I completely understand your point about vets. I also understand that in half or even the majority of cases, hemangio is basically asymptomatic until the dog collapses, but hey, the guy has been a vet for 40 years. It's no secret that hemangio is extremely prevalent especially in middle aged and older goldens. Combine that with the fact that he KNEW Ax his whole life and that he was lean an muscular, but not thin and gaunt, and he didn't even give it a thought or suggest an xray or a sonogram.
Listen, I know it would not have changed the outcome one bit had we known a week earlier. Matter of fact, I took Ax there the day we were leaving for vacation at the beach and we certainly would not have gone had we known. At least he had a last vacation and an opportunity to do what he absolutely loved for a week before TSHTF. I know now, he was absolutely pushing himself to the limit to perform as usual that last week because he did not want to disappoint me, it was his job. He had not one but TWO bleeding tumors in his gut, was extremely anemic, and I know he wasn't feeling right because although he 'brought it' like he always did on the beach, subtle changes in his behavior were apparent in hindsight. I remember the last day we were there, he wouldn't jump up into the chair on the deck next to me like he had done all his life, even when I told him to which was strange. He wouldn't do it because he was hurting and he was conserving all his energy for the beach.
One last thing about that vet - I had Ax there in January and the receptionst/tech Maggie, who loved Ax, pointedly said to me, "I don't like the way he looks, he's too thin and he has hollows behind his eyes. That's typically a sign of a dog with cancer". I wish I would have listened, but the point is if she could see something like that almost 8 months before he was diagnosed, why couldn't the vet?
I feel so badly for poor Puffy, he was screwed right from the start. He's a sweet dog but I'm sure he is in pain every single day and will be for as long as he lives. He was just dealt a beat hand.