07/27/2026
Good afternoon, friends of Worry Less!! We hope everyone is staying safe and having lots of fun with their fur babies this summer!!! 🫶☀️
This post is going to be a bit different than our usual - It's Jess today, here to bring attention to a disease that many pet parents (myself included) are entirely unaware about until it effects one of their beloved pets - Hemangiosarcoma (HSA). It is my hope that, by sharing Cerrick's story, I can spread awareness about this cancer and help fellow pet parents catch the early, easy-to-miss signs that their pet may have HSA.
CERRICK'S STORY
Cerrick was a silly, happy hearted, relatively healthy 7yo boxer mix. I met him at the Humane Society here in Dawsonville, where I worked as a kennel tech, in 2019. It was my first animal care job. He was only a puppy of 7 months then. When I first met him, my intake supervisor told me, "Don't stick your fingers in the cage, he nibbles." So naturally, I went and stuck my fingers in his cage lol. (As an animal professional with years of experience under my belt now - don't do this 😂) He started his puppy nibbling and looked at me with those silly wall eyes... he was my favorite immediately, a huge feat for a pup in competition with at least 40 other dogs I was taking care of at the time.
He quickly gained a reputation amongst the shelter staff as being a handful. In fact, Worry Less's owner, Crystal (you all know and love her!), took care of him during this time and referred to him as my "devil dog" 😂 Whenever someone requested to meet Cerrick, she would call for me specifically over the radio: "Jessy, do you copy? Someone wants to meet your devil dog. Make sure to give him a bath first because he poop-stomps." (Anyone who's ever worked in animal care will get it) 🤣🤣🤣
But with me, he was a different dog. He was calm for baths. He was an excitable, high-energy dog, but he would chill out for walks with me and not pull on the leash as much as with others. Every time I looked into his derpy eyes, I felt like I was seeing his soul. Every time someone requested to see him and I would bring him up, I would get soooo jealous 😅😂 I could only wait for 2 months before I filled out his adoption paperwork; I couldn't believe no one had adopted him during that time. And then the silliest, most perfect dog in the world was mine!!!
At the time, I was in a really unhealthy relationship. Cerrick was a huge factor/"push" in me making the choice to finally leave. Shortly after escaping that situation, Cerrick's rear right leg, which had always been larger than the rest of them since he was brought to the shelter by animal control, painfully swelled to the point his vet decided amputation was the best option. I was so worried, but knew it was the best thing for him; at only 2 years old, with his leg impeding his quality of life, it was either give him a chance this way or to end his suffering then and now. I promised him that I would always do what was best for him as his best friend.
After 3 weeks of strict couch-potato activity, cone-wearing, t-shirts, medications, anxiety, and healing, Cerrick could finally run again. And boy did he. Once he got the hang of it, he moved better on 3 legs than he ever did with 4. He developed a method for quickly evading other dogs while playing - sit, spin on the stump, and take off in a completely different direction 🤣
He grew into the goofiest, most clingy dog. People who knew us often joked that I was his emotional support/service human, because he had to have me around in order to fully function. Sometimes he wouldn't eat or use the bathroom until I would come home from work, and if I spent a night away from home he wouldn't be able to sleep lol.
But he was also a protector to the best of his ability - one of our favorite stories of him is the time he misunderstood that my partner was freaking out over a wasp landing in their shirt. They suddenly hopped up, yelling, and threw their shirt on the ground. Cerrick decided that the t-shirt was the threat and immediately jumped on it with a loud bark and started shaking it. Thanks to him, no one would ever be hurt by that t-shirt again 😂
Now, the sad part that every pet owner dreads.....
Around midnight going into the day of June 28th, 2026, Cerrick began acting... strange. He was laying in the floor near my chair, which was unusual as he preferred soft beds or blankets. I noticed his stomach seemed swollen. He kept getting up to drink water or change laying positions. His paws felt cold. Eventually, I couldn't ignore the bad feeling that was growing in me that something was really wrong with him, and I took him to the emergency vet. When we lifted him to carry him to the car, he gave us no effort to get himself up off the floor - this was when I knew it was going to be bad.
At the vet's, they told me that he had a mass on his spleen that had ruptured and he was bleeding into his abdomen. They couldn't tell me for sure without performing a splenectomy, but they said that he was showing every sign of an active bleed from a ruptured hemangiosarcoma tumor. They did everything they could, even saying that some dogs recover from the initial bleeding episode, but he passed away that morning around noon.
I am devastated. He was truly unique and silly and himself - there will never be another one, but I guess that's the whole point, isn't it? I was so lucky to get to know him and have him as my first dog.
But, like I said, the point of this post isn't to be sad. It is to share the story of the joy and silliness that Cerrick brought to everyone he met, and to spread awareness about this "silent killer" of dogs.
WHAT IS HEMANGIOSARCOMA (HSA)?
HSA is a highly aggressive cancer that targets the lining of blood vessels in dogs, most commonly older dogs or larger breeds such as boxers, golden retrievers, German shepherds, and more. HSA tumors are most commonly found on the spleen, heart, skeletal muscles, or even on the skin, having an appearance similar to blood blisters. It is known as "the silent killer" of dogs, because it is largely asymptomatic and does not cause pain. In most cases it develops slowly, going undetected by bloodwork and basic exams, until an unstable tumor attached to an organ starts to bleed and rupture - potentially causing sudden weakness, collapse, or death.
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR?
As I mentioned before, HSA is largely asymptomatic and cannot usually be detected visually or by bloodwork. The only way to truly confirm HSA is to have the tumor biopsied - and the only way to find an HSA tumor is by methods such as x-ray, CT scan, or ultrasound, which are not typically used during basic veterinary exams.
Once a tumor is found and confirmed to be hemangiosarcoma, the prognosis is grim: with surgery and chemo, 6 months is usually the absolute best case scenario. There is no cure or treatment for this devastating cancer. The awful truth is that your best bet is to catch it early, before a tumor ruptures, to ensure keeping your pet comfortable as the cancer progresses.
Initial symptoms can easily be dismissed as other, non-emergency issues, as they are:
- sudden bouts of weakness, disorientation, or lethargy that resolve quickly
- changes in appetite/general energy levels
- getting tired more easily; increased panting
The signs of a tumor rupture/active bleed are much more pronounced and easy to catch, but usually by the time a dog exhibits these symptoms it is too late:
- sudden collapse, weakness in back legs
- pale gums
- excessive thirst
- swollen abdomen
- cold extremities (paws, ears, tail)
- unable to lay down or get comfortable
I can remember a time or two in the months leading up to Cerrick's passing that he just seemed a little off. He was always a high-energy pup, so when he didn't feel well, it was obvious. But, everyone has their off days, right? He would seem not himself for a day or so, and then bounce right back - unbeknownst to me, these were likely his first bleeds and his body was able to reabsorb the blood he lost, so he remained okay.
He also became a bit picky with food, but that was just him sometimes, even as a pup.
He seemed to be a bit slower on walks, and sometimes didn't seem to want to go for walks at all, but that's just part of having an aging dog, right? He also didn't like walking through tall grass, and these walk-strikes would usually happen around times we needed to mow.
What I chalked up to typical signs of an aging dog getting stuck in his ways, were actually subtle signs of a cancer that makes up 5-7% of all cancer cases in dogs.
So please, if there is anything I want you to take from this post it is this: If you have a large-breed dog that is of age 5 years or older, especially if they are a GSD, boxer, golden or flat-coated retriever, ask your vet about about performing one of the above tests to confirm the presence or absence of visceral tumors. It is an extra few mins and 1 extra cost to ensure that you don't experience the same heartache that I did and so many others have gone through - watching your beloved pet go from seemingly healthy, to critically ill, to dead, in a matter of minutes to hours.
I want to thank you for reading this far. If even 1 person becomes aware of this disease where they weren't before, it will have done its part. Make sure to make the most of the time you have with your fur babies, because you never truly know how much time you have!
I also want to thank everyone for their continued patience during this time as I am getting back into the swing of posting/pet sitting. We literally couldn't do this without you guys, your wonderful pets, and your support 🩷
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming ✨
~WorryLessJess 🐾🌈
