Supporting Eli: Our Journey After Finding a Mass

I feel like I’ve been trying to write this since the end of last year… just wanting to share my journey with my best boy, Eli, and everything that’s been going on with him since a few weeks after we lost Tink last August.

After we lost Tink, I was heartbroken and honestly a bit paranoid, so I wanted to take Vida and Eli in for full workups. I didn’t necessarily want to find anything, of course, but another part of me knew that if there was a problem and I caught it early, then I could intervene and offer support in hopes of getting ahead of whatever it was—especially since neither of them had any symptoms. So even though I was looking, I really didn’t want to find something.

Everything looked good, but when we did an abdominal ultrasound, we found a mass on his spleen.

I’m not going to go into every detail, but as you can imagine, I immediately went into panic mode. Because that’s what I do when it comes to my dogs. I’m human. I may help a lot of people with their dogs, but when it’s mine, I feel everything first.

But I’ve learned this about myself—after that initial wave of shock, I give myself a few days. I process it. And then I get to work building a plan and a protocol.

That’s where my fear shifts. I lean into what I know, what I’ve learned, and I reach out to the professionals I trust. I get focused. I get intentional. And I do everything I can to support him because quality of life is my main focus.

Of course, when I heard “tumor on the spleen,” my mind immediately went to hemangiosarcoma—an aggressive blood vessel tumor that usually takes dogs very quickly. If you know, then you know. I know because I lost my Ozzy to this cancer, my husband lost his boy Hansel, and countless friends and clients have lost their dogs to this awful disease. Honestly, hemangiosarcoma feels like an epidemic at this point.

Knowing what I know, I was just grateful we found it on a routine ultrasound instead of during an emergency situation where the spleen had already ruptured. So many people discover these masses after their dog collapses or becomes lethargic with pale gums, and they rush to the ER. I felt very fortunate that this was not the case with Eli.

At the time, Eli was happy and overall just living his best life.

From my experience, when a mass like this is found, most pet parents do one of three things: they opt for a splenectomy to remove the spleen and biopsy it to see if it’s cancerous, they take their dog home to support them and hope for the best, or they choose euthanasia because they’re fearful of suffering or decline.

Of course, I knew the risks. But in my research, I found that many of these tumors can be benign. Even though a benign splenic mass can still rupture, grow in size, become invasive, or potentially become malignant, in my heart I did not want to remove his spleen at 14–15 years old. I just knew that was not the right option for him, even though his labs looked great and he felt good.

As an intuitive and proactive pet parent, I wanted to make my decision for him—not for me.

So I chose not to do surgery. Instead, we ran standard and targeted bloodwork panels such as VDI Lab’s cancer risk assessment and inflammation panels, vitamin D levels, and more. His cancer risk came back fairly low, inflammation was high, and thankfully his vitamin D levels were excellent—which is incredibly important when the body is trying to stay resilient against disease.

I consulted with professionals I trust, and I put together a strong protocol involving Chinese herbs, Western herbs, full-spectrum hemp extract, medicinal mushrooms, glandulars, ozonated glycerin and so much more—all alongside his fresh food diet.

One thing I really want people to understand is that when you are asking the body to stay strong and resilient against disease, that’s very hard to do on ultra-processed food. It’s like us eating McDonald’s every day for every meal and expecting our bodies to have the tools to fight and repair. Ultra-processed foods are full of inflammatory oils, carbohydrates, sugar, and toxins, which only add to the burden the body already has to carry. It hinders healing.

Since we found the tumor, our focus has simply been to support him—and truly, he has done amazing. He’s been happy, full of life, stubborn, opinionated, has a superb appetite, and is very much himself.

We continue to repeat bloodwork and ultrasounds every 3–4 weeks just to stay on top of any changes. Thankfully, he loves his veterinarian, so it’s not stressful for him at all—and he gets tons of treats too!

In December, he developed pancreatitis, which we believe was likely from the tumor irritating the pancreas. Then in January, he had a severe tooth infection and had to go through surgery. We knew all of that could potentially affect the tumor, especially surgery.

With his most recent bloodwork and ultrasound the other day, it does look like the tumor may be changing and possibly spreading to other organs. But even with that, he is still doing incredibly well.

Usually, with this type of splenic tumor, internal bleeding would be the biggest concern. Thankfully, there have been no signs of active bleeding. What we are seeing most recently is anemia and his body not turning over red blood cells the way it should, so that has become one of my biggest areas of focus and support.

Something worth mentioning is the approach I’m taking to increase his iron and blood production because I did not want to use iron supplements due to the GI side effects they can cause. I wanted a more natural approach, so I started him on liver, heart, and spleen glandulars and decided to source actual blood. I mean… what could work better than the real thing, right?

We initially used freeze-dried blood capsules until I learned about a newer product in the pet space called Totoniks. It’s a freeze-dried venison blood product that I was so excited to try.

After about two weeks, it looks like his body is making new red blood cells. His anemia is trending in the right direction, his gum color looks better, and his energy has improved as well.

Right now, we are winning—and I’ll take it.

If you know me, you know I’m leaving no stone unturned. I’m researching, leaning on incredible professionals, and doing everything in my power to support him while still honoring what he enjoys and what he will tolerate.

The reality is, none of us know how much time we get with the ones we love. But right now, Eli is here. He’s happy. He continues to remind me every single day to stay present and appreciate what’s right in front of me.

So for those of you who know Eli, or know how much he means to me, I would really appreciate any prayers, love, or good energy sent his way. We are hoping to celebrate a big birthday in July where he will turn 15—our best guess since he was about a year old when I found him in 2012.

This boy has been one of the greatest blessings of my life, and we have shared so many incredible years together—so many ups and downs, wins and losses—and I’m grateful for every single one of them.

All I know is this world can be harsh and heavy, and somehow dogs come into it without any of that… just unconditional love, loyalty, joy, and a peaceful presence that changes you forever.

What I do believe is that they choose us.

And I’m so honored Eli chose me. 

No matter what comes next, right now we’re focused on continuing to enjoy every single day we get together.