us. Crossing her feet like the princess she was. How she’d bark and nudge at us to let us know she needed our attention. Asserting her territory on the bed and sofa.

It haunts me when my mind replays everything that transpired during our last moments with her. Doing all she can to breathe, and her legs trembling. But still, she fought and smiled until the very end - with all her loved ones reassuring her that she was a good girl.

I hope time will heal. But for now, It hurts so unbelievably bad. My mind can’t help but think how could we have prevented this, and why did this happen to us. Apparently this is super rare for it to occur to her and at such a young age.

We lost her dad - my stepfather - back in October of 2025. Rest in peace, our dear Sisi. I know she’s reuinted with him now, and they’re playing tuggy together.

Our timeline, in case it helps anyone reading:

Early April, my sister started noticing Sisi snoring more than usual, but it didn't seem alarming. April 20th was her annual checkup — we mentioned the snoring and that she'd been breathing a little harder after walks, but nothing at rest. The vet examined her and didn't flag anything urgent. April 25th, my sister's boyfriend noticed her panting harder than he'd ever seen.

By May 3rd, things had progressed enough that our vet took a closer look. He also examined a small wound on her right hind paw — he said it looked almost like her foot had been sliced. He ordered X-rays. The radiology report described a "heterogeneously soft tissue and gas opaque retropharyngeal mass effect" — basically, a mass in her throat with gas pockets inside it, displacing her larynx and trachea downward. The differential included thyroid pathology (cyst, hyperplasia, adenoma, or adenocarcinoma), enlarged lymph nodes, or less likely an abscess. The radiologist also separately flagged the toe (digit 4) — a small ulcerated soft tissue swelling with "neoplasia vs infection" listed in the differential. Looking back, the "sliced-looking" wound on her foot and the mass in her throat may have been connected — possibly metastatic disease. The recommended next step was specialty workup with ultrasound, CT, or laryngoscopy. We immediately started calling specialty hospitals — most were booked 3-6 weeks out. We managed to get a specialty appointment scheduled for the following week.
We never made it to that appointment.

Over the next 48 hours, her symptoms escalated fast. The raspy breathing got worse, her bark went almost silent, she stopped being able to eat solid food, and she started drooling because she could no longer swallow normally. By the night of May 10th — Mother's Day — she hadn’t eaten the whole day and was gasping for air, so we rushed her to the ER. The ER team reviewed the existing X-rays from May 3rd with us. The nurse pointed out on the imaging where the mass had grown into her esophagus and was compressing her airway down to almost nothing - said she was essentially breathing through a small straw. The gas pattern inside the mass, combined with how rapidly her symptoms were progressing, pointed strongly to an aggressive necrotic tumor.

The ER vet and critical care team aligned on the same recommendation: let her go peacefully rather than prolong her suffering.