Finally got in to see the oncologist today. That's his 5th vet visit since going blind. Selfishly, it was worst case scenario as I was hoping the decision would be made for me and it wasn't. The tumor has completely blocked off his right nasal cavity and has eaten through bone and gotten into his brain which caused the blindness. The vet said he is probably in considerable pain, though did say the pain medicine he is on now is very strong and he prescribed some more that would help with pain (that we had filled at Walgreens which seemed weird to me). He said we could go the palliative route and keep him pilled up and we would be looking at 3-5 months, but he also said as fast as this has come on it would likely be less than that.
The other option is radiation therapy. He said the technology has come a long way, but there is no chance it would cure him. It could shrink the tumor to relieve pain, and did mention there is a small chance some vision could return (he could see shapes and lights but would still be mostly blind). Best case scenario would be 9 more months, but he is old (8.5) and overweight so 9 months would be very optimistic. The treatment involves taking him in 5X/week for 4 weeks. The treatment only takes 5 minutes, but they have to put him under anesthesia each time and he stays there for ~2 hours. My wife can't load him into her car as he turns into dead weight if you try to pick him up. I work for myself and could do it, but it is a lot to put him through. The vet also said after treatment he would feel better, but the tumor would slowly start growing back and he would eventually be in the same position where he is blind, in pain, and in a drug induced fog.
We are waiting to hear from our normal vet, who has been great, tomorrow after he reads the synopsis and hoping he gives us better direction. We had to put down my dog 2 years ago and after we did I have always felt guilty that I kept her around too long selfishly and should have done it much sooner. My wife is also pregnant with our first child and she is worried about the stress of seeing him waste away. He already gets terrible nose bleeds and the vet said seizures should come next. I think we decided that if we didn't go through with the treatment, we wouldn't do the palliative route and would go ahead with euthanasia. He is already a shell of himself now and would only get worse with the growing tumor and added medicine. And he is in pain.
Hopefully the vet tomorrow helps with the decision, but any advice is appreciated.