My Jaker collapsed one day in the back yard- he just fell over. I rushed him to the vet, then to the emergency vet where I was told that his spleen had a tumor on it and needed to be removed or he would bleed to death. The vet said that most spleen cases end up being hemangiosarcoma. The options were remove spleen or euthanasia right on the spot. We were devastated, crying, and not ready to let him go, so we had the spleen removed. He was a trooper and got through the surgery like a champ. Came home the next day, had stitches taken out in a week, and I was hopeful that it was just a bad spleen, but no....the diagnoses came back as hemangiosarcoma, and my heart sank. No cure, no way to treat it, and it would eventually return in another organ or part of his body. Even chemo won't stop it. After some tormented thinking, we decided against chemo since we knew that it would not stop the inevitable, and we wanted to enjoy our time in our home with our pup. I called him a pup even though he was 12 years old.
At first, after the spleen was removed, he was like a new dog. Happy, lively, jumping around, chasing our other dog. We KNEW we had made the right decision to save his life that night. I changed his food to more protein, less carbs. I started giving him a regiment of vitamins, oils, yunnan baiyou, anything that I could do to help him. But we started noticing that he would have what we started calling "episodes". His episodes manifested themselves as Jake being very, very lethargic, rapid and shallow breathing, white tongue and gums, no eating, trying to drink a lot of water. The vet told us that this was the cancer that had returned in another part of his body and he was likely having an "internal bleed". These episodes started as every 3 weeks, then got closer and closer together until they were happening every other day. He would not move for days. The last 2 days, my Jaker was in the back yard, did not eat, did not drink. My boyfriend slept out in the yard with him in a sleeping bag to keep him company. The next morning, we decided to let him go. He had fought a great fight, but it was time. The cancer had won. I wanted him to leave before it took every bit of the lively, loving, loyal dog that he had always been away from me. It was the hardest decision we've ever made and I'm crying about it now just thinking of the whole experience that we went through. I miss him every day, every click of his paws and lick of his tongue. I will miss him forever, I'm sure. He was my boy.

Keep a positive attitude around your dog. They know when you are upset, sad, scared. They can sense it and it affect their mood and their outlook. Go cry away from your dog, not in front of him/her. Tell your dog he/she is strong and just love every moment that you have b/c when they are gone, the silence and missing piece of your family is irreplaceable.

In terms of food, supplements: I tried Yunnan Baiyou, but it did upset Jake's stomach and had to stop it. I think home-cooked meat with green beans was his favorite. I gave him chicken livers for the iron b/c he became anemic. Really, it's different for every dog, but just do what you can to keep up their strength and energy.