After noticing an odd lump on his dog’s head in the spring of 2013, Joel Greenhalgh of British Columbia, Canada, took Mr. Bear, a then 11-year-old Australian Sheppard-Rottweiler mix, to his local veterinarian. At first the advice was to watch and see, but when it didn’t go away, his veterinarian took a biopsy. Mr. Bear had cancer.
Wrigley was an active, loyal, outgoing dog. One fall day after running on the beach at Point No Point near Hansville, Wash., Greg B. noticed Wrigley was limping. Worried that he had sprained his leg or had a torn ligament, Greg contacted his friend, Dr. Jerry Demuth, at Summit Veterinary Referral Center who suggested he bring him in for an x-ray.
“All the signs pointed to osteosarcoma,” said Greg. Two days later his veterinarian did a bone biopsy and the next day it was confirmed that Wrigley had bone cancer.
Roya Eshragh and Gyan Harwood of Vancouver, British Columbia, wanted a cat. So they did what many animal lovers do; they went to their local shelter to adopt an older animal in need of a home. They fell in love with an orange tabby and named him “Chester” (he had previously been called “Cheetoh,” but they thought he looked more like a “Chester”). On January 30, 2012—Chester’s adoption day—his life changed forever.
On a Sunday morning in October 2012, Tara Johnson and her husband heard their dog “Juno,” a 4-year-old Husky, whimpering several yards from their house. They ran to find her lying on the ground not moving. Although they couldn’t see any bite marks through her fur, they did see saliva on her neck.
“That would be typical of a wolf attack,” said Johnson. “We’d had several wolf sightings near our house a few months before she was injured.”
“Mia,” a bassador (Basset/Labrador mix) and therapy dog, was diagnosed with lymphoma in February 2012, just five months before her 10th birthday. She received several rounds of chemotherapy at the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital and is currently in remission. In July, Mia with her canine family members celebrated her birthday by feasting on meat and cream cheese cupcakes.
A five-year-old bald eagle was brought to the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital in January after he was found in a ditch near Orofino, Idaho. After determining that the eagle showed signs of severe lead poisoning, Dr. Nickol Finch, head of the exotic and wildlife unit, gave him intravenous fluids and chelation therapy, which binds the lead so it can be eliminated through the kidneys.
Who says cookies can’t be good for you? When Lori Lutskas goes to work each day, she carries a bag of cookies with her to encourage her patients to do their exercises.
“We do cookie stretches,” said Lutskas, a licensed veterinary technician and WSU’s veterinary physical rehabilitation practitioner. She puts a cookie (aka a healthy dog treat) on a dog’s hip so the dog will stretch around to get it. “We try to make it fun.”
When most people think of veterinary care, balance balls and underwater treadmills don’t often come to mind. But physical rehabilitation is one of the key services we offer to our patients to help them feel better faster.
A 6-year-old dachshund name “Dexter,” was referred to the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital by his local veterinarian after he stopped using his hind legs and began dragging them as he walked with his front legs. Dexter was having back pain and an MRI revealed one of his discs was pressing on his spinal cord causing the paralysis in his hind legs, a fairly common condition in dachshunds.
Some friends throw the best parties. For two years in a row, our friends Dave and Eddylee Scott of Anacortes, Wash. threw a fabulous party to raise money for the WSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. They hosted the first event in 2010, which raised nearly $7,000 to honor their dog “Cassie” and the veterinarians who cared for her when she was diagnosed with cancer.
