The Lab assistant was alarmingly sluggish, and her vet diagnosed anemia. After a course of antibiotics and steroids, she was entirely herself, but there was bad news: the anemia’s cause was small ruptures in a spleen tumor. We decided against having it removed.

Why not surgery for a tumor that is 75% likely to be malignant? She is 10 years old and about 95 pounds, both of which add to the risk. Most alarming, because of where things are located, this surgery can cause arrhythmias in dogs without previous cardiac problems.

Her vet recommended a Chinese herb to fight the blood leaks typical of this type of tumor, so this is our new regimen twice daily. Yunnan baiyao “helps stop bleeding while at the same time continuing to help proper circulation of blood,” according to bestchinesemedicines.com, our source. Fortunately, Maggie is good about capsules as long as they’re coated in peanut butter. So far so good, and we hope we are not on borrowed time.

UPDATE: She had only a few “down days” when she moved around very little, and was with us for another 16+ months.