 Newman's Story.
BJH. I lost my 10 year old Yorkie Newman to cancer this past summer. Our story is unique and I hope it can help others out. Newman, started licking his paw pad. We originally, thought it was a nervous habit as we did not see anything. The paw pad became raw and swollen and so I cleaned it and wrapped it - thinking it was irriated from his licking. I kept the bandage on it for a week, changing it daily. After a week I removed the bandage and his foot looked great. I kept an eye on him and within the day he began licking again. Within the night the pad was swollen again and so I called the vet in the morning. The weather got bad, and we had icy rain. I remember vividly carrying him into the vet, because by the afternoon he could not walk.
Our initial vet visit. Our vet looked at his foot pad and said that he must have stepped on something. A piece of glass or something. I assured him that I watch Newman like a hawk and I check him over constantly and I'd know and that no way could he have gotten something in his foot. He told us that he'd have to operate and explore to see what was in there. The next mornining he was operated on.
After surgery. Surgery went well. Our vet stated that he found many abnormal cell tissure and that he thought he got all the bad tissue. He explained that they usually do go by margins but that because his foot was so tiny he could not follow protocol as there was no more he could cut out. He assued me that in his 30 years of practicing he's never seen cancer in the foot pad and that it would more then likely come back clean and is probably some kind of infection.
A week after surgery. The biopsy came back. Our vet called and I could hear the tears in his voice as he told me that my baby had a stage III mass cell tumor in his foot pad. Mass III was the worse and he could not tell if it spread and he gave him about a year before the cancer came back. He explained again that he could not follow protocol with the margins due to his foot being so tiny so all we could do is hope that he got it all.
Within two months, Newman was back to licking that foot and the cancer came back in force. We brought Newman back to the vet and we decided to try something radical by removing his whole leg in hopes of curing him. Because the cancer was rare there were no studies or other dogs known with this cancer and therefor we did not know what the end result would be. Our vet contacted the University of PA as well as other known universities and they had never seen this cancer in the foot pad either. We decided that before we go through with this radical surgery that we would do some non-intrusive tests such as x ray - aspiration and catscan and if and only if they all came back clear then we would go ahead and have his leg amputated in hopes of saving him.
Pre-Testing. His Xray came back clear and his aspiration came back clean. Last was his catscan. We got a call that Thursday after the scan was done and it wasn't good. The catscan showed his lymph nodes enlarged and a mass on his liver. Our vet felt that it was probably a mass cell tumor on his liver. And so we made the heartbreaking decision to bring our boy into the office the following morning before they opened and to let our little guy go peacefully.
This is so hard for me to write and I'm crying as I type but my boy's cancer was so rare. So rare that even a well respected vet with 30 years experience and well known universities had never seen it. Newman was our first Yorkie and we got him from a small puppymill before we were educated about places like this. I know that cancer is cancer but I believe with all my heart that it was his bad breeding that caused this rare cancer and if I can spare just one person this heart ache of help just one person that may have a dog going through this then my story was worth telling.
Newman is what started me on the crusade to close puppymills, get rid of byb's and shut pet stores.
Elaine |